More fall color - wow!

As the leaves of the deciduous plants around me lose their chlorophyll and develop anthocyanin pigments, we're treated to a few days or weeks of brilliant color displays. (Or maybe just dull browns, depending on the tree.)

This Japanese barberry jumped out at me yesterday while I was testing my newest vintage camera lens, and its colors really amazed me. I don't remember this plant looking so spectacular last year, or even just a few days ago. Is it the warm, dry weather we've had after the hard freeze last week? I don't know, but I like it!

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Since the colors can be so fleeting, I loaded up on photos of it. Although they would probably make a decent post by themselves, I realized that to make these photos really jump out at you the way the plant jumped out at me I'll need to supply some contrast. Therefore I've added some shots of other colors to help balance things out, and interspersed them with the barberry images. 

(If you have any questions about what plants are depicted here, please ask in the comments!)

It almost seems like there's more color in the garden right now than there was when everything was still growing! I'm glad for these intense end-of-season colors though. Would you prefer a garden that just sort of fizzles out as the cold weather arrives, or one that goes out with a bang?

I'm voting for "bang".

Note that Japanese barberry is listed as an invasive plant in many parts of the country. In Missouri it's listed as a "future invasive", which means that it has the potential to become a problem here. My plant hasn't flowered yet, so it hasn't contributed to the problem yet. If it starts flowering (and producing seeds) I will most likely remove it.