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.

Autumn colors encore in my backyard

In Central Indiana, the annual show of autumn colors usually ends in mid- to late October, and for the past two years, the show was far less spectacular and lengthy than usual because of summer drought conditions. But in recent years, I've been able to enjoy a sort of extended show in my backyard, thanks to a handful of plants, only two of which I put into the ground knowing about the fall color benefits.

Five years ago, I put two mature -- but still somewhat small -- Henry's Garnet Virginia Sweetspire (itea virginica) bushes on opposite ends of a 5' x 19' garden along the back fence line, a wood-bordered patch I inherited when buying the property 21 years ago. I had never done anything with that patch until the fall that the Garnets went into the garden, and I was rewarded for choosing those bushes several months after putting them into the ground.

The Garnets are known for their three-season splendor -- pretty white blossoms in spring, rich green foliage in summer and then the burning red leaves in autumn. So when I saw the white blossoms in the Garnets' first spring, I was very pleased. True to form, they delivered the rich green foliage in summer and spectacular reds in the fall. Two years ago, wanting to add some fall color to my front garden, I put two Garnets there as well. (Quick aside: If you're interested in checking out these plants further, be aware that the Garnets expand -- upward and sideways -- so if you get some, allow for sideways rooting and for periodic trimmings if you want to keep them somewhat contained).

Two summers ago, when I put a strawberry plant in my 3' x 26' foot backyard Genus garden (a name I gave it -- a long story), a converted grass patch between two old-fashioned concrete driveway strips, I had no idea its foliage would become a fall spectacle of reds, oranges and even spot yellows and burgundys, mixed in with the green. A good example of a mixture is the photo leading off this post. I got a good hint of that in autumn 2011, well before the plant yielded its first fruit.

This year, not only did I enjoy the first harvest from the strawberries but got an even more colorful foliage show in the plant's second autumn, highlighted by the shoot I decided to do on Dec. 6, just a few days ago. It was the morning of the last sun we would see before a prolonged rain, cold and heavy cloud system settled over Central Indiana (a system still lingering today, four days later). The strawberry plant's reds and greens dominate, providing an apt yuletide highlight that I find myself gazing at through my kitchen window quite often these days.

This summer, I put two blueberry bushes into the fence line garden, again not knowing anything about what would happen to its foliage in fall. What happens, I've learned, is that the leaves turn a dark red, though they don't linger nearly as long as the foliage on the Garnets and strawberries. The blueberry foliage you see in today's post were the last two or three leaves on one of the bushes.

So today's post toasts those glorious colors ... and the fourth anniversary of Photo Potpourri, which launched this month in 2008.

Above and next five below: Looks at the early December strawberry plant foliage, including -- in the fifth frame -- a striking burgundy/grape color.

Above and next two below: Remaining foliage on one of the blueberry plants. The one above and below feature alternating selective focus on the same foliage.

Above and next three below: Foliage from the Henry's Garnet Virginia Sweetspire bushes. 

Above: A final photo from my backyard circular garden, where my alyssum annuals -- alongside a lingering leaf or two, proved to be hardy, surviving three frosts before succumbing to an overnight freeze the day after this was taken. Several pentuias annuals along the south side of my home likewise survived several frosts before the aforementioned freeze got them. My petunias in the front garden weren't as fortunate. They survived the first two frosts, but not the third. 

Perennial outdoor color show, revisited

Inspired by yet another great day Monday, I shrugged off the cold that's been dogging me since Thursday and made another foray into Garfield Park in Indianapolis while the fall colors were still pretty showy.

This time, I took along -- and used -- my polarizing filter, and the hunch paid off handsomely, capturing some gorgeously rich blues in the sky and all but eliminating glare on a fire station window that reflected some brilliant yellows and oranges from nearby trees. My only regret was not bringing along a longer focal-length lens to see what it would have gotten me for the jet stream shots below. Instead, all of these were shot with my Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens.

Above: Intermittent sunlight splashing through a maple

Above: First of three frames following a jet and its thin stream nearing a much-closer-to-the-ground yellow-leafed tree

Above: Past the first branch, heading toward the second

Above: Safely past the second branch, and steering clear of the rest

Above: Different trees, different skyscape, including clouds and (above) a jet stream swath much wider than the one above. Adding a special touch is the little bird perched on a leafless branch in the upper right corner.

Above: Fire Station 29, the bountiful tree's reflection cast on the windows along the side, as seen from the sidewalk flanking East Raymond Street, just west of Pleasant Run Parkway, North Drive

Above: A little closer look at the reflection off the fire station's window panels.

Above: Even closer ...

Above: A stately, but relatively young, tree in Garfield Park's Grove of Remembrance, just west of Fire Station 29, that was dedicated by the community in October 1920 in honor of the 387 Marion County soldiers and sailors who died in World War I (1914-18). Trees in the grove have been planted in intervals and are just west of the Fire Station.

Above: A most unusual conifer that naturally curves at the top.

Above: Another frame of contrasting sunlight through a tree, allowing for some spectacular highlights.

Above: The coda image in this post is actually not from the park; it's from my backyard garden and features the vivid red leaves of a Henry's Garnet (itea virginica).