What's Blooming: November

It's been unseasonably warm the past few weeks and the fall foliage is loving it. Everything is in peak color right now. Here are some of the great looking trees in the neighborhood:

As for my pots and containers - not much is blooming anymore, save for a few hardy mums. But the foliage on the hostas and the ferns still look attractive:

And this poor container - it was planed with lovely fall colored pansies. But the silly squirrels keep digging in the soil thinking they have buried some food treasure. I had been dutiful about putting down "squirrel-be-gone" repellent, but at this point, I've given up trying to keep them away. Ah well!

Spooky Halloween Plants

Halloween is just around the corner and with a little imagination, everything can look a little spooky these days...

An Evil Eye?

(or just Rubeckia hirta)

Dried up brains?

(or just a fungus)

Long, sticky fingers of a witch? 

(or just an ornamental pepper)

Hairy arms reaching out to strangle?

(or just an old vine on a tree trunk)

A magic electricity ball?

(or just pine needles)

Pimpled, decaying flesh?

(or fungus on a tree stump)

Sweat on the green monster's face?

(or morning dew on a leaf)

 

Bloody fingers?

(or just Amaranthus)

Skeletal fingers, reaching out to grab you?

Maybe.

Mwahahaha! Happy Halloween!

A Spooky Halloween Tree

One of the spookiest trees out there, in my humble opinion, is the Black Locust tree (Robinia pseudoacacia).

It's trunk is covered in thick, deep furrows (grooves) making it look sinister to the touch.

In addition, the branches are gnarled and twisted, which can create an eerie silhouette on a leafless, winter evening.

The Black Locust tree can grow to a height of 50 feet if given the right amount of space.

A tree that large is too big for the inside of my house.

So instead, we decided to make our own spooky looking tree, complete with spiders and monsters:

I found some twigs in my yard and had my children paint them black. I stuck them into a pumpkin container filled with rocks and covered the base with artificial black leaves.
Then we created monster heads - some have five eyes, some only have one! The kids had a great time creating different monster variations. We added a few store bought spiders and cats to the tree as a finishing touch. I think it looks rather spooky, don't you?