Different autumn color

Yesterday I posted about some of the last remaining blooms in my garden, adding their spots of color as only flowers can.

Today it's a look at the "classic" autumn colors provided by one part of my garden, mainly due to the grasses. This, I hope, shows how it all blends together and creates a warm, wonderful view.

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There's not too much to say, other than it's the part of my garden I call my "prairie" -- lots of different grasses, some wildflowers, other non-prairie plants mixed in because they work (like lavender, catmint, and a few species of agastache), set against a backdrop of bamboo. My fenced veggie garden/disaster area is in the background.

Switchgrass: Panicum virgatum 'Heavy Metal'

Prairie dropseed: Sporobolus heterolepsis

The Salvia coccinea dominate here right now, but not in a bad way.

I love the way that the grasses get so colorful -- reds, yellows, oranges, greens all mixed together -- but it's a fleeting phase, as the colors quickly fade to brown:

Here's a look at the whole area. Click the image to get a nice big version so you can see more detail:

I'll have to annotate this photo to point out all of the different plants here as suggested by a reader (thanks GrowingHabit!), but that sounds like a good project for a cold wintry day's post. If you have any questions about specific plants right now, ask in the comments.

Note: Since we had our first hard freeze last night, the garden looks much different already. These photos were taken 5 days ago.

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