As autumn progresses, leaves of one Japanese maple after another fall as another comes into brilliant color. Alas, at the start of November the numbers with foliage remaining are diminishing as leaves pile to cover much of the garden.

Leaves of several winter flowering witch hazels (Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Jelena’, below) are now delightfully colored. October flowering of the native, common witch hazels (Hamamelis virginiana) was disappointingly brief, and foliage of this and a second native to west of the Blue Ridge, the January flowering vernal witch hazels (Hamamelis vernalis) turn only to yellow.

The side garden turns from dense shade to sunny almost overnight as the huge leaves of the bigleaf magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla, below) drop in early November. While some leaves that cover the garden’s paths are shredded, leaves of the magnolia clog the blower/ shredder, so the paths in the side garden are raked while leaves in most of the garden are left to decay through spring and summer.