A Fabulous Fall in Carla’s Garden, Part 1

Happy Friday GPODers!

We’ve been following her garden progress and evolution through much of the growing season, and today Carla Zambelli Mudry in Malvern, Pennsylvania is back to share a fantastic fall update. If you’ve missed them, catch up with her previous 2025 submissions: Carla’s Early Spring Flowers, Carla’s Mid-Spring Flowers and Mid-Spring Foliage, Roses and Clematis Bloom in Carla’s Garden, Carla’s Garden in June, Carla’s Late June Flowers and Foliage, and August in Carla’s Pennsylvania Garden. From the earliest days of spring we’ve seen how her garden evolves through the seasons and the endless flow of rich foliage and abundant blooms that prevents any lull in interest. Despite turbulent weather and dry conditions, the garden beauty keeps on going into the late season, and, depending on your perspective and preferences, gets even more exciting with the changing of the leaves.

All of a sudden it’s November. Enjoy photos from October and the beginning of November throughout my garden.

It’s kind of the end of the growing season. Except we’ll have cooler days and then we’ll have warmer days and the plants are very confused. You will even see some azaleas bloomed again. But in spite of the drought like conditions, because everything is still very dry, even though we’ve had a little bit of rain here and there the colors of fall are beautiful.

Today was the last day of bulb planting. I think I easily did over 500 bulbs all in all. Today was planting bulbs for my ongoing stinzenplanten project. Miniature daffodils (naturalizing) and species tulips all in the lawn. I am somewhat obsessed with the old European bulb lawn of it all. So I planted a little over 350 more bulbs today. It’s super easy to do you just kind of wedge up sections of the lawn like you’re cutting turf or sod or even peat. I plant in like oblong shapes and circles and then I just popped the bulbs in, tucked the lawn back into place and bulbs are done.

There is still more to do! Enjoy the fall colors!

Carla Zambelli Mudry

Carla’s woodland landscape is a lush oasis for most of the year, but the color that erupts in fall is show stopping. Here, a carved wooden owl presides over a collage of red, yellow and deep green leaves.

While foliage takes center stage in the late season, there are still plenty of plants that add flowers to Carla’s landscape right up until frost. A bright white camellia is the perfect contrast to all of the fiery foliage colors that surround.

A bright red laceleaf Japanese maple (Acer palmatum var. dissectum, Zone 5–9) is one of many foliage highlights in Carla’s garden, where I can imagine it is living up to the famous line of poetry displayed in front of it.

Here is one of those reblooming azaleas that Carla mentioned in her intro. For bright white blooms this late in the season I would assume it’s an Encore® variety, potentially Autumn Angel® (Rhododendron ‘Robleg’, Zone 7–9), which traditionally have a very long bloom period. However, it’s still a surprise to see another wave of flowers this late into the year!

Carla has made strategic plant selections so her garden is never lacking interest. When some plants are slowing down for the season, others are just preparing for the next performance. This paperbush (Edgeworthia chrysantha, Zone 7–10) is just starting to lose its leaves, but buds have already begun forming that hold the promise of late winter blooms.

Another fantastic shot that captures the abundant layers of color in Carla’s landscape. The foliage is fabulous, but I also love the tortoise sculpture that is lurking amongst the leaves.

A look at the spring bulb planting that Carla has done this fall. If you’ve seen Carla’s submissions from early spring (Early Spring Flowers in Carla’s Garden, Part 1 and Part 2), you’ll recognize how amazingly abundant her bulb displays are. I’m already looking forward to seeing photos these naturalized clumps at their peak bloom!

Even though Carla’s garden is still full of planted beauty, a handful of cool and colorful pumpkins and squash add another pop of color and festivity to her landscape.

Another bloomer that keeps persisting into autumn is Carla’s Princess Diana clematis (Clematis texensis ‘Princess Diana’, Zone 4–9). Carla has showcased her incredible collection of clematis before (Roses and Clematis Bloom in Carla’s Garden), and her diverse assortment allows for a gorgeous succession of blooms throughout the growing season.

Carla sent such a generous batch of gorgeous fall photos that we’ll be returning to Pennsylvania to see more of her fall highlights on Monday. I hope everyone enjoys their weekends and joins us again next week.

And if you find yourself scrolling through your fall garden photos over the next few days (maybe while tucking into some Thanksgiving leftovers), consider selecting a batch to share with Garden Photo of the Day! We’d all love to hear and see how your landscape has looked so far in the late season. Follow the directions below to submit photos via email, or send me a DM on Instagram: @agirlherdogandtheroad.

We want to see YOUR garden!

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5–10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

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