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Fall Color Strategies
by Sue Goetz CPH. The Creative Gardener / www.thecreativegardener.com
As August keeps the garden heated up, it may be hard to think about fall planting. So let’s just rephrase that to call it fall "planning."
In any season, as you design elements in the garden, it is important to think of the entire year, not just spring and summer when the garden seems to get the most attention. The richness of color and textures can be extended into fall with an abundance of plant choices. This season is one of the best times to get the beauty of rich oranges, reds and coppers as well as the attractiveness of berries, bark, branching silhouettes and changing leaves, mixed borders and permanent plantings.
Trees are the architecture and bone structure of a garden. The romance of spring blossoms unfolding as the months warm up seem to come to mind most.
Now, we prepare for fall, the season of color when many deciduous trees prepare for the cool-down and their natural changes can liven up any garden. The classic trees for fall color are the Maples (Acer sp.). Choices are endless from the large stature of the Norway Maple to the elegance in a shady under story with a Vine Maple (Acer circinatum). This Pacific Northwest native illuminates golden in the fall. A walk through the nursery will also find other maples whose names scream fall color: Autumn Blaze (Acer x freemanii), October Glory (Acer rubrum) with the favorite being the Coral Bark (Acer j. “Sango Kaku”), which has rich color in the young branches for a colorful silhouette in the winter.
Aside from the maples, look for fabulous color from Sweet Gum (Liquidambar), Parrotia persica, Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum), Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum) and “Autumn Gold” Ginkgo.
For evergreen textures, go for gold or bronzing leaves and needles to add permanence among deciduous plants. Great finds include Cryptomeria “Sekkan Sugi,” Plume Cryptomeria “Yoshino” or “Elegans Aurea," Golden Hinoki Cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa “Aurea”) and Fernspray Gold (Chamaecyparis obtusa).
The next layer of color in the fall is achieved with shrubs. From evergreen to deciduous, shrubs add the structural designs that make up the garden at eye level and lower, plus they enhance the stature of large surrounding trees. Choices for colorful leaves include Doublefile Viburnum (Viburnum plicatum tomentosum), Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus), Fothergilla, “Henry’s Garnet” Sweetspire (Itea virginica) Oakleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia).
The berry producers add a whole new texture and element to fall mixed borders as jeweled branches emerge; some choices include Rock Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster horizontalis), Shrub cotoneaster (Cotoneaster lacteus), Beautyberry (Calicarpa bodinieri), Firethorn (Pyracantha sp.) and Amelanchier “Autumn Brilliance."
Don’t give up on perennials after July; there are many that make a spectacular showing late summer into fall and until the first frost. Tuck them into mixed borders and potted gardens. Fall favorites include, Sedum Autumn Joy” “Brilliant” or “Vera Jameson” (Sedum sp.), Aster Frikarti “Monch”, Japanese Anemone, Eupatorium “Chocolate”, (E. rugosum), Rudbeckia “Goldstrum”, Plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides) and Hardy Cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium.
Additional colors of fall can be added in unexpected places. Get late color in potted gardens with miniature Japanese Maples, Ornamental grasses and Heucheras. Color up arbors and trellises without the fade of roses and summer clematis. Vining choices include Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) or Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) and Red leaf grape (Vitis vinifera “Purpurea”).
A late season garden can be abundant and any well-planned landscape will look good in all seasons. Take a drive to local nurseries and public gardens in the later parts of summer and early fall to take notes and purchase additions to the garden that will stage a show as the days get shorter and fall begins.
Susan Goetz, CPH
www.thecreativegardener.com
The Creative Gardener, Gig Harbor, WA
7/06
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