Autumn foliage in Toronto: memories before the snow comes

2014 fall colours from Mount Pleasant Cemetery, the Toronto Botanical Garden and my backyard!

This week's snowfall and lower than average temperatures (below freezing) unofficially started winter, for me anyway.  So before we plunge into the throes of another Toronto winter, here are some pictures from sunnier and warmer times (about 30 days ago or so!)

Mount Pleasant Cemetery's 
 Remembrance Walk fall foliage

Mount Pleasant Cemetery is such a wonderful place to take a walk, bike ride, jog and, for an Arboriculture student like myself ten years ago, collect leaves for a Plant I.D. project. I took a few pictures on a quiet fall morning with a brilliant blue sky above me.

On another day, I enjoyed some late autumn brilliance at the Toronto Botanical Garden surrounded by the Japanese and Paperbark maples that seemed to glow.

Lastly, I preserved one memory from my own backyard for you.

Fall colours are so fleeting, dashed by November's wind and sleet.

Mount Pleasant Cemetery 
Sugar maple autumn foliage

Paperbark maple (Acer griseum) fall foliage 
at the Toronto Botanical Garden

Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) 
autumn foliage at a client's yard

Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) 
autumn foliage at a client's yard

Autumn foliage of a young Sugar Maple at 
Toronto's Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

Viburnum carlesii "Diana" 
( "Diana" Koreanspice viburnum) 
 fall foliage at the Toronto Botanical Garden

Mount Pleasant Cemetery's 
 Forest of Remembrance autumn foliage 

Mount Pleasant Cemetery's  
Forest of Remembrance fall foliage

Acer griseum (Paperbark maple)
 fall foliage at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Common witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) 
autumn foliage at Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Autumn foliage in my backyard

It's a bit of a jumble but if you start at the right side and move left, here are the shrubs:

a) dark purple leaves: "Popcorn" doublefile viburnum (Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum 'Popcorn')

b) yellow: a Katsuratree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) I grew from seed

c) light green: "Blue Muffin" arrowwood viburnum ( (Viburnum dentatum 'Blue Muffin')

d) dark green: another "Popcorn" doublefile viburnum that hasn't changed colour yet

e) orange/pink: "Seiryu" Japanese maple (Acer palmatum "Seiryu")

I have a few Japanese Forest Grass at the bottom of the bed.

Autumn is my favourite time in the backyard. The trees and shrubs provide the fireworks, brief as they are.


(Please disregard the landscaping fabric on the left path leading to the back. It will be covered with flagstone next year, budget-willing!)

Bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora) 
autumn foliage at Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora) 
fall foliage at Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Ginkgo biloba's wonderful fall foliage and fruits (for some) at the Toronto Botanical Garden and Mount Pleasant Cemetery

"Thar's Gold in Them Thar Branches"

There's a figurative gold rush (and a literal one for some Asian cooks) in the canopies of Ginkgo biloba (Maidenhair trees) all over Toronto now. Ginkgoes (plural could be either with or without the "e" apparently) are very common city landscape trees due to their ability to withstand pests and pollution. I've seen them in public parks, cemeteries, front gardens, and city boulevards.

The leaves of ginkgoes are unique. They are fan-shaped with a groove in the middle which forms two lobes (hence "biloba"). They also have a veining pattern called "dichotomous" because the veins fork out from the base of the leaf and don't cross.

Ginkgo biloba leaf and  fruit at Allan Gardens Park in Toronto

Ginkgo fall foliage is a brilliant, bright and buttery yellow. When seen against a clear blue sky, the effect is breathtaking. However, it's not uncommon to discover most of the leaves on the ground the next day, en masse!

Yellow autumn Ginkgo biloba 
leaves against a clear blue sky

Maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba)  
autumn foliage at Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

Ginkgo biloba (Maidenhair tree) autumn leaves
 at Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

Speaking of breathtaking, I'd be remiss if I didn't discuss the lovely (for some) fruit borne by female ginkgoes. Many years ago, I took my infant son for a walk through nearby Allan Gardens Park. I pushed my stroller past this tree:

Gingko biloba (Maidenhair tree) 
at the Allan Gardens Park in Toronto

and smelled something quite unpleasant. Now being in a downtown Toronto park, the origin of this smell could be human or animal. Not exactly fecal, more vomitous. In fact, very cheesy!

Well, I found out later as I studied Plant Identification college courses that this tree, being a female ginkgo, produces an abundance of malodorous fruit. The ripe fruit begin to rot immediately with the fleshy outer layer containing butyric or butanoic acid, a chemical also present in vomit and milk. (The word "butyric" is derived from the Greek word for "butter").

Ginkgo biloba (Maidenhair tree) loaded 
with ripe fruit at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Now accidentally stepping on ripe fruit in a park is a minor inconvenience but I personally know of three female ginkgoes doing their autumn thing outside a busy office building. A little disconcerting to be in a meeting and catching a whiff of good old butyric acid!

One person's trash is another's treasure and this isn't any different with ginkgo fruits. Many older Chinese, Japanese and Korean ladies flock to female ginkgoes in the fall, gloves and bags in hands, to retrieve the fruits not for the bad-smelling outside pulp but for the nuts. I recall seeing a pile of ginkgo fruits at the base of the Allan Garden's ginkgo mentioned above that were obviously squished of their seeds. I can't imagine a squirrel doing this so...


When boiled or roasted, the seeds are edible and have a creamy and rich, well, somewhat cheesy flavour. I usually throw commercially prepared ginkgo nuts in a soup my son loves as they add a umami flavour to the stock. When combined with pork bones, shiitake mushrooms and dried bean curd, the soup is pure umami!

For a city gardener, buying and planting a ginkgo tree is still a bit of gamble. Theoretically, you're planting a male cultivar like "Princeton Sentry" or "Autumn Gold" that shouldn't produce fruit but don't be completely shocked to see and smell the fruits produced by a determined female ginkgo many years after planting.

Toronto Botanical Garden's  
Ginkgo biloba (Maidenhair tree)  fall foliage  

Ginkgo biloba (Maidenhair tree)  fall foliage
 at the Toronto Botanical Garden

Maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba) autumn leaves
 at Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

Ginkgo biloba (Maidenhair tree) autumn foliage at
 Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Personally, I would still enjoy the brief and spectacular show every autumn while prudently making good friends with old Asian ladies and gentlemen in the neighbourhood.

Toronto blooming cherries, plums, and magnolias

Reasons to visit Mount Pleasant Cemetery in the spring

Prunus "Accolade" in bloom

When you really think about it, a cemetery is a great place to appreciate trees any time of the year. I don't find it morbid at all!

Right now, members of the Prunus genus are strutting their stuff, to mix metaphors, and since my last post "Sakura dreams: Cherry blossoms at the University of Toronto" seems popular, why not give the reading public more of what they want? My family and I spent a few hours bike riding (them) and staring at the spring blooms (me) recently on a beautiful afternoon at the cemetery. I think this beats going to the mall any day!

Prunus "Accolade"
 Japanese Flowering Cherry blooms
at Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Japanese Flowering Cherry blooms
Prunus "Accolade"
at Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

Japanese Flowering Cherry
Prunus "Accolade" sakura blooms
at Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

Mount Pleasant Cemetery
Japanese Flowering Cherry
 Prunus "Accolade" sakura blossoms

Prunus "Accolade"
Japanese Flowering Cherry blooms
 at Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

Prunus "Accolade"
Japanese Flowering Cherry
sakura blooms at Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto rivals any local arboretum. Many visitors jog, ride their bikes, pay their respects, and a few, like me, wander around appreciating the foliage and flowers. Spring and fall are special times to visit for the botanically-inclined.

The "Amanogawa" tree above is a memorial for this gentleman who I think, um, was a Who fan. The label is actually incorrect as "Amanogawa" is very columnar. (My best guess is this is Prunus "Accolade".)

Food for thought: if you were to pick a memorial tree for yourself, what would it be and why?

Fleeting beauty, eternal rest

Nearby, a Leonard Messel magnolia (Magnolia x loebneri "Leonard Messel")  was in full bloom.

I didn't crop out the statue and marker since the grave does reinforce the idea that the blooms, like ourselves, are only here for a short time. We might as well enjoy ourselves and others while the opportunity exists!

Smells heavenly! Prunus americana 
(American or wild plum) in full bloom

I don't find the Japanese flowering cherries very fragrant. This can't be said for the several weeping American plums found in the cemetery. Prunus americana  has a sweet odour and the specimens here were covered by pollinators (bees and flies that are, bad pun intended, wanna-bees) hungry for nectar.

Detail of American plum blooms 

American Plum (Prunus americana)
blooms at Mount Pleasant Cemetery

American Plum (Prunus americana)
spring blooms at Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

American Plum (Prunus americana)
spring flowers at Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

Prunus americana (American Plum)
spring blooms at Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Weeping American Plum (Prunus americana)
blooms at Mount Pleasant Cemetery

My two special blossoms tucked in there

You Can Keep Your Lilacs...

Fragrant shrubs we should see more in Toronto gardens

I can't think of too many fragrant flowering shrubs that are blooming now in Toronto. Yes, I know, lilacs will be doing their thing in another month but we need spring to smell heady and overpowering right now! Since I love hyacinths but can't grow them due to the presence of those beady-eyed devils that inevitably nip off blooms the day before they are set to open, a woody substitute is a fragrant viburnum.

My wife worked at Mount Pleasant Cemetery this past weekend and before meeting her after work, I strolled/stalked around looking at tree and flower buds which are just about to open. As an aside, if you are a tree "nut" (bad pun absolutely intended), the cemetery has a selection that rivals any arboretum in Toronto. Not expecting to smell anything besides that distinctive earthy/wet odour heightened by a month of solid rain (it seems), I was smacked nasally with a clove-y, sweet and sharp waft of viburnum pungency remarkably akin to vanilla Coke! (Other viburnums like V. dentatum and lantana smell of dirty socks, wet dog, or cat urine according to some sensitive noses!)

I followed my nose to this shrub....

Farrer's viburnum in bloom

Lucky for me there was a label nearby as I was not familiar with this species. I have a Fragrant Snowball (Viburnum x carlcephalum) in my back garden but the leaves are different from those on this shrub that drew me in. This is Farrer's viburnum, named after the early 20th century plant explorer Reginald Farrer. The plant's height and width was around 8' by 8' or so with a loose and leggy structure. Like most viburnums, I suspect it doesn't need coddling with respect to soil and moisture needs. It's thriving in a cemetery after all!

After walking some more and clearing my head a little, I saw some pink-white blooms in the distance down-wind from me (the air flow direction will be pertinent in a moment.) Maybe Saucer Magnolia blooms? But with the slow spring and the fact that Star Magnolias are blooming now, the bigger and later blooming x soulangiana flowers were unlikely to be the answer. Purple leaf Sandcherries or a cherry in general? A little too early as well.

Getting closer...

Bodnant viburnum blooms



That remarkable smell again but with pink flowers! No label to help me this time but with leaves very similar to V. farreri, I think this is a specimen of Bodnant Viburnum (Viburnum x bodnantense "Dawn".)  The grouping of three of these viburnums amongst a grove of serviceberries produce a great show through most of the year in this part of the cemetery. The fall colour should be outstanding, I'll need to revisit.  The viburnum's fruits ("drupes") will turn from red to purple-black and last much longer than those devoured from the serviceberry. Additional winter interest from the berries makes viburnums make the genus a multi-season choice.

Space permitting, consider placing a fragrant viburnum down-wind near a deck or patio to enjoy. Or right near a path so that you can stick your nose right into the blooms, inhale, and bliss out for a few moments!