Lovely combination

A wild, wet and windy day today, which is a great pity as we're having an excellent October so far as autumn colour goes and it's all being blown away now!

This combination jumped out at me this morning though - the white stems of Betula jacquemontii (possibly more correctly Betula utilis var. occidentalis, but then I'm a stickler for correct names!) which comes from the western end of the Himalayas. Those from the eastern end have beautiful chestnut bark.

Growing around it is an unnamed deciduous azalea cultivar - some of these colour beautifully in autumn.