Through the Seasons at the Morton Arboretum: Then and Now (November)
"While November depends to a great extent upon the persistence of October's foliage and fruit attractions, there are several events of horticultural interest characteristic of this month alone."
The entry for November in Through the Seasons at the Morton Arboretum is noticeably short - and from my excursions to the Arboretum over the past few weeks, I’d have to agree with my grandfather’s assessment that most of the month’s color and form comes from trees that began to turn in October.
Being able to experience fall color first-hand is one of the joys of living in a climate with such defined seasons. The Arboretum certainly wears its autumn palette well, and my grandfather had some thoughts about how to plant landscapes and gardens of all kinds to best take advantage of this time of year:
If as much care went into the planning of compositions for autumn foliage effect as is devoted to arranging floral groupings for spring and summer interest many of our autumn landscapes would present a livelier and more colorful aspect.
As for displays unique to November, my grandfather recommends the Late Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum) for its fruit as well as the Sea Buckthorn’s bright orange berries. Additionally, he makes mention of Witch Hazel’s coloring (as well as the Common Witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana)’s late-blooming flowers, which I regretfully don’t have a photo of):
November at the Arboretum has offered up a remarkable palate of yellows, oranges, reds, purples, and browns.
I spent a lot of time this month going through my grandfather’s slides, and while these weren’t taken at the Arboretum, they show fantastic fall color up at the cottages my grandparents, the Godshalks, Eickhorsts, and Watts’ had in Southwest Michigan. In keeping with the celebration of autumn aesthetics, here are a few from 1965 that, to use a term my grandfather favored, are particularly effective:
I think it’s easy to take our trees’ autumn color for granted, whether due to general malaise after daylight savings time kicks in or a sense that fall leaves are a harbinger of our typical, dreaded Chicago winters. My grandpa eludes to this in a Bulletin from 1964:
Like the old adage, " you can't see the forest because of the trees", fall foliage coloring is often times elusive, either because it is all around us, or due to the fact that we are not properly attuned to its variety and subtleties.
It’s been rather windy here in Chicagoland this past week, and looking out my window it seems many of the leaves I’d been admiring earlier in the month are now lost to the ground. If I’ve learned one thing from my grandpa, however, it’s that trees have as much to offer once the weather turns cold as they do in the bloom of spring or the peak of summer. I’m certainly looking forward to admiring all the beauty the Arboretum has to offer in the remaining weeks of autumn, and into winter.
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