This seems appropriate again – Facebook threw it up in my daily “Memories”
It is rather odd, rather a contradiction for the gardener who usually devotes all efforts to promoting growth, nurturing good health and fostering the treasures of the garden that, at this time of year, s/he should rejoice in the death processes of those very same plants.
Parrotia persica, Ironwood, has dropped its leaves, a golden yellow with flashes of red.
Autumn is almost a second spring rather than the death knell of the garden, a time of change, a swing in the seasons; nature’s sign that it is not an end, not a death, but simply part of the eternal cycle. It is a time of hope or of nature giving hope, encouraging us to look beyond the coming winter of bareness, cold, misery and … death! No – simply a suspension of life!
Magnolias – M. soulangeana ‘Heaven Scent’ and M. stellata ‘Rosea King’- moving into their autumn…
View original post 180 more words
Paddy Tobin, An Irish Gardener 