It’s official: the autumn equinox falls at 21:18 this evening, so we’ve only got a few hours left of the summer before it is, undeniably, autumn.

In the garden the first signs are already here: slowly, surely, everything is turning red, orange and yellow on their way to brown.

Ribes sanguineum ‘White Icicle’

Hydrangea quercifolia…

…and inexplicably the (previously white) flowers on this have turned a purplish red too

Blueberry ‘Bluecrop’

Amelanchier canadensis (couldn’t help noticing the birds have already snaffled all the berries though: harrumph)

Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’: the green pearls which follow the flowers are now peppercorn seedheads

More seedheads taking over the baton from the flowers: here Rudbeckia ‘Herbstsonne’

Ah, but it’s not all crispy browns and yellows. Autumn is berry season: and how much more colourful can you get than this: Viburnum opulus ‘Compactum’ (a bit of a cheat this one as the berries have been there since July)

Rosa pimpinellifolia
(another cheat: the hips have been here since summer too but will last long into the winter)

Pyracantha ‘Saphyr Orange’

…and there are pheasant berries on my pheasant berry (Leycesteria formosa): these are the ones high up on the plant, as the chicken has already nicked the ones at the bottom.

I have more to come: two other pyracantha, ‘Saphyr Jaune’ and ‘Saphyr Rouge’ are only just berrying up and haven’t coloured yet, and I have an Increasingly Large Pumpkin which promises to turn a satisfyingly autumnal shade of orange any minute.

So this is autumn? Bring it on!