Fall color maple
The impact of fall color on garden design hit home for me in our first season here 11 years ago, when I became aware of its absence. Aside from half a dozen sugar maples along our laneway, there weren’t many trees or shrubs on our 10 acres, and I missed all the reds, scarlets and burgundies that I admired in my old city neighborhood.
Since then, we have remedied the situation with scores of trees and shrubs. Here’s a fall color tour of some of my favorite woody plants:
Mariesi doublefile viburnum, eastern redbud and cotoneaster
Limelight hydrangea in shrub border with Palibin lilacs and Diablo ninebark. Background trees are ashes in neighboring tree farm
Sumacs surround old silo
The shrubs in the pictures above all live in our shrub border, which functions as a barrier between the garden and the surrounding tree farm, and also our “service” area (with its big mulch and compost piles).
This old silo is all that remains of the barn site, which was used when this property was part of a larger farm.
I presume that Mother Nature planted the sumacs around it and that a previous owner planted the Scotch pine. The sumacs are stunning in the fall, as seen here from our pond.
Blackgum or sourgum (Nyssa sylvatica)
Serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis)
Nyssa sylvatica, above, (also called black tupelo) is a tree native to the eastern half of the U.S. and parts of extreme southern Ontario. It’s not very common around here, and it was hard to find. I treasure its spectacular fall display. It’s just about six feet tall now, but will grow much bigger, about 30 to 50 feet tall and 20 to 30 feet wide.
Other native shrubs that I love in fall are serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis), which turns a fiery orange, and dwarf fothergilla (Fothergilla gardenii), which dazzles with a variety of intense colors in a good season.
Both offer great flowers in spring, and serviceberry also produces edible fruit that’s appeals as much to me as it does to the birds. Fothergilla is an attractive, troublefree plant that fits the bill when you need a small shrub that just grows three or four feet tall.
Fothergilla gardenii
Northern spicebush (Lindera benzoin), sometimes called allspice (shown below) is another native shrub that should be better known.
It is touted as a forsythia alternative for spring flowers, and is also a butterfly plant, acting as host to the spicebush swallowtail.
I have one, but the flowers have been subtle to this point, but to be fair, my shrub was quite small until recently. However, in fall it blows me away with its fabulous golden yellow foliage. Spicebush grows about five feet tall and is hardy to Zone 4.
Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)
Almost here: Fall starts officially in a couple of days, and a hint of color is just beginning to show. We got a touch of light frost overnight (the first of the season), and that should help bring the show on.
We had a very wet summer, but September has brought three weeks of dry, warm weather (not a drop of rain all month thus far!). What the effect will be on the fall foliage this year remains to be seen, but as always, I’m looking forward to the show.
Part of fall color series: Part I Ornamental Grasses
Your turn: What are your favorite plants for fall color?
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Yvonne .. You certainly have brought such colour and contrast with these different trees and shrubs .. I have just put in Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry this Spring after researching what smallish (because of the size of our back garden) tree, would bring intense colour in the Fall .. it is very young yet, but I know it will be beautiful along with our Pacific Sunset Maple .. we are still plagued with ‘black tar spot” in the neighborhood, but it seems to be back down a little in its cycle. It is a nasty, but at least not severely damaging, problem to deal with.
I too love Ninebark .. Summer Wine, ( and the new Loblaw’s signature Ninebark mix “Satin Chocolate”, will be amazing in Autumn. Cotoneaster,”Burning Bush”, Little Henry Sweet Spire, Southern Bush-Honeysuckle is a new one I found with even amazing colour pre-Autumn. Royal Purple Smokebush along with Golden Spirit also so eye catching !
This is a long comment Yvonne, sorry : ) .. I just wanted to say even in small garden areas, such as I have .. we can jam pack them in awesome colour and texture contrasts that shine in the Fall !
Joy
What lovely photos. Being from the Deep South, I don’t get to see colors like this when autumn arrives, but I sure wish we did.
Jan
Always Growing
Thanks Jan and Joy. No worries Joy: long comments with good plant suggestions are most welcome. No need to say sorry.
These pix are yummy. I had sumachs literally taking over my property, so had to get rid of many of those. They were my only real fall colour, so I’ve been trying to add some controllable trees and shrubs for fall colour. These are some great ideas. I have an amelanchier but it never seems to be too stunningly red. Maybe it’s in too shady a spot. Planted a red maple, “Autumn Blaze” and a burning bush, but they are still small.
The doublefile viburnum gets this red? Gorgeous. I bought one this spring but it died in the pot for some strange reason (almost overnight!) before I could plant it.
Definitely want that sourgum. Stunning colour.
I’m still just getting to know what I have here Yvonne, but I do have a mature Blackgum tree. It is just beginning to turn but I worry about it. There are some dead branches and it seems to have gotten a tent caterpillar nest on it. I’m a bit overwhelmed at this point just trying to figure out the plants and the bugs that go along with them!!
Your place is just stunning and so inspirational!! I just love it!
As you document, in a temperate zone there are lots of choices for fall colour. The most stunning I have ever seen, was when I was in Canada for the first time and we went to Algonquin park in the month of October – so the sugar maple is one of my favourites.
I’ll have to add more trees and shrubs to my garden. Lene
Where did you eventually find the Nyssa sylvatica and the Lindera benzoin? Did you have to buy seeds and start from seed? If so, where did you get the seeds? I would like to try these, but I don’t know where to even start looking.
Hi Steve: I found Lindera benzoin through the University of Guelph Arboretum plant sale. Here’s link to next year’s Arboretum plant sale, and the Nyssa sylvatica through Connon Nurseries in Waterdown (near Hamilton/Burlington). See this link for more details.
Connon’s probably has both plants or could order them for you if they don’t have them in stock. Here is the link to Connon’s home page. Good luck! Yvonne