The Last of the Fall Color?
November 6, 2019 by New Hampshire Garden Solutions

Well, the growing season is about finished here since we’ve had a freeze, but we were very lucky to have fall colors go on and on the way they did. This photo of Mount Monadnock was taken from a spot where I’ve never viewed it before. It was early on a cloudy morning, bordering on twilight, but boosting the camera’s ISO function showed me what you see here. The mountain had its head in the clouds again but there was plenty of color to be seen.

There was mist on Half Moon Pond in Hancock one morning. It’s been a very misty fall, I’ve noticed.

You could barely see the hill on the other side of the pond.

But when the mists cleared it was beautiful.

I’ve been trying for several years now to get a shot of the full moon over Half Moon Pond, and this year I finally got it.

I’ve known witch alders (Fothergilla major) for a long time but apparently I never paid them any mind in the fall. They’re quite pretty. This is a native shrub related to witch hazel which grows to about 6-7 feet in this area. Though native to the southeast it does well here in the northeast, but it is almost always seen in gardens rather than in the wild. The fragrant flower heads are bottlebrush shaped and made up of many flowers that have no petals. What little color they have comes from the stamens, which have tiny yellow anthers at the ends of long white filaments.

The yellow leaves are from black birch and the white bark is from a gray birch, so we have black, white, and gray subjects in color.

Blackberries can be quite beautiful in the fall with their deep maroon / purple leaves.
The maple leaved viburnums (Viburnum acerifolium) have been beautiful this year. Their leaves seem to start out colored just about any color you can name in the fall, but after their red / yellow / orange/ purple phases all of the leaves eventually become a very pale, ghostly pink, making this shrub’s fall color among the most beautiful in the forest, in my opinion.

Maple leaved viburnum berries (drupes) are about the size of raisins and I’ve heard that they don’t taste very good, but many birds and animals eat them. They disappear quickly and getting a shot of both fall colored leaves and fruit is difficult.

What else can I say about the red maples? They’re just so beautiful with their many beautiful colors at various times of year.

This bracket fungus had the autumn spirit.

I had high hopes that I’d see the burning bushes (Euonymus alatus) along the Ashuelot River in Swanzey go all the way this year, showing leaves of the lightest pastel pink before they fell, but unfortunately a freeze saw all the leaves drop overnight last week, so this photo of them in much darker pink will have to do. Burning bushes might lose their leaves quickly some years but the berries will persist until birds have eaten every one of them. That’s what makes them one of the most invasive plants in the area and that is why their sale and cultivation have been banned in New Hampshire.

Here’s a closer look at the burning bushes. It’s too bad that they’re so invasive because they really are beautiful, especially when massed in the thousands as they are in this spot.

We’ve had some ferocious winds this year but I’ve been lucky enough to find still waters for tree reflections.

The beeches have also been beautiful this year but once they started they turned fast and most now wear brown. I thought this young example was very beautiful.

There are over 200 viburnum varieties and many grow as natives here. Smooth arrow wood (Viburnum dentatum) is one of them. It has yellowish white, mounded flower clusters and blooms along stream banks and drainage ditches. The flowers become dark blue drupes that birds love. You can see some of them in this photo. It is said that this plant’s common name comes from Native Americans using the straight stems for arrow shafts. They also used the shrub medicinally and its fruit for food. It’s quite pretty in the fall as well.

Staghorn sumacs (Rhus typhina) are one of our most colorful shrubs in the fall. They can range from lemon yellow to pumpkin orange to tomato red, and anything in between. These examples were mostly orange.

But this sumac was very red.

I thought I’d end this post with a leftover photo from my last trip up Pitcher Mountain in Stoddard. I finally hit the peak color up there at just the right time this year and it was so glorious I hated to come down. They were truly some of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a few.
So many hues in nature and yet nothing remains the same, every day, every season a work of genius, a free gift from the Artist of artists. ~E.A. Bucchianeri
Thanks for coming by.
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Posted in Nature, Scenery / Landscapes | Tagged Beech Fall Color, Blacberry Fall Color, Black Birch, Burning Bushes, Canon EOS Rebel T6, Fall Color, Full Moon over Half Moon Pond, Gray Birch, Half Moon Pond, Keene, Maple Leaved Viburnum, Mount Monadnock, Native Plants, Nature, New Hampshire, NH, Olympus Stylus TG-870, Pitcher Mountain, red maples, Smooth Arrow Wood, Staghorn Sumac Fall Color, Swanzey New Hampshire, Witch Alder | 33 Comments
Lovely to see all this Autumn beauty when here I am now in mid Summer. 😀
Thank you Ben. We’ll see it again before we know it. Time passes quickly!
Yes. And it seems to go by more and more swiftly.
I’ve noticed that!
Beautiful to the last.
Thanks!
These photos are just so beautiful, Allen! I am so pleased you managed to be in the right place at the right time for the full moon at Half Moon Pond and also for the peak colour up Pitcher Mountain.
Thank you Clare. I’ve found that much of nature photography has to do with simple luck. Carrying a camera everywhere you go helps!
Very true!
What beautiful autumn photos, especially of Half Moon Pond! Autumn in New England has a special beauty all its own. The woods seem so bright with light, even at dusk.
Thank you Lavinia. Yes, the light is definitely different in the fall, and so is the sky.
Beautiful Fall photos! You sure caught Half Moon Pond at its finest. The tree reflections photo is perfect! I’m glad you got out there and then took the time to share it. We got our first frost and significant snow!
Thank you Chris. I’m sorry to hear that you’ve gotten snow already! They said we might get some today but so far it’s all rain. (And some of us are hoping it stays that way!)
Splendid Fall colors!
Thanks Montucky, we’ve had a great fall this year!
I was very taken by your capture of the full moon over the Half Moon pond. Brilliant.
Thank you, just dumb luck really.
Wow, some beautiful fall colors there. Great pictures.
Thank you, I’m glad you liked them!
Lovely shots, I have a weak spot for autumn reflections!
Such colour, I loved this post, many thanks.
You’re welcome Susan, and thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Allen, these ‘fall color’ shots are all so pretty. I love the mist pics! I have burning bush that I’ve slowly been eradicating from my yard. I enjoy the red-on-red when the cardinals are feasting on the berries. I have one specimen trimmed into a tree and I’ll miss it when it’s gone, but go it will!! Battling the seedlings of both the redbud and burning bush is time consuming and their roots are very sturdy. Glad to hear retirement is on the horizon you. You’re gonna love it 😊
Thank you Ginny. You might see a little more color in these posts. I drive by pockets of 5 or 6 trees with leaves still on them but most are down now.
I didn’t know redbuds were agressive self seeders. Here they seem very shy. I know of only two or three and they don’t bloom some years. I think we may be at the northern limit of their range though.
I think once I get used to having so much free time I will indeed love retirement. Maybe I really will get that book written!
You certainly captured some beautiful fall shots. 🙂
Thank you Judy. Fall has been glorious this year!
Just gorgeous! Why does winter have to be so gray and dreary? I guess to make you appreciate the other seasons.
Blooming in my yard in the country are viburnum (giant round bush, I don’t know what species), Calif. ceanothus bush (blue flowers), azaleas, rhododendrons, jasmine bush, mock orange bush, crema (a Japanese bush with small, dark green leaves and tiny, white five-petal flowers), and blackberries. Yet to bloom are my roses, raspberries, dahlias (yellow and red), gladiolas, and native box (Hebe elliptica).
We are in late spring here 40° S of the equator, but it is still in the 30s in the morning. I love hiking and landscaping this time of year.
I have resurrected a 2 acre raspberry patch, which had become impassable due to tall, drooping blackberry canes. I am close to rebuilding the fence around it, many of the posts of which had rotted away and fallen over since this patch was being harvested and the fruit (called frambuesa) taken to the local open market perhaps 50 or 60 years ago.
Retirement is wonderful. But you still work hard, just on your own terms. And, you get those naps and wake up from a night’s sleep when you want.
On Wed, Nov 6, 2019, 6:08 AM New Hampshire Garden Solutions New Hampshire Garden Solutions posted: ” Well, the growing season is about > finished here since we’ve had a freeze, but we were very lucky to have fall > colors go on and on the way they did. This photo of Mount Monadnock was > taken from a spot where I’ve never viewed it before. It was early on ” >
I’m envious of your spring Ron, but ours will come.
I was going to ask if you were able to leave your gladioli and dahlias in the ground all winter but with temps in the 30s, I’m guessing you don’t.
It sounds like you’ll have plenty of raspberries and it also sounds like you have some exotics as well. I can’t guess what that Japanese shrub could be.
Retirement is just over a year away for me and I’m looking forward to it. You make it sound enticing!
No problem with my gladiolas and dahlias. The temperature does get down to the low 20s about 5-10 times in the winter. One time in the teens and it busted a faucet. But they just keep blooming.
I met a guy at the outdoor market selling bushes last weekend. He had one of those white, five-petal flower shrubs for sale out of his van. He called it “crema” and gave me the genus and species, but I forgot the genus. It started with Lep, Les, or Let and was a long word. The japonica was easy enough to remember.
The Germans we bought this place from almost four years ago indeed landscaped the yard and area around it with exotic plants like European larch (which loses its needles in winter) and a beautiful, lacy-like tree called “sugi” or “Japanese red cedar” (Cryptomeria japonica Elegans): https://images.app.goo.gl/okc1EtyGznjhmayS7
The nursery they may have bought many of their plants from is only about 15 miles away.
I never did find out what that purple mushroom is that appeared in my forest. It looks somewhat like a viscid violet cort, but as you say the rough stem is not right. In retrospect, I might have taken the photo when the water drops on it were frozen. It is dated May 30, which is when our winter starts.
I didn’t know it got that cold in Chile. I suppose I’ve always thought of it as mostly jungle, but I have an Amazon fixation.
I tried looking up the Japanese shrub but didn’t have any real luck.
The Japanese red cedar is very beautiful. I’ve never heard of it. It reminds me of certain mosses, actually.
I wonder if that mushrooms stem was withered or wrinkled from dryness. It’s possible.
We are in the Valdivia Rain Forest, the largest temperate one in the world. It is indeed a jungle, just not hot. In the winter, it rains every other day and it usually doesn’t exceed the 40s.
The mushroom was pretty new. Maybe it’s just variation.
I didn’t have any luck either on that Japanese red cedar. I’ll send you a couple of pictures when it is in full bloom.
When you handle its branches, you expect prickliness but it’s actually very soft. The pink color of the end of the branches is indeed very pretty. I have seven of them.
Oops, I meant “no luck on the L. japonica.”
I knew what you meant.