Leaves of Japanese maples, held long after foliage of neighboring trees has fallen, have dropped overnight in welcomed rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Nicole. Today, much of the garden is blanketed by leaves, but no area is so glorious as the front walk, covered in the red of the Bloodgood maple (Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’, below).

With no plans for their imminent removal, the red carpet will last for days as the color slowly fades to brown. Leaves of ‘Seriyu’ and ‘Bloodgood’ maples along the front walk cannot be left for long or they are tracked into the house, but my wife also enjoys our colorful entryway.

A few shaded Oakleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia, below) have defoliated, I suspect due to deer, but ones with more sun exposure remain in full, and splendidly colorful, leaf. Leaves often persist into early in the new year.

While flowers of Gordlinia (x Gordlinia grandiflora, below) are nearly identical to the treasured Franklinia lost several years ago, the autumn color on the evergreen is inferior. Gordlinia’s month or longer period of flowering is slightly shorter than Franklinia’s, which would occasionally extend so that the final blooms were backed by glorious autumn colored leaves.

The leaves of Franklinia fell after reaching peak autumn coloring while Gordlinia’s turn to brown and persist until they are pushed off by spring growth.

Leaves of native dogwoods dropped weeks ago, but leaves of two shaded Kousa dogwoods are now reaching peak color. One is mostly red while the other is mottled red and yellow (below). Both are glorious as other leaves carpet the ground.