A sighting of a new coltsfoot plant reminded me that Nature does have a way of surprising us.
Like this one day in October I was thinking to myself, “Well, there’s nothing blooming now!” as I walked down the lane to the highway. Seeing all the tree leaves on the ground verified that we were well into Autumn and the hangers-on were providing most of the color in the scenery.
Photos taken 29 October 2015. (Click on any image to see a larger version.)
The few colorful exceptions were the Chrysanthemum and Alyssum planted next to the house where they receive southern sun during the day and warmth from the building at night. A stray aster or Indian Tobacco here and there showed a few blooms, but for the most part flowers are history for the year once November starts, in Central Pennsylvania at least.
Then I saw the witch hazel trees in an awesome flowering! Probably the most blossoms I have seen on these trees on the east side of the lane. Photos couldn’t do them justice as the blooms faded into the scenery of yellows and oranges provided by the awesome fall foliage.
Some had just uncurled their long, strap-like, yellow petals.
A few old nuts from last year were still attached to a stem…but were the food bits still inside?
An oddity, a curiosity. Why bloom so late? What pollinates the flowers, wind? They surely can take the cold!
After a month or more of chilling weather and a few storms with gusty winds the witch hazel flowers having lost their petals still cling to the branches. Perhaps their small nuts will grow here to become a future food for a squirrel or wild turkey.