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

Mellow yellows

More fall colour in Toronto

Autumn Gingko biloba leaves, pre-Sandy

As the remnants of Hurricane Sandy blew into our fair city earlier this week and stripped many leaves off of trees overnight, I was lucky to have taken these pictures before the big winds hit. When some of us think of autumn foliage, we might come up with colour descriptions like wine, russet, crimson, tangerine but let's not forget one of my favourite colours: yellow! There's a huge range of tints and shades of yellow we see in the fall and the following will give you a flavour of the spectrum. 

More reason to consider fall colour in plant selection and placement but to be honest, no one thinks about this in the garden centres in May!

Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis)

Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus)

Common witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) blooms

Littleleaf linden (Tilia cordata)

Bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora)

Common witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) leaf

"Elegans" hosta

Autumn common witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)

By Paul Jung, author of "garden muses: a Toronto gardening blog"Google Google Find us on Google+ Find us on Google+