the party is over

the mums on the front step lasted a surprising long time past first frost. i learned recently that the any woodland plants that still have green leaves are all non-native–that all the native plants die back in october and early november. once i learned that little factoid, it was surprising obvious how differently the non-native plants behaved in autumn than the native plants. it became so easy to see the difference. mums are not native. there was no preparation for winter–no putting out seeds nor pulling back into rhizomes or corms. instead, this mum simply froze, in place, as is. it had no idea what was coming.

spent mum