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Serendipity and the Smokebush

© Barbara M. Martin

Dear reader, please note: Thank you for visiting my Cottage Garden topic and reading my columns, published here from February 1997 through spring 2003! I regret I am no longer actively editing or contributing to this suite101.com topic as of mid-2003. Happy Gardening! This Cottage Garden column was written by Barbara M. Martin and is Copyrighted, including any photos, by Barbara M. Martin. It may not be altered or copied or published elsewhere in whole or in part without specific permission from the author.

In my region, the autumn colors have been especially brilliant this year. A very dry season, cold nights and relentlessly bright sunshine have combined to create a fabulous palette, one of the best I can remember.

The smokebush is very fine this year.

We live on the edge of our own dandy oak and hickory woods in Pennsylvania, and have been enjoying the show put on by the trees in our back yard. But as the saying might go, "the woods and the foliage are always better on the other side of the state line" so this past weekend we visited a park down in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland, not far from Camp David. Now our woods are nice, but the foliage in the Catoctins was truly breath taking. (I was sorry the president was not in residence there to see it, he was in China that week.)

The trees were magical, glowing in the early morning sunlight, flashing their colors to the world and sending the occasional spare remnant earthward, fluttering lazily like a sparkly card dropped from a deck.

Our feet splashed along through the carpet of leaves, the maple leaves marked batik-style with brilliant yellow and cranberry reds, mosaic pieces we could gather up in quick, easy handfuls. These we fanned in display, admiring the perfection in each leaf. Like snowflakes, each leaf is different.

In the next dell, the muted tawny olive and brown tones of leaves from the mighty beeches mixed Victorian style with the rich deep garnets fallen from the oaks, rare dogwood leaves added high red notes and golden leaves like hand prints settled downward from the tulip trees. The strong and somber gray beech trunks framed the scene. No gardener could do better.

But I like to try to celebrate the colors of fall, at home, in my own garden. I like to think that cottage gardeners have always done so, have always admired the colors and tried to bring them home where they can be enjoyed every day. This would be a tradition rooted in the days of hunting and gathering when we recognized some plants as being more beneficial than others, and eventually brought some home to be useful as food or medicine. Any plant brought home for color alone would certainly help heal the soul, lighten the load, bring joy and delight to all who partake of the vision. To some, that might be a little bit of luxury, to others, such a daily sight is a necessity. But on a cold frosty morning, we all take pleasure in the sight of warming colors and sheer brilliance.

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