Fall is in the Air

There is nothing like gardening to make one aware of the passing of seasons.

Japanese anemones 'Honorine Jobert' are my favorite fall-blooming perennials

 Here in a winterless climate, the changes are, at first, subtle.

Sharifa Asma (shrub) looking down on cape plumbago and geranium 'Rozanne'

Roses are still going strong, but their foliage is beginning to look tired (burned and spotted).

Rosette Delizy (tea) in its fall splendor

Blooms, on the other hand, become bigger and more brightly colored as they recover from summer heat.

Classic Woman is a hybrid tea that is generally white or cream-colored, but often displays a lot of pink in the fall

The color is often retained even when its blooms are fully open. They remind me of scoops of ice cream

But what I most look forward to in fall roses is the hips.

'Wohler Rd. White Eglantine' at the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden

Many once-blooming roses are covered with colorful hips well into the winter.

Hips of 'Sappho', an alba, at the Heritage

 But repeat-blooming roses, both antique and modern, will often set hips too if the gardener is not very diligent about deadheading.

From left: Imposter (shrub), April in Paris (hybrid tea), Regensberg (floribunda), Roseraie de l'Hay (rugosa),  two more Imposters, Golden Celebration (shrub), and two hips from Mme. Berard (tea-noisette)

Roses are related to apples, and like apples, rose hips come in many shapes, sizes and colors.

Purple Pavement, a rugosa, in my garden

An unripe hip of Rosa laevigata,  a species

Hybrids of rosa spinosissima set some of the most deeply colored hips. These are from Fruhlingsanfang, at the Heritage

The aptly named Fakir's Delight, hybrid Bracteata, at the Heritage

Blooms and hips at the same time are wonderful. Meg Merrilies, hybrid rubiginosa, at the Heritage

Seeing hips always makes me think about winter, bare branches and rose pruning. Winter is short here, but even so fall blooms, the last of the year, are my most favorite of all.

Penelope, a hybrid musk, in my garden