Leaves now cover the side garden that borders the forest of maples and tulip poplars. Eventually, they’ll be cleared from the stone pathways, and some day the leaves will be removed so that winter flowering hellebores are not hidden. But, leaves in the remainder of the garden will be left to decay. Occasionally, I work up the energy to run these through the shredder, which makes them break down more quickly and also looks a bit neater, but in this garden no points are awarded for neatness.

Recent freezes have damaged autumn flowers of azaleas. Camellias suffered less damage (above), but with many more buds, these will continue to flower for weeks (I hope). Two camellias along the driveway typically flower weeks later than others, many times beginning to bloom in December and into the new year if temperatures are mild. Reblooming azaleas (below) are not likely to replace the damaged flowers, though ‘Autumn Amethyst’ has not flowered yet and with mild temperatures will probably have scattered blooms in the next several weeks. Every year, it is a late bloomer and often early in the spring.

With the recent spell of warm weather, the bees were out and enjoying camellias and late flowering osmanthus varieties (Osmanthus heterophyllus, above and below). The cold hardy osmanthus typically flower in autumn, so flowers are unlikely to be damaged in the cold. Two marginally cold hardy Osmanthus fragrans will soon be brought indoors to enjoy fragrant flowers through the winter, though if another winter remains well above average temperatures I’ll consider planting them.

While late flowering perennials such as toad lilies (Tricyrtis) will flower through frosts, they will not tolerate a drop into the twenties. Several were at peak bloom, but now that’s gone. Several groups of cyclamen (below) are not bothered by the freeze, so flowering will continue for several weeks.