The first frost occurred as usual during the State Fair. No matter how warm the weather is beforehand, frost usually arrives during the third week in October.
The first frost turned the entire garden pewter, with sparkles.
Chrysanthemum 'Venus' was rather sad afterwards. Here she is before. (PS I don't care what those crazy taxonomists are calling mums these days, they will always be Chrysanthemums to me.)
The 'Autumn Amethyst' Encore Azaleas lost this crop of flowers but already has more. It almost always blooms into November, until a hard freeze kills all of the buds.
Pre frost
Post frost
Pre frost
Post frost. The beautyberry leaves froze right off.
But, like always, 'Miss Bessie' is impervious to Jack Frost.
While everything else is winding down, frost and willow leaf aster 'Miss Bessie' are blooming with abandon, and the insects flock to them for food in droves.
I have a question for some of you photographers out there. Why is the sky so odd in some of the pictures? In some the sky looks perfect, real life blue, and in others it's an white with strange-looking clouds. Can you tell me why this is?
"Pewter with sparkles" -- that's exactly the effect of a frost. It's funny how plants react differently, and some just panic and drop every leaf when frost hits but others soldier on. The asters are always so pretty.
ReplyDeleteI assume you have auto focus on your camera -- the white sky happens when the lens focuses on a darker focal point in front and needs to open up to get enough light on the subject. But then it ends up being open too wide for the background, so the sky and things in the far distance are overexposed and washed out. I think that's what's happening.
I'll have to check my camera and see if the automatic focus was accidentally switched on, as I always use manual focus.
ReplyDeleteThe e dial was set to automatic, so Laurrie that must be what was causing the issue! Thanks for the explanation too!
ReplyDeleteWOW to all of it. That is the prettiest BeautyBerry I have ever seen!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
Earlene
Beautiful sparkles! Love your beautyberry! I was worried when I saw all the leaves on mine shriveled up; for some reason, I didn't remember them responding to frost that way, so I'm glad to see this is normal. My asters are all finished, so it's a treat to see 'Miss Bessie' in all her glory.
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful! Frost on the leaves looks magical, and I guess it is magical how it puts the garden to sleep, though post-frost your garden has plenty still going on! No frost here yet, so we can enjoy our colors a little while longer.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the book!
Beautiful are your photos!
ReplyDeleteGreetings, RW & SK
You had mentioned Miss Bessie to me, and now I am definitely going to seek her out. Gorgeous, and it looks like she can take over when Purple Dome finishes up. Your garden is definitely a bit colder than mine - my Callicarpa still has all its leaves. The frost didn't bother it at all. It has practically no berries left, thanks to the birds, but plenty of leaves.
ReplyDeleteThanks that you visit our blog
ReplyDeleteGreetings, RW & SK
I love 'Miss Bessie' and send a mental thank you every fall when she blooms. The pollinator captures are delightful....as always! xogail
ReplyDelete