It’s hard to believe that tomorrow November begins. The garden is reflecting true autumn now. Dahlias are finished, the grass is greener beneath piles of leaves, and at midday the sun barely clears the tops of trees around the edges of the garden.
I’m joining with gardeners in a Saturday peek over garden fences worldwide. Six on Saturday was begun by The Propagator, and all are welcome to join in the fun.
ONE – Thanks to help from my sister, Meg, some 260 tulip bulbs are all planted in pots. The number is about half of what I normally plant, showing my restraint 😉 . This year I was gifted tulip bulbs, which took the guesswork out of selecting colors. Coppertop will feature the purples, reds, yellows, and whites in the spring — an eye-popping combo — of the below varieties.
TWO – Our dozens of native big leaf maples, Acer macrophyllum, glow golden until they drop their enormous leaves. I laid my secateurs on the ground for size comparison, following Fred’s example from another post. Some wind and rain a couple nights ago left a gilded driveway. These leaves are shredded and added to beds or added to the compost heap.
THREE – I call this dwarf maple ‘Cousin It’ for obvious reasons. This time of year he’s beautiful. I have no idea of the cultivar, but some fellow gardener can point me in the right direction I’m sure.
FOUR – More subtle, but equally as beguiling, this variegated dogwood, Cornus alba ‘Elegantissima’ (or similar) brightens one edge of the lawn. Check out those white berries!
FIVE – I’ve posted this lovely bush by the garden shed other years, but can’t get enough the dark, glossy berries and fall color. It’s a chokeberry or Aronia melanocarpa.
SIX – I’ll end with an oddity, or maybe not too odd, since we are known for our abundance of fungi in the Pacific Northwest. These fellas appeared overnight in a shady section of mulch on Lupine Hill. They take me right back to a favorite, treasured childhood storybook, Paulus and the Acornmen, by Jean Dulieu. Whenever wild things happen at ground level like these rank and file mushrooms, I’m delighted by thoughts of a world of wonder beneath our feet.
Gardens at Coppertop 
Those fungi are amazing both in their shape and number: like a platoon of soldiers.
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They stopped me in my tracks!
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Love these posts every Saturday! That purple and white tulip looks to be so striking!
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Thanks, Lauren. I’m hoping for cheerful pots this spring.
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Fab fungi…is this the first time you have had this variety? Maybe the spores came with the mulch.
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Absolutely they came with the mulch. First time in this location which we replanted. (and mulched)
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I wish I knew more about fungi and which ones are edible. Those are rather beautiful. Your selection of autumn colours are stunning too. Lovely Six-on-Saturday.
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Thank you, Granny.
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Could I borrow your sister please, I could do with some help getting bulbs into the ground! 😁 Your tulip photographs are beautiful, they’re a pleasure to look at on this stormy day. Actually – any day they would be a pleasure to look at.
Those are huge maple leaves, and so lovely lying still on the ground.
I’d say that your maple is Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum’ – it’s very pretty.
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Thanks for that ID, Katherine. Yes, that’s the one! My sister is a keeper.
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Thank you for the mention! Yes this maple leaf is quite large and bigger than mine. Japanese acer vs big maple trees…
I do like too in your Six the path with fungi and the glossy aronia berries. Birds must love them…
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The Aronia is in a section of the garden I can’t view from the home, but yes, the berries do disappear, most likely birds!
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Wow to the forest of fungi. Cousin It made me smile.
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Isn’t it a sweet thing to be filled with wonder and let our imaginations soar in the garden…
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The fungi are so delicate – as if they were made of paper. Lovely selection of autumn plants and I’ve also got garden shed envy!
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Thanks! The 15×20′ shed was on the property when we arrived and serves us well.
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Look at all those mushrooms! Great photos of them and all your fabulous autumn colours. I love those huge acers and Cousin It too!
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Absolutely thrilled by your mushrooms, just the thing to inspire a story. Coppertop is living up to it’s name colour wise and spring is going to be wonderful. I need a some dry weeks before I can get the tulips planted here. I am wondering if I have a chokeberry – I will have to check my notes as I am sure someone on SOS gave me an id for one of my unknown bushes. Keep well
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Glad you caught my excitement about those mushrooms. You stay well, too.
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WOW what a great mushroom field! And a great photo! We don;t have the big leaved maple here but I’ve seen them when I visit my parents on Vancouver Island – so impressive!
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We appreciate the giant maples. Some folks consider them junk trees, but they provide animal habitats, shade, beauty, leaves for compost, AND maple syrup.
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Wonderful colour, a pleasure to see it from your garden. I’ve grown Aronia for many years and find it very inclined to sucker and spread but not to an extent that makes it a nuisance. The berry set is not great here, south-east Ireland, so I have never managed to do anything with them – make a jelly, for example.
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Paddy, like you, I haven’t made jelly from the berries, as my freezer is full of other yummy fruit to cook. Yes, I’ve had to cut back a few suckers each year, but nothing daunting.
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Yes, those leaves are big! And I love Cousin It. 🙂 Wonderful mushrooms. And can I move into your “shed” it looks very nice.
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I do know — in many countries the shed would be extravagant shelter for many families and here just our tools and seedlings benefit… 🙂 Shed Appreciation Day is a new thing!
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A lovely selection this week. It’s wonderful to have berries of different colours in the garden, and maple leaves are some of the most beautiful I think. The fungi are just magical aren’t they?
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Thanks, Sel. I need to add the fun berries to some arrangement… but my dahlias are gone so I need to get especially creative.
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Such stunning colours from your garden. Thanks for sharing them
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Gorgeous colour and a flavour of things to come! Spooky looking fungi – great find.
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The Irish word for mushroom is “fás-aon-oíche”… Literally, grow overnight.
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Love that!
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Now that I see this two weeks late, our big leaf maples do not seem so far behind. They are just barely defoliating.
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Spring will be beautiful at your place – I LOVE tulips! And, what an amazing carpet of mushrooms. Like a small army of WWII infantry soldiers storming down the hill.
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Thanks, Anna! I agree about the mushrooms — which have now disappeared. Take care.
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Fungi blogger! Tuesdays and Fridays.
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That is awesome! I’ll be sure to check it out.
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What a lovely post! The flowering bulbs are perfection, and maples are one of my favourite trees. I am trying to grow a maple in my subtropical garden, but it’s barely a foot tall. And for such a magical post, how appropriate to end it with an array of ‘magical’ mushrooms. 🙂
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