Adding Fall Colour to your Garden
The Ontario countryside in the fall is a spectacular colourful landscape that we all admire and enjoy.
Many of us make special trips to view the brilliant colours of maples, and waysides adorned with fall wildflowers. But where is the colour in our own gardens?
In planning our gardens, we very logically begin at the beginning. Spring flowering bulbs are followed by the early flowering shrubs, and then summer is filled with Roses, Weigela, and Mockorange among many others.
Soon our garden is fully planted and only in September do we realize we could use some colour with late flowering shrubs and those with brilliant fall foliage.
Burning Bush is the most popular shrub that is widely used for fall colour, but there are many more that can enhance your garden in the fall and extend your season of colour to the fullest.
Here is a list of trees and shrubs that we think will bring amazing colour to your garden:
Burning Bush…………………………………………Red foliage
Butterfly Bush………………………………………..Purple/White/Pink blooms
Cotoneaster…………………………………………..Red berries
Dogwood……………………………………………….Reds and orange foliageBlack berries. Red/Yellow Twigs
Ginkgo…………………………………………………….Yellow foliage
Holly………………………………………………………..Red berries
Hydrangeas……………………………………………Pink/White/Red blooms
Katsura……………………………………………………Orange and Red foliage
Maple Red………………………………………………Red foliage
Maple Sugar…………………………………………..Orange and Red foliage
Oak Pin……………………………………………………Red foliage
Oak Red………………………………………………….Red foliage
Serviceberry……………………………………………Yellow and Orange foliage
Sumac…………………………………………………….Orange/Red foliage
Viburnum……………………………………………….Orange/Red foliage and black berries
Perennials for Colour
Anemone Japanese…………………………….Pink/White blooms
Anise Hyssop………………………………………..Lavender -flowering since late May and fragrant
Aster……………………………………………………….Blue blooms
Cardinal Flower…………………………………….Scarlet blooms
Chrysanthemums…………………………………A wide variety of colourful blooms
Coneflower……………………………………………Purple/Yellow/White/Raspberry/Red blooms
Coral Bells…………………………………………….Red/Pink/White- flowering since June. Available in many foliage colours.
Coreopsis …………………………………………….Yellow/White -flowering since June
Gaillardia……………………………………………….Red/Yellow/Orange- flowering from June
Globe Thistle………………………………………..Blue blooms
Hibiscus (Mallow)…………………………………White/Red/Pink/Maroon blooms
Liatris (Gay Feather)…………………………….Purple/White blooms
Phlox……………………………………………………..Purple/Pink/White- flowering since July and fragrant
Rudbeckia……………………………………………Yellow blooms
Sedum………………………………………………….Pink/Mauve blooms
Sneezeweed……………………………………….Bronze/Yellow/Red blooms
Yarrow…………………………………………………..Yellow/Pink blooms
Vines with Fall Interest
Colourful vines such as Boston Ivy and Virginia Creeper (Engelmann’s Ivy) are highly colourful in fall. Virginia Creeper bears a heavy crop of black berries.
Think container fall gardening too with arrangements of ornamental cabbage and kale, along with Mums, and ornamental grasses. A fall perennial arrangement is spectacular in colour.
The plants listed will let you take advantage of the change of season and keep your garden interesting and colourful until the heavy frosts and first snow of winter.