fall color

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A berry good time of year

This time of year, the bling in our southern California landscape is often coming from seasonal decorations—the red bows, the shine from the holiday lights, the texture of evergreens, real or not, hung from doors and draped around mailboxes.  But there’s another source of (to borrow What Not to Wear‘s mantra) color, texture, pattern and shine that’s longer-lasting, and which doesn’t have to be put up or taken down at an already busy time of year:  berries.

I love berries; I love all the fruits and drupes and hips and haws that manifest themselves this time of year; it’s wonderful how much interest they add to our outdoor surroundings.  And if you plant them in your own landscape, that’s not all they’ll add; you’ll have a whole new level of color and texture in the wildlife that shows up to eat your berries.

There are many colors and varieties to consider; right now pyracantha is making its vivid display everywhere you look. IMG_1301 It’s a cast-iron plant—pay attention and you’ll see how often the really big, showy ones are on a neglected bank or are part of the edges of yards where nobody looks (or waters).  Pyracantha doesn’t care.  It just keeps on putting on its spectacular show from November till late spring or longer.  It’s also one of the shrubs Neighborhood Watch experts advise you to plant beneath windows to keep people out; it’s spiny, hence the common name “firethorn.”  The spines also mean birds love to use it for cover.

If you’d like to add one to your yard or your own neglected bank, this is a great time of year to make your selection, as the shade varies–below, a very orange variety on an untended slope near us.

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If pyracantha doesn’t send you, or you aren’t feeling the thorns, ha ha, you might like the Chinese pistache’s kind of otherworldly pink berries, plus the pistache has that amazing fall foliage:

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Thanks to Mike, our neighbor and plant expert, for the positive ID on this pistache!

Or the nandina (heavenly bamboo), one of the few fruit-bearing stalwarts that performs in shade:

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There are lots of other tough plants that will give beautiful, wildlife-attracting berries all fall and winter.  One of my favorites, the tough, totally-taken-for-granted raphiolepsis or India hawthorne, has beautiful berries; I took the picture below in a medical complex parking lot.  Notice this one’s fruiting and flowering at the same time!

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The sweetshade tree (Hymenosporum flavum)  is a no-maintenance selection that’s been overlooked in landscaping for too long and is due for a comeback.  I will wax eloquently about its fragrance in the spring, but for now, check out its fall berries!

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Another plant whose fruit is beloved by birds, and which  is almost too much fun to be real, because the berries are not one, but two colors,  is the strawberry arbutus–the arbutus unedo.  They say you can make jam from the fruit, but you can’t prove it by me.  I can, however, vouch for its toughness; the photograph is taken from a neighbor who has apparently decided to stop watering every single bit of land he owns.  A lot of his plants are now dead, but not this one.  Well, maybe that one branch, but I think it’s broken:

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Okay, I could go on . . . but I hope I’ve convinced you to notice and enjoy the berries around you—once you start looking, you’ll see they’re everywhere.  This seems to be a very berry-ful year, which is strange considering just how little rain we got last year, but perhaps the plants are putting their last-ditch survival mechanisms into play.  At any rate, enjoy the literal fruits of their labor, and consider which ones you might like to add to your own garden environment.

And let me know any favorites of yours that I’ve missed!

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Fall (yes, really!) in southern California

People say we don’t have fall in southern California.  I beg to disagree.  Oh, people will disparage what they see as our lack of seasons; in fact, I recently observed a raging Facebook debate on this very subject; the natives were insisting that we do have fall here, while the transplants from other areas disparaged our Octobers as “just more tepid than summer.”  And then they went on to wax eloquent about New England.

Now, having grown up in the Blue Ridge mountains, with its famous fall foliage displays, I do understand the yearning for home and the fall colors.   And I also understand the profound sense of displacement when your surroundings don’t match your inner calendar.  That happens a lot out here, and mostly we’re used to the complaining about it.

But fall does happen here, and I thought I’d devote the next couple of posts to an appreciation of what Helen Hunt Jackson (herself a transplant to California) called “October’s bright blue weather.”  And that is indeed the first sign of fall:  the right-on-schedule, deep blue sky.

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This parking lot liquidambar shows off our October sky.

Then the temperatures drop.  Yes!  It’s a cool-ish 70 degrees on my patio right now!  And—get ready—it can get even colder.

Other seasonal markers are there once you know what to look for.  Below, a native erigonum (buckwheat) in the late afternoon light.  The Chumash made pancakes from it—I just like to look at it.

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While we don’t have the flamboyant, in-your-face displays of fall foliage that other regions have, a number of trees here (which, okay, are all transplants) put on a lovely and reliable seasonal display.  The following are worth looking for, and perhaps deserving of a spot in your home landscape:

Crape myrtle--yellow

The Crape myrtle (above) is one of my favorite trees; I can devote a whole post to their graceful structure and four-season interest, but for now, I’ll just focus on their fall foliage–which can be beautiful.  If you’re planting this tree for fall color, it’s a good idea to pick it out in the fall so you can see what you’ll be getting.Tall liquidambar

Liquidambars (above, called sweetgum in other parts of the country) can turn a startling red in the fall, and in the winter, the bare tree will be covered, if you’re lucky, with the flocks of goldfinches that come after the seeds in the sticky balls.  (These balls eventually make their way to the ground below, so do choose your location carefully—I notice they’re often perimeter trees, so that passers-by, rather than the homeowners, have to deal with the treacherous balls underfoot.  Nice.)

Red chinese pistache

Chinese pistache, above, is a lesser-known superstar; it blends in with any landscape in the summer, but in fall, look out.  It turns the most amazing shades of red-gold, and will light up its location.

Birch tree shower of goldBirches, those landscape staples so beloved and so often stuck in the middle of lawns, turn a spectacular gold color this time of year.

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Pyracantha (firethorn, above) and chrysanthemums (below) add a lot of seasonal color; pyracantha berries redden in fall and continue to brighten up the landscape all winter long. And instead of composting your Costco or Home Depot mums when they’re done blooming, stick them in the ground, cut them back in January, and prepare to be amazed next October.

Crysanthemums

Above, an example of both crysanthemum’s fall color and my poor planning–these guys are reaching for some sun owing to the great success of the shrubs planted nearby.  Some of the mums have decided to take a nap.

So, yes, we do have fall, and it has arrived.  Like the song says about love, it’s all around you.  Let it show.  And enjoy!