First Frost

We just barely made it into Autumn before the first frost arrived.  Forecast temperatures for Sunday morning were 40 degrees, but in rural areas it’s easy to be another 10 degrees cooler.  I found heavy frost covering everything when I came out at daybreak.  Gray-headed Coneflower is normally an early summer bloomer, but a few bloomed especially late this year.   A cap of ice is not a normal addition to these flowers.

This frost wasn’t just a light covering across the top of the vegetation.  The cold air filtered down to the base of the plants and put a layer of frost on even the more protected lower leaves.

Many plants will take a frost or two with little suffering, but this is generally a sign that the growing season is coming to a close.

The Gray Goldenrod will be a little bit duller after the frost melts away.  The yellow will still be bright, but somewhat subdued from its prefrost glow.  The temperatures will warm over the next few days, but the change in the goldenrod flowers will still make me feel cold.

Instead of forming intricate crystals, some of the frost began as dew and then froze into balls or lumps. 

With leaves fringed in ice, the Agrimony leaves make a nice display.  I think frost on plants is just one of those things that people like to photograph.  I don’t know how many hundreds of frost pictures I have cluttering up my photo archive.

Frost is a signal for these Blackberry leaves to hurry up and drop.  It would be nice if the thorns were also shed each fall.  These plants gave me some great scratches last winter and will probably do the same this year.  The worst part is that they never produced any berries this summer.

New England Aster has just begun to bloom and will not be slowed by a bit of frost.  As the goldenrods dim, the aster will become more noticeable.

The frost was quick to disappear as the sun moved above the tree line.  It was a short window in which to get some photos, but I think I got all I needed.