“Spent But Still in Fall Glory” Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Today’s image is quite a contrast to my last B&W post. This ‘Waterfall’ Japanese Maple decided to show off a few of its remaining leaves against the background of a brilliant Fothergilla. Heatherwood is still full of fall splendor. As one plant loses it color, another blossoms out in its fall glory. Every day in our garden brings change and a new perspective … just like life. It is our opportunity and challenge to make the best out of each new day.
“Akebono Cherry & Waterfall” Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Today, I woke up to a cool, dreary morning … great day for photographing! This newly planted (this spring) Akebono cherry has lost all of its leaves and just looked cold against the flowing waterfall. Black and white captured the feeling.
The Akebono was the first of our cherry trees to transition to its golden yellow fall color. As such, it was also first to loose its leaves. Our Heatherwood garden has sixteen cherry trees. The two Kwansan Cherries and a couple of our weeping cheery trees still have their leaves, the other twelve are now just “stick trees” waiting for winter to come.
As I walk through our Heatherwood garden, I constantly look for little vignettes that catch my eye. When I see something of interest, I pause to look at it from different perspectives. I tilt my head, squat up and down, move around, squint my eyes, and imagine how I can translate what I see into something a little unique. Many times I just move on, other times I imagine what I can do in post processing. For this image, I knew that it was a painting from the start. With a little help from Topaz Impression out popped my interpretation.
This section of our lower Heatherwood garden provides a layered transition from the perennial meadow to a specimen tree area. It divides our eastern and western lower garden areas. Perennials like the Karl Forster grasses and yarrow transition to deciduous shrubs (elderberries, red twig dogwoods, and yellow twig dogwoods) then to background evergreen junipers and pines. The various structure, texture, and color provide interesting contrasts.
Color, color, and more color highlights our Heatherwood meadow. This area is only two years old and has already surpassed our expectations! The meadow has different colors and feelings during all four seasons. Each season has its special accents. Most people favor the late spring/early summer with all the bright colors of the flowering perennials and shrubs. But, my favorite season is the fall with its more subdued shades of yellows, golds, oranges, and browns. And of course, the bright purples and golds fit right in with my University of Washington Husky bias!
The meadow area weaves in and out creating an interesting flowing border for the lawn area. It provides a fun path to practice my lawn mowing skills. I take my time around the edge, not because it is difficult to mow, but because I just like to take it slow as I enjoy something new each time I make the pass.
Various paths weave their way through our Heatherwood garden. Some of the paths are formal stone paths, some are gravel, some are bark mulch, and some are simple unplanted passage ways through the various plantings. Most paths wind through planted areas to destinations unknown. The paths are not designed to get from point A to point B. They are laid out to provide different views and perspectives as one strolls through the garden. There is usually a little surprise around each corner.
I usually start my day writing in my office when it is dark outside. I take time, sometimes listen to music, and think about what is most important to me. The sun slowly rises above the surrounding hills, then lights up our Heatherwood yard. I turn around from my desk, sit back, relax, and gaze at the beauty of the scene in front of me. I get charged, get a quick bite to eat, then grab my camera to go out and become one with nature. What a great way to start the day right!
Our Heatherwood Japanese garden is peppered with all the colors of the rainbow. We have them all; yellow, green, red, orange, magenta, and purple. We are just missing blue. We are rapidly loosing the color with the rain and wind we recently been having. One day a tree or shrub is at its peak, the next day the leaves are on the ground leaving bare branches. The garden is changing color so quickly that I have a hard time keeping up with my photographs.
This image was created about twenty feet from the image in yesterday’s post. Instead of focusing on a single hydrangea looking through the garden, I stepped back and framed the historic Selah-Naches irrigation flume with the cherry trees and the row of hydrangeas. Borrowed scenes always add interest and enjoyment to our garden.
This fall will probably be the last time that the historic flume will be seen from our garden. It is scheduled to be replaced with a pipe line this winter. Progress is painful!
Some views in our Heatherwood garden provide a glance through the garden to a borrowed scene of the surrounding hills. Other views, like the one above, provide a “stop dead” vignette of a specimen plant surrounded by companions and a deep background of color and contrasts. The ‘Lime Light’ panicle hydrangea is clearly the star of this image. In the summer, the blooms emerge bright white with a little lime green tinge. As the summer progresses they become even brighter white. In the late summer/early fall, they start to turn slightly pink. Later in the fall, the blooms turn brown and the leaves change into their fall color. Then in late autumn, the leaves fall, leaving the bare stems topped with spent blooms which provide a structural interest for the winter.
The companion plants provide depth and a stage for the star. The color and varying textures of the rudbeckia, Russian sage, yellow twig dogwood, and other perennials provide the frame. The grasses, various shrubs, and trees complete the background adding depth to the vignette.
As we walk through the garden, new and different scenes appear daily.
