Every year fall seemingly arrives when we have several consecutive cool mornings in the far western mountains of North Carolina. Only fall isn’t really here, the luscious refreshing temperatures are only a tease. Before you know it summer is back with a vengeance bringing with it high humidity and temps in the upper 80s and low 90s.
The recent hurricane named Nate brought what felt like the muggiest weather of the summer to me. Maybe it wasn’t all that bad, maybe it was just that we’d had a cool spell that made me believe fall of the year had really arrived.
One evening this week as I walked up to Granny’s front porch after work I noticed her mums were laying in the yard instead of standing at attention like they were a few short days ago.
Granny’s are old timey mums. They grow tall and leggy and they fall down to sprawl in the grass from the weight of their blooms. It’s almost as if their cheery faces arrive to spit in the eye of cooler weather; but quickly give up the good fight and surrender to fall’s cooler temperatures by falling prostrate on the faded grass of a dying summer.
According to the Frank C. Brown Collection of NC Folklore, the flowers used to be called White and Yellow Octobers in North Carolina.
As I stepped over Granny’s mums again today I thought to myself “No wonder the weather man is forecasting temps in the 30s for next week, fall of the year must almost be here for real because Granny’s mums are on the ground.”
In the future if Granny’s mums aren’t lying on the ground I’ll know the cool seductive temperatures are only a tease from fall and that it’ll be at least a few more weeks before fall of the year arrives for good.
Tipper
I have an oldtimey mum that is a pale lavender. It was given to me by a friend a few years ago. I planted it near the front fence. It fell over this week and it will be colder by the middle of next week, down to 31. I love that these mums just keep growing and spreading their beautiful flowers.
We’ve had really muggy weather in central Virginia this past week too, as a result of Nate. We got some much needed rain, but the air was so heavy you could cut it with a knife. Next week is supposed to be cooler, thank goodness.
We had beautiful mums aplenty in our flowerbeds for about 3 years. Then last Spring, none of them came up. I wonder why.
Fall is my favorite time of the year. There’s the leaves and cooler temps, of course, but I swear, you can almost feel nature slowing down around you, readying for he nice long rest of Winter.
God bless.
RB
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Reckon there’s any plant nurseries that sell these mums?
“They grow tall and leggy and they fall down to sprawl in the grass from the weight of their blooms. It’s almost as if their cheery faces arrive to spit in the eye of cooler weather; but quickly give up the good fight and surrender to fall’s cooler temperatures by falling prostrate on the faded grass of a dying summer.”
Now, if that poetic, ain’t nothin is!! Not just a picture in words but the whole video!
Tipper,
Granny’s old timey white and yellow mums are beautiful! My oldest daughter has lots of flowers around her house in Chapel Hill. Just the other day on the phone, she told me about seeing a Praying Mantis and she told Ellie and Annabelle to get outside and take a look at that creature, while she got her camera. In just a minute she heard both girls screaming at what they saw. The Praying Mantis had caught a Bumble Bee and was having himself a tasty treet. Lauralea said he looked at her as if he was smiling, saying “boy, this is Good!”
I bet she’d like some old-timey seed. One time before my garden was turned over, I dug her a whole box of wild Easter lilies. The next year she told me how beautiful they were. …Ken
I know it’s fall at my house when these giant spiders spin their webs in every corner of my front porch. I don’t mind them much as they catch a lot of flying pest especially stink bugs! Of course, I name them all Charlotte 🙂
Many blessings on the day!
They seem to be their own metaphor for Autumn as they “fall” to the ground.
Wonder if they grow in Central Texas?
The seasons ease into each other and overlap such that it is really hard to draw a line between them. In the onset of fall I tend to watch for the asters blooming and for clear, dry air with low humidity. I wonder why we haven’t come up with names for these ‘between times’? I think they could each be said to last about a month; spring-summer, summer-fall and fall-winter. Kinda like somebody came up with ‘mizzle’ which lies between fog and drizzle.
This summer has made me wish for fall to hurry and arrive. There has been no breaks from mowing every five to seven days, making me welcome my least favorite time of year for a change. My friend said it’s hard to think about Thanksgiving being a little over a month away with these temperatures staying in the 80’s. The persimmon seeds are showing big shovels this year and the wooly worms are black. Bring it on!
It’s nice to see the old style flowers growing like the White and Yellow Octobers, instead the perfect hybridized things we see most of the time. All perfect height, color and thickness.
Fall is indeed coming but I’ll bet we have a few more warm days before it’s it’s full blown Fall.