First Snow

My hope that we might escape the winter unscathed by snow was dashed this morning when I woke to find the garden limned in fluffy whiteness. Normally snow stresses me out, but for some reason this morning I managed to remain calm. In fact, I almost immediately saw it as an opportunity to capture some snowy images.

What do you think? Did I do well?

Thyme in the herb garden

Rosemary and skeletal flamingo

A row of snow-covered Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

Pennisetum 'Redhead'

Acaena and Sedum 'Angelina' in the concrete wall

'Sunlight Lace' Hinoki Cypress

Abies koreana 'Silberlocke'

These cones start out purple and age to tan with hints of orange

I'm fascinated by these cones that have been stripped. The work of birds, perhaps?

Cedrus atlantica 'Horstmann'

Pinus sylvestris 'Nisbet's Gold'

Snow in the folds of the Folly curtains

 Oak leaves still hanging on

Hellebore foliage

Fern

Lawn before footprints

Snow emphasizes the geometric precision of Mahonia 'Charity'

Happy Thanksgiving from Snoqualmie Falls!

Frost

This morning, which, with any luck, will be our last frosty morning in a while, I went out to take photos of some of the collapsed foliage. Frost does add a lot of beauty to dead and dying plants at this time of year.

Tetrapanax leaf

Hardy Geranium and oak leaf

Self-sown Cerinthe major

Cardoon leaves looking like velvet

Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

Sedum 'Angelina'

Eucomis 'Sparkling Burgundy' looks like ribbon

There's still plenty out there in the garden that no amount of frost will improve.

Foliage Followup, November 2014 -- Foliage, Berries, Water and Stone at Kubota Garden

All the foliage in my own garden right now is either mush, or shriveled and brown, so there's not much to see there. Therefore, for Foliage Followup, I thought I'd share some photos I took recently of a visit to Kubota Garden. I went there a couple of weeks ago looking for some pretty fall foliage, and guess what? I found some!

Kubota Garden is the former private garden of Fujitaro Kubota, a Japanese emigrant and self-taught gardener, now a 20-acre public park in the Rainier Beach neighborhood of South Seattle. Kubota's vision for his private garden involved melding Japanese design with Pacific Northwest plants. Kubota also designed the Japanese garden at the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. Read more about the history of Kubota Garden here.

The entrance

Lots of colorful fallen leaves

There were plenty more still on the trees

Fallen, lichenous twig

Kubota must be a popular hangout for au pairs and their charges, I encountered quite a few young women with children.

Japanese maple leaves caught in a small-leaved shrub (possibly a boxwood?)

I kept crossing paths with this little girl, and couldn't resist taking her photo when she stuck her head inside the bell.

I hope you enjoyed coming along with me to Kubota Garden. Foliage Followup is the brainchild of Pam Penick who writes the blog Digging. You can read her FF post here, and remember to check out the FF posts of all the other bloggers who leave links in the comments.