🍂 Beyond the numbers of tax and finance, the seasons keep turning. This one is for anyone who loves nature and a little poetry.
Before We Begin
Autumn gives way to winter, a light wind passes, and the year writes its loveliest lines in flowers opening and leaves falling.
People say autumn is a season for missing someone. I would rather believe it is a season for meeting — a red leaf, a breath of osmanthus, a gentler version of yourself.
This little note records ten plants that bloom or fade between autumn and winter. With their colours, they tell the story of the season.
1. Ten Colours of Autumn and Winter
| No. | Plant | Colour | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🌸 Cotton tree | Pale pink and rose | Half ardent, half tender |
| 2 | 🍁 Red maple | Red woven with gold | Burning with life’s brightest flame |
| 3 | 🌿 Ginkgo | Golden | A fairy-tale carpet on the ground |
| 4 | 🌺 Bougainvillea | Magenta and pink-purple | The brightest sight on the street |
| 5 | 🌼 Osmanthus | Gold and pale yellow | A drifting scent that softens the day |
| 6 | 🌾 Reed | Silvery white and cream | Grey reeds, white dew turning to frost |
| 7 | 💜 Pink trumpet tree | Pink-purple | Quietly ringing in winter’s overture |
| 8 | 💛 Yellow trumpet tree | Bright yellow | A date with gold |
| 9 | 🔴 Red plum | Vivid red | Standing proud in the cold, blooming with resolve |
| 10 | 🤍 Chrysanthemum | Gold and white | Picking chrysanthemums by the fence, the hills in view |
2. Ten Small Stories
1. Cotton Tree — “Half ardent, half tender”
Colour: Pale pink woven with rose
Season: Autumn into winter
Clouds of pale pink and rose gather along the branches, quietly dressing the city streets — half ardent, half tender.
Dreamlike enough to make you slow down and stay a while.
Walk beneath one: look up and there are blossoms everywhere, look down and the ground is scattered with petals. A gust of wind turns them slowly as they fall, like little letters the season has posted.
2. Red Maple — “Burning with life’s brightest flame”
Colour: Red, yellow and green together
Season: Late autumn
A great canopy of red, gold and green holds up the clear autumn sky; on the weathered branches of an old tree burns the warmest, most brilliant flame of the year.
When the autumn wind rises, the whole city seems dressed in gold. Sunlight passes through the leaves and leaves a soft warmth behind.
Every red leaf holds a story; every maple is a poem. Stand beneath one and you can almost hear the year quietly talking to itself about autumn.
3. Ginkgo — “A fairy-tale carpet on the ground”
Colour: Golden
Season: Late autumn
An oil-paper umbrella, a plain blue coat, and a whole tree of gold meeting you by chance.
The fallen leaves lay down a fairy tale of a pavement, and time seems to pause there.
As the year turns, there is always some unexpected surprise at a street corner. Ginkgo leaves are little fans: they fan away the summer heat and fan in the gentleness of autumn.
4. Bougainvillea — “The brightest sight on the street”
Colour: Magenta and pink-purple
Season: Autumn and winter
Magenta and pink-purple climbing over railings and posts — the brightest sight on any street.
It gently colours the hurried steps of passers-by and the unhurried hours. Along the long road every tree wears autumn, and sunlight through the flowers lights the way home.
Bougainvillea asks for little: give it some sun and it glows. With the warmest colours it has, it warms everyone who walks past.
5. Osmanthus — “A drifting scent that softens the day”
Colour: Gold and pale yellow
Season: Autumn
Tiny golden clusters hide among green leaves. They make no show and no noise, yet one thread of fragrance wins over the whole autumn.
On the days osmanthus blooms, even the air tastes sweet. Walking along, a sudden drift of scent arrives, and something in you softens.
Osmanthus cake, osmanthus wine, osmanthus tea — the gentlest taste of autumn has been tucked into these small flowers.
6. Reed — “Grey reeds, white dew turning to frost”
Colour: Silvery white and cream
Season: Late autumn into early winter
“The reeds are grey, the white dew turns to frost; the one I think of is somewhere across the water.” — from an old Chinese poem.
Reeds are the most poetic thing in autumn. They stand by rivers and lakes, swaying in the wind, as if waiting for someone, or saying goodbye to a stretch of time.
Silvery plumes catch a soft light in the evening sun and drift away — like the season’s sigh, and also like a promise for next spring.
7. Pink Trumpet Tree — “Quietly ringing in winter’s overture”
Colour: Pink-purple
Season: Early winter
Pink-purple bells sway against a pale grey sky, gently ringing in the overture of winter.
In the mist and drizzle, a pink-purple dream opens quietly on the branches and brings a kind of calm.
The whole tree is covered in blossom and has almost no leaves. With the purest colour it tells us: winter can be gentle too.
8. Yellow Trumpet Tree — “A date with gold”
Colour: Bright yellow
Season: Late winter into early spring
A whole hillside turns into a sea of bright yellow; the viewing platform fills with people who have come to keep the same golden appointment.
Like its pink cousin, the yellow trumpet tree flowers before it leafs. A tree full of gold is like a fire in winter — warm and bright.
Look up from beneath it and the sky itself is dyed gold. For a moment every worry seems to melt into that colour.
9. Red Plum — “Standing proud in the cold”
Colour: Vivid red
Season: Late winter into early spring
Cold water, thin mist — a winter’s day in the south of the Yangtze is lovely because of you.
Standing before grey tiles and white walls, that vivid red lights up the quiet season, and hope with it.
Plum blossom has always been a favourite of Chinese writers — not because its colour is the brightest, but because it opens in the coldest time. It tells us: the colder it gets, the more beautifully we should live.
10. Chrysanthemum — “Picking chrysanthemums by the fence”
Colour: Gold and white
Season: Late autumn
“Picking chrysanthemums by the eastern fence, I see the southern hills without meaning to.” — Tao Yuanming.
The chrysanthemum is autumn’s hermit. It does not compete with spring flowers; it opens alone in the autumn wind. Its petals fold layer upon layer, as if the whole season had been rolled into the heart of the flower.
Golden ones are warm, white ones are quiet. Either way they say the same thing: when the show is over, what remains is character.
3. One Last Thought
Ten plants, ten colours, ten moods.
From the pale pink cotton tree to the golden ginkgo, from the pink trumpet tree to the red plum that blooms in the cold, nature never stops making things through autumn and winter.
Every falling leaf is a goodbye; every opening flower is a meeting.
Next time you are out walking, slow down and look at the plants beside you. You may find a colour that is exactly the warmth you needed today.
📂 Photo Notes series:
- The Twenty-Four Filial Examples (Chinese)
- The Language of Flowers
- This article: The Colours of Autumn
🍁 Part of: Life · Nature and beauty
Related reading: Tax and finance through the corporate lifecycle
📷 The images are illustrative; the real scenery depends on where and when you go.
💬 Which autumn plant is your favourite? I would be glad to hear your autumn story in the comments.