Colorful Fall Foliage
- • Cover vegetable plants with bird netting to keep quail and other birds away.
- • Broadcast wildflower seeds and annual ryegrass on hillsides to stop erosion and give you lots of flowers next spring.
- • Spray citrus and other tender plants with Cloud Cover to give them some protection from frosts.
- • Plant Paperwhite Narcissus in pots for Christmas gifts.
- • Primroses and pansies will add instant color to pots and flower beds. Combine them with bulbs for an extended season of bloom.
Reds and Yellows Galore
What a beautiful fall we are having and what a fine opportunity to choose shrubs and trees that will decorate your garden each year with their bright, warm colors.
Some unusual shrubs are showing their colors right now. Fothergilla ‘Mount Airy’ is a deciduous shrub that grows 4-5’ tall and is prized for its profuse spring flowering of bottlebrush-like spikes of fragrant white flowers, and excellent yellow, orange and red-purple fall color.
Smoketrees, Cotinus coggygria, are multi-stemmed shrubs that grows 10-15’ tall. After the flowers they are covered with fluffy, hazy, smoke-like puffs. In fall the bluish-green leaves turn bright red. The variety ‘Royal Purple’ has dark purple leaves throughout the summer and fall.
Spiraeas are a large family of shrubs with tiny flowers in clusters. The spring-blooming varieties, like ‘Bridal Wreath’, have long arching branches covered with delicate white flowers. In the fall they are again colorful as the leaves turn a red-orange-yellow fall color.
We have many fine trees to choose from for fall color. Start with the Japanese maples, small trees that are beautiful in every season. Depending on the variety, leaves may turn to bright yellow, soft apricot, or brilliant scarlet. Look for trees now that provide you with just the look that you want.
Ginkgo is commonly called maidenhair tree, which refers to the resemblance of the fan-shaped leaves to maidenhair fern leaflets. In fall the leaves turn bright golden yellow leaves and are spectacular when backlit by early morning or late afternoon sun. The leaves drop all at once forming a golden carpet around the tree.
Some of our edible plants in addition to producing delicious fruit, will also add color to your landscape in the fall. Blueberries are deciduous shrubs that typically grows 5-8′ tall. After you enjoy their nutritious berries in the summer, you can watch their leaves turn attractive shades of red in the fall.
Pomegranates celebrate the end of the season with their bright yellow leaves – a nice contrast to dark green evergreens. Currant bushes, particularly the Crandall black currant, have now turned a soft, orange-red.
Persimmon trees come into their own in the fall. Their spectacular bright red to orange fall color is followed by orange ripening fruit that hangs majestically on bare branches into late fall.
Even the peach trees are attractive right now. Their light green leaves have taken on a soft pinkish hue. Some plum trees, like Satsuma and Burbank, as well as the tasty Pluots, turn shades of red, yellow and orange.
And don’t forget the beautiful grapevines for colors from bright yellows to intense reds.
Dress up your garden with the bright reds and yellows of shrubs, trees and edible plants.
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