Some autumn leaf colors belie tree names

So I thought I'd had my one autumn photo fling last Thursday when I dropped into Garfield Park in Indianapolis, producing this post.

But then, while gazing out the kitchen window into my backyard Saturday afternoon, I happened to notice some interesting light play on the leaves on one of my Henry's Garnet bushes and on my redbud tree in the circular garden. I grabbed a camera, mounted it with a Sigma 105mm f/2.8 macro lens and headed outside. Garnet bush leaves have a brilliant red color in autumn when the sun strikes it right; the photo leading off this post is a good example ... and is why I grabbed my camera when I saw it.

The redbud tree and I have a fond history, one that goes back to my first year out of college, which I spent editing a weekly newspaper in Columbus, Wis. (Wisconsin is where I lived from about age 3 through college plus the one year in Columbus.) Columbus is known as the Red Bud City, and there is a median on Dickison Boulevard there that is lined with redbuds. Because I was there only a year, I enjoyed the streetlong, annual spring blossom just once. But it was a spectacle I appreciated.

When I moved into my current home, a tree existed in the backyard spot where my circular garden is located today. The tree died about eight years or so after I moved in, so I had it removed. I left the spot bare for several years, then developed the circular garden in the spot. A neighbor harbored a couple of redbuds in their yard, and if you know redbuds, you know they are prolific self-seeders. I find myself pulling tiny new, unwanted redbud starts all over my yard throughout the year. But I left one seedling alone in the circular garden about five years ago, deciding to see if I could grow a modest size tree to regain some backyard shade I lost when the original tree died. It worked.

I find it ironic that the redbud's spring blossoms are pink, not red, and that its pansy-like green leaves turn gold, not red, in autumn. And speaking of irony, the blueberry bush leaves turn (are you ready?) red in autumn as well. I got a picture of one of those as well.

Above and below -- from the redbud tree.

Above: On my lawn but from a tree not in my yard, so it must have blown in from elsewhere. 

A perspective shot (above) of one of my Henry's Garnet bushes, and a closeup (below) of one of its leaves. 

Above: Autumn blueberry bush leaves that are ... not blue.