It's that magical time of year when the leaves are giving a colorful show while flowers are still blooming, which means we haven't had a hard frost yet. The squirrels are especially busy as they are preparing for the coming winter. In fact, most of the time now when I see a squirrel scurrying by, it's got a walnut in its mouth. Then it buries it in one of the flowers beds for me to pull up later.
Unfortunately, I haven't had time to get out much with my camera to take pictures and consequently take a Second Look at most of this. (Did I mention, I'm still in the all house, all the time mode?) However, here are pictures of a few things I saw this week at the new house during a Second Look.
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| The mums are in full bloom which is making a lot of bees and flies very happy. |
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| Does anyone know what this purple flower is sticking up above the ground ivy? |
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| Ailanthus webworm moth on mint |
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| Vincas, or as I call them, Real Estate Flowers. Vincas can stand a lot of neglect so they seemed to planted at every house we saw for sale. |
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| I am always fascinated as I watch leaves change colors from the top down. This tree is directly across the street from us. |
The purple flower looks like it's a bluebell bellflower (Campanula rotundifolia). https://uswildflowers.com/wfquery.php?State=MA&Color=Blue
ReplyDeleteI love vincas, they're so hardy. However, they seem to only be hardy here when planted in ground; the ones I have in pots don't survive me not watering them quite as well :)
Love that picture of the mums with the bee!
I looked up Campanula rotundifolia and the purple flower certainly looks like the pictures I saw. However, the leaves look different. I'll wait until it comes back next year to see if earlier in the season, the leaves look more like feathery ones in the pictures. Thanks for the information.
DeleteIt looks beautiful! It must be fun to discover new flowers, shrubs and trees at your new place. I wonder what bulbs will come up in spring?
ReplyDeleteI have the urge to plant a lot of stuff this fall at the new house including things I want to transfer from the current yard. However, it's probably good that I don't have time for that because I should really live there a year to see what the new yard has to offer. I am looking forward to that.
DeleteI love vincas also. They tolerate my neglect. Next spring I have declared I am only planting vinca and lantana because they don't care if I am around or not.
ReplyDeleteBTW I love the term real estate flowers!
Do your vincas ever develop a fungus that causes them to shrivel and die? It seems like every time I try to plant them that happens to at least some of them. Of the dozen or so planted in front of the new house, that happened to all but two of them.
DeleteYou have some great pictures! I like watching how the trees change color, too--my favorites are the ones that turn colors on the tips of the branches first, like they have been dipped in paint. I have no idea if this is accurate or not, but it seems to me that the trees that turn red in the fall have a reddish cast to their new leaves in the spring--but maybe that's just my imagination working overtime.
ReplyDeleteIt makes total sense that the leaves that turn red in the fall have a reddish tinge to them in the spring. The other colors are seen when there's not enough chlorophyll to hide them. However, I think this idea needs some field investigation and data gathering. Remind me next spring because this is something I want to do. I'd start now, but I don't have time. Or we could do a google search, but gathering data in the real world sounds like more fun.
DeleteI knew your scienc-ey brain would have an explanation. Me, I'm a "ooh, pretty colors" kind of a gal. ;) I'll try to remember to remind you in the spring ... no promises.
DeleteWho knows what we'll be doing in the spring. The new house has mostly fruit trees and not lots of big color changing trees such as maples like we have here. I may have to go a little further afield to get a look at things.
DeleteGorgeous!!
ReplyDeleteThanks. It's hard to take a bad picture of a flower.
DeleteThat's lovely bed of mums! We don't have many trees that change color, here, in So. Calif., so I'll enjoy pictures of yours instead. May I ask which part of the country you are in?
ReplyDeleteI'm in the Mid Atlantic with good temperate weather with distinct seasons.
DeleteYour purple flower looks a lot like the creeping bellflowers we have here. For your sake, I hope I'm wrong, because the things are invasive and impossible to get rid of. Their roots grow into big tubors, about the size of a long skinny sweet potato, but they send out smaller roots which cause the plant to spread or "creep" - but "sprint" might be a better description. They tend to take over and crowd out the other vegetation. You have to dig them out in order to get rid of them, and even then it's really difficult because it's nearly impossible to get all of the roots. I've lost a lot of perennials and vegetables because they got overrun by the bellflowers. Here's some more info:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campanula_rapunculoides
Let's hope I'm wrong because I wouldn't wish these suckers on my worst enemy!
I hope you're wrong, too. At the very least, I'm going to pull it next time I'm over there. In a bed in the front, is some kind of invasive plant that spreads with runners under the ground that has started to come up. I think they cleaned it up to sell the house, but it's growing again. It's everywhere. Maybe it's the creeping bellflowers that have spread to the back where the picture came from.
DeleteI am tired of dealing with invasive plants in our current house. I was hoping to start with some "cleaner" beds. There is a lot of poison ivy along the back of the lot that has to be dealt with also, but it's not right by the house.
Gorgeous! And such a wonderful shot of that bee-well done! :o)
ReplyDeleteThere were bees every where. They were very happy.
DeleteThe way the tree is turning color is interesting. I love it.
ReplyDeleteMany trees do this and have probably been doing it forever. However, it wasn't until I started doing my Second Looks that I noticed it.
DeleteNow I will be watching for it!
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