Trees and Pumpkins

Here in Eastern Pennsylvania, the colors of autumn are in full swing. We are having a warm October, which means my garden is still ripening red tomatoes, and the pumpkins have their second wind: new flowers and fruits appear every day.

We’ve pulled about 30+ pumpkins off our plants this season. Early in September we began decorating around the farm with pumpkins: under trees, on doorsteps, atop and beneath fenceposts, and leaning against sheds. Our hope is that a handful of seeds survive the mid-winter raid by the squirrels, providing us with another year of pumpkins for next season.

These two are beneath the Eastern white pine next to the house – I’ll let you know next spring whether they manage to resprout!

Course by Color

Last weekend I captured some 260 pictures at Longwood Gardens. This left me in a bit of a quandary as to where to begin sharing here at Arboreality.

So, I decided to start at the beginning, and just walk you through the gardens and forests as I did.

Pumpkins adorned the gardens to celebrate the season, and this pumpkin display was just plain awesome. I know that the kids visiting the gardens felt just as I did.

The first tree pictures I took were of the Yew tree, of the family Taxaceae. I believe this to be a common Yew tree (Taxus baccata), but owing to my excitement, I failed to take the time to look at the tag.

Throughout the gardens, the trees, plants, and flowers are marked with tags identifying them by common and scientific names, families, and sometimes other bits of information. Now, if I’d been smart about things, I would have taken a picture of each tag along with each tree to create a sort of catalog.

Unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately) I was so incredibly smitten with all the green, growing life around me that I often forgot to take the time to look at tags, let alone photograph them.

Which leads us to our first mystery tree from Longwood Gardens, which I’m sure is not a mystery to anyone who took the time to read the tag. Certainly you can see how I was distracted by these spotted, cherry-like fruits!

As always, if you know what we're looking at - don't be shy! Tell us!