Autumn color around the Denver metro area

Posted on December 2, 2023 by John Kevin Hickey

Every year I try to document the fall colors around the Denver metro area. That is if I remember to do it. Or if I’m in town. Or if I feel like it. Ok, so I try to document the fall colors around the Denver metro area when the mood strikes me.

As an example, last year MrsVintage and I were visiting the Vintage grandchildren and got back just in time to watch a windstorm blow away all the colorful foliage before I could get any photos taken.

I did manage to make a post about it two years ago, as you can see here: Autumn splendor in Colorado’s Front Range part deux (mrvintageman.com)

Anyhoo, I figure if Mother Nature is going to put on such gorgeous display to close out the growing season, I feel that it behooves us to enjoy the spectacle if at all possible

Difference between mountains and plains

Those who don’t live in Colorado are probably not aware that there a BIG difference of when peak foliage arrives around the state. In the northern mountains, the aspen start reaching their peak in mid-to-late September. The southern mountains reach their peak about two to three weeks later. The Western Slope usually doesn’t reach its peak in late October.

Here along the Front Range, we typical see the foliage crescendo arrive sometime around mid-October. This year was a little bit different. It was a warmer than usual autumn, so the color changes were spread out over a longer period of time. I saw cottonwoods around town already changing in late September, while the two honey-locusts in my yard didn’t start turning until the last week of October.

I should point out that trees and shrubs don’t base their color changes on temperature, but on the length of daylight. However, temperatures can cause variations to the duration and intensity of the color display. So, some trees decided that they didn’t care at all what the thermometer said and declared “peace, I’m out!” the first chance they could. While others, like my honey-locusts, apparently felt that as long as the weather was still warm they might just as well keep on photosynthesizing.

Dramatic end to the show

While the display may have lasted an unusually long time, its ending was decidedly rather abrupt. At the Vintage ranch, the weather on October 23rd was sunny with a high of 81 degrees. The weather gradually cooled off during the week, then went straight into winter over the weekend. The low on the morning of October 30th was 11 degrees, with six inches of snow on the ground. That lowered the boom on the fall foliage finale once and for all.

But it was quite a show while it lasted.

Why leaves change colors, as explained by Paul James – The Gardener Guy

Way back in the late 90’s and early 2000s, HGTV (Home and Garden Televison) used to have actual gardening shows in their lineup. I no longer watch that channel, but it is my understanding that all they do anymore is home makeover shows. So the “G” in HGTV is misnomer, much like the “M” that once stood for “music” in Mtv.

With that out of the way, let’s return to the wayback machine. Paul James, The Gardener Guy, was the host of a show on HGTV called Gardening by the Yard. What a great show! Paul injected humor along with instructions into the show and was not afraid to show the mistakes he made or the flaws in his garden. I used to record the shows on VHS (later on TiVo), and we would watch them as a family.

Anyway, here he explains the science behind fall color: Color Changes Video | HGTV

If you’re interested, here he tells you how to put your veggie bed to sleep for the winter Veggie Garden Video | HGTV

As well as how to prep your flower borders: Flower Bed Prep Video | HGTV

Enjoy.

And now, on with the show!

Around town

I just want to point out, just in case it’s not abundantly clear, that I am not a photographer. I don’t know how to compose a scene or frame a shot. I’m just an old fart armed with a phone camera.

With that out of the way, I’ll start with some pics I took from around town.

A cottonwood, in the Denver subdivision of Green Valley Ranch, kicked off the show in very late September.
Also in Green Valley Ranch, ornamental grasses getting in on the display. I think, though not 100% certain, that the grasses in the front are Miscanthus Purpurascens, also known as ‘flame grass’. You can see how it gets its name.
Moody autumn display near sundown.
This Ash tree is in my neighborhood, and its fall foliage is like this every year, half yellow, half purple. I have no idea why it does this, but it’s pretty cool don’t you think?
Here we see an all-yellow Ash tree.
Suburban serenity
No words.
Believe it or not, I found this vignette in the street behind a Safeway grocery store. The grasses are a different type of Miscanthus, but I don’t know which one.

Aurora Xeriscape Demonstration Garden

I visited the Aurora Xeriscape Demonstration garden in mid-October. As you can see, low-water landscapes can have awesome fall color.

‘Pawnee Buttes’ Sand Cherry provides a nice red color in fall. Behind it is the fiery colors of a Sumac. Gotta be careful with Sumacs; great shrubs, but prone to aggressive suckering.
Reddish-tan autumn colors of the prairie native Big Bluestem grass.
Evergreen conifers provide a nice backdrop for their more colorful cousins.
Not a whole lot of color in the dryland garden, but there is plenty of interest. I included this photo to show that desert environments can be beautiful in autumn, even if it is in a more subtle way.

In the Vintage Garden

Autumn joy sedum, ‘Heavy Metal’ switchgrass, and Russian sage are an autumn trio in the Vintage garden.
A collection of tough, drought tolerant grasses alongside the driveway. On the left and in the back is a clump of ‘Karl Foerster’ feather reed grass. In front of them a blue oat grass mingles with the seedheads from coneflowers. On the far right is a variegated miscanthus. And the flashy grass in front is a switch grass, whose name is long forgotten.
In the renovated front yard we see autumnal colors of the switchgrass called ‘Northwind’. We also see Bailey is still on patrol for those stupid bunnies.
The native Bigtooth maple provides glorious fall color next to the patio in the backyard.
Finally, I snapped this photo of the front yard just hours before the cold front arrived that ended the autumn display.

How was the autumn display in your area this year?

Posted in Autumn, Gardening | Tagged | Comments Off on Autumn color around the Denver metro area

November in the Vintage garden

Posted on November 25, 2023 by John Kevin Hickey

We had a pretty warm autumn here along Colorado’s Front Range, which meant that many late blooming plants and shrubs were in flower for an unusually long time. It was quite nice actually.

That all ended in the last week in October, when temperatures plunged down the low teens. Bitter cold, combined with over six inches of snow, led to most plants checking out for the year. However, as the calendar rolled over into November, we had a period of above average temps. They used to call the warm spell that followed the first hard frost of the season “Indian summer”.

Do they still call it that, or is that problematic now? Screw it, I’m sticking with Indian summer. Indian summer. Indian Summer. We had a very nice Indian summer during the first couple of weeks in November.

And there were a surprising number of plants that were still in flower even up to November 20th. Not a lot, but still a surprising number.

While everything else in the birdbath garden gave up the ghost until spring, ‘Monch’ asters were still going strong.
‘Raydon’s Favorite’ aster was also still putting on a show in the driveway border. As an added bonus, its foliage turned a deep burgundy color, providing a stunning contrast with the purple flowers.
This ‘Jupiter’s Beard’ normally blooms in early summer. But it put on a nice show in late autumn, even after being squashed flat by the heavy snow that fell a couple of weeks earlier.
An autumn crocus in bloom in front of the deck in mid-November. Even though it looks like a crocus, and has crocus in its name, it is in fact not related to the crocuses that bloom in spring. Different species with similar attributes.

The show has since come to an end, but the late season display certainly cheered me up. After all, I’ve got to slog through the long, cold, dreary months of winter before life returns to the garden. The longer the display, the shorter the misery!

I think I should plant more autumn crocuses along here next year for more impact. It’s a such a nice send off for the garden.
Posted in Autumn, Gardening | Tagged | Comments Off on November in the Vintage garden

What I have been reading – Samuel Adams: Revolutionary

Posted on November 18, 2023 by John Kevin Hickey

“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.”

William Shakespeare

If Stacy Schiff’s Samuel Adams: Revolutionary (The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams a book by Stacy Schiff (bookshop.org) is any guide, then Mr. Samuel Adams was one who had greatness thrust upon him. A shadowy figure to history, Adams could be considered the godfather of America’s Founding Fathers, for he pushed for independence far earlier than his contemporaries were prepared to do so. Shadowy, because much of what we know about Samuel Adams comes from second and third hand sources. For obvious reason, Adams was very cagey about leaving a paper trail behind.

While certainly not born to poverty, Adams was born with one foot in a cement block. His father ran into financial problems, and back then the debts of one generation were passed on to the next. But Adams was a bright young man and there was enough money for him to attend Harvard. Ironically, while at Harvard he gave a dissertation arguing against the colonies severing their bonds with the Monarchy.

After graduation, Adams attempted several business enterprises with less than stellar results. There is a brewery in Massachusetts named after him, but Adams was not a brewer. He raised hops, and apparently not very successfully. Thanks to some pull from friends and family, he was appointed as a tax collector. In those days, tax collectors were given a portion of the taxes they brought in. No chance of that ever being abused! Even so, Adams was an indifferent collector, which certainly didn’t help his finances.

Over time, Adams slowly morphed into the so-called radical we know him as today. Interestingly, Adams was not given to fiery oration. In fact, one might even consider him a bit of a stoic, in the proper sense of the word. Now days people believe that stoics try not to feel or show emotion. That’s incorrect. A true stoic has no problems with emotional displays or feelings, as long as they don’t override reason.

This behavior is probably why he was so successful in drawing people to his cause, in spite of all the risks that entailed. Pretty impressive for a man who was considered a bit of a wastrel in his youthful days.

Overall, I found Stacy Schiff’s bio of Adams to be quite interesting and educational, as well as an enjoyable read. I’m not a huge fan of biographies. If done right, they can be very enjoyable. If done wrong, they can be a real slog. Stacy Schiff’s Samuel Adams: Revolutionary is a biography done right.

I highly recommend it.

——————————Intermission-—————————

—————————–News and notes–————————

Sad news to report: The Tattered Cover independent bookstore has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. For those who don’t know, The Tattered Cover was at once upon a time one of the largest bookstores in the United States, with well over 300,000 titles in its inventory. By comparison, when I worked at the regional flagship store for the now defunct B. Dalton Bookseller, we had at most 15,000 titles in stock. And that was at one of the largest B. Dalton’s in the country!

The Taj Majal of bookstores

Tattered Cover started out as just another used bookstore in Denver. Joyce Meskis purchased the store in 1971 and successfully grew the business until it finally got so big, she was able to move into a four-story building located at 1st Avenue & Milwaukee Street in Cherry Creek 1986. This store was the Taj Mahal for bibliophiles in the Denver metro area.

Unfortunately, that behemoth known as Amazon began to kill off independent bookstores across the land. The rise of e-books also changed the bookselling landscape. And Tattered Cover had to adapt. Joyce Meskis downsized and moved the store to a location with a lower lease closer to the Capital.

Her declining health forced her to sell her beloved store in 2015. The new owners tried to revive Tattered Cover’s prospects by opening up three smaller stores along the Front Range. Apparently, this strategy didn’t work.

Sadly, the fate of The Tattered Cover is uncertain at this point.

Tattered Cover will close three locations, lay off workers as it files for bankruptcy – Denverite

Posted in Book Reviews, Books | Tagged | Comments Off on What I have been reading – Samuel Adams: Revolutionary