More shades of Autumn

There is not a lot going on in my garden just now – from a human’s point of view – just the occasional bit of tidying up and cutting back of spent plant growth, but from Nature’s point of view a lot is happening. The plants are briefly putting on their Autumn attire for one final display before their annual “long sleep”.

A fashionable colour-scheme right now would be red, with tinges of orange and yellow…

The part of my Cotinus bush that was not affected by what may have been an attack of Verticillium Wilt has now adopted its normal Autumn colours, so I hope that at least part of it will come back in the Spring.

These are Blueberry leaves:

 In this next photo you can see next year’s buds already forming before this year’s leaves have fallen.

The Callicarpa has a very brief show of Autumn leaves, doubtless because it wants to shed them to better show off its array of purple berries:

My little Fig tree is joining in too, though it is less showy…

This is almost the last flower in my garden for this year. It’s a Gaillardia “Burgunder”, whose colours definitely fit the theme.

The Hydrangea on the other hand is being obtuse and bucking the trend. During the Summer its blooms were pink, and vestiges of that colour still remain:

 But some of the blooms seem to have decided to turn green.

I have only had this Hydrangea since March, so I have a lot to learn about its behaviour. For instance, I have read that it is best not to dead-head it, but to leave the old flowers on the plant until it begins to grow again in the Spring. What do you think of that advice?