Autumn has its own charms
in the garden. Fall doesn't mark an end to the displays,
if you choose plants with a variety of ornamental characteristics,
including foliage, color and -- yes -- flowers.
Here are suggestions to help your garden
sail through autumn (or the first hard freeze, whichever
comes first). Make sure to choose these or other plants
in these categories, and you'll be sure to have a garden
that stands out even as the days get shorter.
Evergreen is always in style; it offers
a year-round presence and usually gives you a break in
the maintenance department. Try these out as garden denizens
that work well in autumn, as well as other seasons:
Japanese holly (Ilex crenata) is
so dependable as to be almost overlooked, but it would
be greatly missed if it disappeared. The small, matte green
leaves provide a fine texture, and its many cultivars are
useful in almost any design situations.
'Mariesii' has oddly congested foliage
on an upright plant. It looks great as a small specimen
among flowering plants in all seasons, and it often is
a bonsai subject.
'Northern Beauty' grows into a pleasantly
rounded shape and has shiny leaves. The leaves of 'Convexa'
-- a fine substitute for boxwood as a low, trimmed hedge
-- are curved under just slightly.
Muehlenbeckia (wire vine) used to
be a basket stuffer, but gardeners are discovering it serves
well as a ground cover or single mound of interest.
Its stems are thin and look like a bunch
of wire that you've crumpled up. Small, glossy green leaves
abound. It stays looking neat and tidy no matter what the
season and takes full sun to part shade without breaking
stride.
In late spring, wire vine might be your
solution to hiding bulb foliage -- not those big, floppy
tulip leaves, but certain daffodils and definitely crocus.
All year, autumn included, it provides a complicated, visually
fascinating note.
Loropetalum chinense and its various
cultivars are deciduous in colder climates but can take
a normal maritime Pacific Northwest fall and winter. Loropetalum is
called the fringe flower, because of its strappy flowers
-- white, pink or bright magenta, depending on the cultivar
you have -- that appear in abundance in spring and occasionally
throughout the rest of the year.
The flowers are lovely, but in fall it's
the green or purple leaves on arching branches that make
the 4- to 5-foot shrub a valuable component of the garden,
either in the ground or in a pot. Loropetalum is
a member of the witch hazel family, although it doesn't
give off the fragrance that those winter-blooming shrubs
do.
Try 'Firedance' or 'Purple Majesty,' which
have red-purple leaves, or 'Razzleberri,' which begins
burgundy and ages to olive green.
The smoke bush (Cotinus) is a good
way to incorporate fall color. It's a vital part of the
mixed border throughout summer, and it continues to deliver
the goods in autumn when it takes on hot orange and scarlet
hues.
This looks fabulous on both the green-leaved
kind, such as Cotinus 'Pink Champagne,' and the
purple-leaved varieties, such as 'Grace.' Smoke bushes
leaf out late in spring, making you wonder if they'll ever
start growing, but they color up late in the fall, helping
to extend the autumn show.
You don't have a Japanese maple in your
garden? You're in luck -- October and November are great
months to select an Acer palmatum for your garden,
because you can see the tree's fall color. Seedling Japanese
maples are available at just about any nursery, and they
are less expensive than named cultivars. Because their
genes are a result of fruit-basket mix-up, you don't know
how intense the fall color will be until you see it.
If you want to be almost sure of a foliar
show, go for a named cultivar, such as 'Shishigashira'
-- the lion's mane or lion's head maple. It holds off turning
golden orange until well into November.
Mukdenia rossii 'Crimson Fans' is
an uncommon perennial with good color for shade. It reddens
up in summer, but the color lasts through autumn. Plant
it with heucheras and green ground covers such as Epimedium.
Flowers are still an option for the fall
garden, including the tried and true.
The grocery-store shelves and nursery tables
are filled with big, blooming chrysanthemums -- with good
reason. They come in autumnal colors of warm purple, rusty
red, golden yellow and are a perfect accompaniment to a
collection of dried but vibrant leaves -- a quick porch
or table arrangement.
But can you keep them for next year? Maybe.
These plants are put on the fast track
to provide autumn color and not necessarily grown with
an eye toward years of enjoyment. But still, you could
plant them out after they finish flowering (those that
you keep in the house for some fall color probably won't
make it).
Chrysanthemums have two things going against
them: They leaf out late, so it's easy to forget that they
are even in the garden -- until in April, when you begin
digging a hole for a new plant. Oops.
Also, they want to bloom earlier than they
should. Who wants chrysanthemums flowering in the garden
in June? To make sure they will give you that autumn touch,
pinch them back twice during the growing season -- on Mother's
Day and July Fourth (that's an easy way to remember). That
will give you bushier plants and hold off flowering until
you need it.
Sweet little pansy faces are everywhere,
too. But too many of them are large-flowered varieties,
and the flowers are so heavy they can barely hold their
heads up. Much better is to select a small variety, such
as those in the Sorbet series (pastel shades) or golden
'Tiger Eyes.'
Buy 4-inch pots that already have flowers
on them; they are available throughout fall and winter.
They won't put on a lot of new growth (hence the necessity
of buying plants already in flower), but will look cheerful
and then go to town next spring.
If or when a freeze comes this winter,
your pansies will look dead as a doornail. Pay them no
mind, and they will perk up when the temperature gets above
freezing.
It's inevitable that someone will notice
the evergreen plant with yellow daisy flowers blooming
through fall and winter in pots around town. It's Euryops,
a South African native. It's often found as standards --
the plants look like little flower trees on a trunk.
Euryops blooms best in a protected
area -- up close to the house -- and in full sun. Unless
we get a hard freeze, you can expect it to last well into
winter.
The African daisies (Osteospermum)
continue to flower and by now are large, round shrubby-looking
plants about 2 to 3 feet high and wide. They just might
overwinter, but even if they don't make it, the long blooming
season makes them must-have annuals.
Flower colors include cream ('Buttermilk'),
purple ('Sunny Sonja'), orange and yellow ('Orange Symphony';
'Lemon Symphony'); many have a blue or purple-blue center,
which adds an intriguing appearance to the daisy flowers.
You could make a whole garden out of these
10 plants, a garden that would look good for more than
one season, but certainly a garden that would shine through
autumn.
10 for fall
Japanese holly (Ilex crenata)
wire vine (Muehlenbeckia)
Loropetalum chinense
smoke bush (Cotinus)
Japanese maple (Acer palmatum)
Mukdenia rossii
Chrysanthemum
Pansy
Euryops
African daisy (Osteospermum) |
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