Fall Colors

I've always loved the colors of fall.  The fall we lived in Vermont we spent every weekend we could driving through the hills taking in the bright and beautiful colors. 

This Cranberry Bush Viburnum really shines in fall.  It barely flowers in springtime (not the shrubs fault - I need to find a complimentary viburnum for cross-pollination), and creates a decent privacy screen from the neighbors in the summer.  It also has been struggling with Verticillium Wilt but we like the mature size and fall color enough to keep it around. 

Here you can see the effects of the Verticillium Wilt.  We've lost a good half of this shrub on the east end of the patio to this disease.  I haven't been able to convince Rob to pull the whole thing out because the remaining part still offers a nice amount of privacy when we are sitting out on our patio.  I did plant a hydrangea in the space that is open.  Hopefully it will grow up nice and strong and offer privacy and  year-round interest like the viburnum but provide contrasting foliage and flowers to the Annabelle hydrangea's.

This shrub on the north side of the patio doesn't seem to be quite as badly infected.  I have only lost one or two major branches.  Mostly I end up pruning out partial branches and seem to be able to help it fight enough to replace what it loses.  You can see the branch that needs to come out at the bottom of the photograph.  

I love the color combination of the Cranberry Bush foliage with the green flower heads of the Annabelle's.  This view from the back deck makes me happy (except when V.W. rears it's ugly head and destroys yet another stem).  I could have cropped out the dead branch but I'm using these photos to track my garden progress and the truth is, I have V.W. in my soil or at least in the roots of these shrubs (and the maple tree - which is another story, for another time).