November 2023 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Leena]

November has started mild, but next week it will be colder again. Flowering plants are almost over, and foliage is more interesting now.
Here are some ferns, and Meconopsis and a view of my woodland beds.

[Leena]

Last colchicums in a shady spot.

[Stefan B.]

Leena, I always enjoy looking at your photos.
I don't remember such a dry and warm autumn, but I still managed to save the plants with a lot of watering...

Hamamelis vernalis 'Quasimodo'


Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Chirimen'

We are now ready for winter...if it comes.

Gaura lindheimeri 'The Bride'

[Stefan B.]

Here are some photos of plants that are currently blooming

Disanthus cercidifolius


Primula vulgaris Belarina 'Valentine'


Mahonia eurybracteata subsp.ganpinensis 'Soft Caress'

[Leena]

Thank you Stefan.
I can see your dry and sunny autumn from your pictures!
Here it has been a rainy October, it has rained 140mm in October. The first week of November was cloudy and warm (+7C) and next week it will be below freezing.

[ruweiss]

Leena and Stefan,
many thanks for your posts. We still had no frost until now and the day temperatures
are still unusually high. Magnolia x soulangeana has bright autumn colors and Poncirus
trifpliata forms ripe fruits. They are practcally inedible, but the seedlings of them are the
perfect rootstocks for all the Citrus plants.

[Gabriela]

Nice to see fall imagery from other countries!

In this part of Ontario we are still having a nice weather for this time of year, and the nights min. have been only down to -5C and just for few days. As a surprise there is one more Crocus banaticus flowering (from a younger batch)  and a hardy Chrysanthemum I have raised from a cutting, I don't know its name. 




Hakonechloa and the Northern oats grass in fall mood.

[Leena]

Wonderful autumn colours, Rudi and Gabriela.
Gabriela, what is the plant in the last picture (in the background) with deep orange red foliage?
Here it has been rainy and cloudy, but one day last week sun peaked from clouds so I could take some pictures.
Geraniums are having nice colours now, 'Sirak' and Geranium x magnificum 'Rosemoor'

[Mariette]

Leena, Stefan, Rudi and Gabriela: You all seem to enjoy a very colourful November! Thank You for Your beautiful pics!

Leena, geraniums seem to colour far better in Finland than in Germany! When seeing the fiery tints of Betula nana, the polar birch, I got interested in this shrub, but learnt, that it doesn´t colour in Germany as well as in Lappland.

Here I found just one red leaf on a Geranium sylvaticum seedling.



Hydrangea macrophylla ´Blaumeise´ produces only fertile flowers at this time of the year.



A shrub which colours well for me every autumn is Spiraea betulifolia ´Tor Gold´, even showing tiny flowers after 4 months with 400 mm of rainfall. Leucanthemum x superbum ´Bröllopsgåvan´ adding contrast, and Brunnera macrophylla starts to flower again, too.



Still some of the tall phloxes show their less well-formed autumnal flowers, too.



This bergenia, probably ´Herbstblüte´, may flower anytime from spring till autumn. As we had no frost yet, Persicaria microcephala ´Dragon Blood´ looks still good, too.

[Gabriela]

Mariette - you still have many flowers for mid-November!

Many Geraniums usually take a nice color when the weather gets cooler in the fall, but it varies, we had a warm one this year and many species didn't color as nice as in previous years, some not at all.

Leena - in the background of the Northern oat grass is Acer palmatum 'Shindeshojo'. This year was not very beautiful, so here's an image of last year. I don't have nice depth to take a full picture (without the neighbor's fence). Actually the grass is on its left, I took the picture from a side, being a very narrow bed.

[Leena]

Gabriela, thank you for the picture. Your Acer is beautiful.

Mariette, this year autumn colours to Geraniums came late, but they get nice colours almost every year here.

Since I last wrote we have had a week of temperatures below freezing, and no snow. The first picture is from a week ago.
Then yesterday there was rain and a bit of snow and plus-temperatures, but from tomorrow on temperatures will go below freezing again and stay there, so winter has come.
I hope we get even a little more snow to protect the plants tomorrow.

[Gabriela]

Gabriela, thank you for the picture. Your Acer is beautiful.

Mariette, this year autumn colours to Geraniums came late, but they get nice colours almost every year here.

Since I last wrote we have had a week of temperatures below freezing, and no snow. The first picture is from a week ago.
Then yesterday there was rain and a bit of snow and plus-temperatures, but from tomorrow on temperatures will go below freezing again and stay there, so winter has come.
I hope we get even a little more snow to protect the plants tomorrow.

You surely need more snow Leena!
We are not in the winter territory yet, soon enough it seems.

[Leena]

You surely need more snow Leena!
We are not in the winter territory yet, soon enough it seems.

Lucky for you! I hope there will be more snow next week here.

Yesterday there was maybe one or two cm more snow, now it is -10 and temperature is dropping.
Some pictures from today, there was sun!
Helleborus and Epimedium 'Orange Königin' which is very hardy. I expect it to be ok in the spring.

[Robert]

Hi Leena,

I enjoyed your last photograph of your garden with the snow. 

Thank you so much for your kind comments on the Crocus thread. It is always good to know that there are at least a few Forumists that read my postings and are interested in our gardening activities here in California as well as my botanical activities in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Although our gardening situations are very different, I have always enjoyed your postings. I am keenly interested in how different plant species respond in your climatic and gardening environment. I learn a great deal. Thank you.

In the spring you expressed an interest in the Genus “Dodecatheon” (lumped into the Genus Primula here in California). Are you continuing to trial plants of this Genus in your garden?

Here in California I have been working with our local Dodecatheon species. Our low elevation species are summer dormant, intolerant of summer moisture, and not hardy to extreme cold. However, there is a great deal of genetic variability within the genome of each species. For example, there are populations of Dodecatheon hendersonii from Idaho that possess genes that allowed their ancestors to survive the extreme winter of 1889-90 that ravaged the cattle industry in the Great Basin of Nevada and the Snake River Basin in southern Idaho. I have yet to obtain seeds from plants in this region, but I would enjoy evaluating plants from this region. Employing these into my breeding program might yield practical horticultural results for gardens. Who knows unless one systematically puts out the effort?

Anyway, if you decide to grow various forms of Dodecatheon in your garden I will be keenly interested in your results. Thank you again for sharing so much.

We also took interest in your photos and discussion of weather in your area.
Here in Northern California the weather has turned much colder. The first killing frost arrived at our Placerville farm yesterday, 24 November. This is 3 weeks later than what was the average first killing frost date at our Placerville farm 30 years ago. 30 years ago, I remember snow on 31 October! Today, 25 November it was 10 F (-12.2 C) in some of the cold air basins of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. At some high elevation sites yesterday’s high temperature was 28 F (-2,2 C). Strong, desiccating, freezing winds were blowing. Fortunately there is some, but much below average, snow cover to protect the plants at these sites. At other high elevation west slope (Sierra Nevada Mountains) sites there is no snow cover at all. At these locations there are some plant species that can be vulnerable when below freezing temperatures penetrate deep into the soil. I have measured soil temperatures at various high elevation sites over the years. Temperatures below 32 F (0 C) rarely penetrate below 10 cm when there is snow cover. When there is no snow cover, temperatures well below 32 F (0 C) penetrate well below 15 cm below the surface of the soil. Depending on the time of year, and other weather conditions, such as desiccating winds, and the plant species, these temperatures can cause a great deal of damage. I am sure that many that gardeners in Northern Europe and snowier countries and zones are very aware of these challenging gardening situations.

Hopefully all in snow country will have plentiful snow cover this winter to protect their gardens.

[Leena]

Thank you Robert.
I don't comment much, because the plants which you grow are strange to me, so I don't have anything to say about them, but I like the landscapes in the mountains and what you tell about how it is evolving and how plants are responding to changing climate. You have so vast amount of plants to grow over there. Also your own hybridizing is interesting.

In the spring you expressed an interest in the Genus “Dodecatheon” (lumped into the Genus Primula here in California). Are you continuing to trial plants of this Genus in your garden?

Well yes, I have some Dodecatheons  grown from seeds from Kris from Canada, so they have been hardy also here. Unfortunately I mixed up some of the seedlings and now I'm not sure which is which. I hope in time I can clear this and be able to identify what I grow! At least when white D.pulchellum flowers (hopefully next year) I can tell how pulchellum is different from jeffreyi (if there are differences in height or in flowers). So far pulchellum, meadia and possibly jeffrey and amethystinum (if it is true) have been hardy here. Actually much hardier than many Primulas. It might also be a matter of my soil, not so much temperatures, why I have trouble growing many Primulas, but anyway those Dodecatheons seem to grow quite well (I hope these are not the famous last words).

Like you wrote, it isn't always the low temperatures which are bad, if there is snow cover. Worse have been warmer periods in the middle of winter when snow has melted, but ground is still frozen and it rains and then freezes and rains and freezes. This has happened more these past years when climate is changing. Also when it rains a lot in autumn just before winter is bad in my clay soil, and I should make more effort to make higher raised beds.