As friends along the USA’s eastern seaboard are battening down the hatches, gardeners in Nova Scotia are still enjoying beautiful fall days but keeping a weather eye out for the possibility that Hurricane Sandy may veer our way.  Although the forecast is for nothing more than several days of rain in our area, the weather has already begun to change. In fact, since I took photos for this post, about an hour ago, the sunny day has turned cloudy in advance of what is predicted to be our brush with the edge of the storm.

Rain or shine, at this time of year, many gardeners rely on chrysanthemums to brighten up their gardens, but many other plants provide a lovely palette as well.  Most of the pale yellow leaves of birches have fallen but red maples, scarlet oaks and the crimson leaves of burning bushes can be seen throughout the area. Even low-growing sedums have their place in the overall scheme of things autumnal.

Some plants show fascinating variations of colour as their individual leaves progress through the biochemical changes that produce the beautiful autumn shades.  The Acer palmatum (Japanese maple) above exhibits clear brilliant red foliage, whereas the Cotinus coggygria (Smoke bush) below has many leaves of different shades and some with lovely patterns where the veins stand out as striations on the main leaf.

Followers of this blog may notice that one of the menus at the top has changed. The new heading Current Activities is what is termed a “static page” but it will not be static for long. We hope to be changing the information on that page whenever monthly meetings or other activities are on the horizon.  This week the page has a poster advertising the Club’s November 19th meeting, with information as to the speaker and time. That gathering will also include the Annual General Meeting, at which members receive reports from the officers and committee chairs of the Club. All members are encouraged to attend.