Autumn Color

So many gardeners think fall is a drab time of year in the garden for flowers. No so! There are many plants that reach their flowering potential in the crisp, cool, autumn season.

One of my favorite fall flowering plants is Mexican Bush Sage, Salvia leucantha . It is marginally hardy here but has the most outstanding purple flowers with a white interior on 3- to 5-foot plants. They also make excellent dried flowers. Almost all the salvias or sages have excellent fall re-blooming potential. I have several Salvia greggii that are blooming profusely now in the fall as they did all summer. Most people think fall flowers is only the popular chrysanthemum, but there are several herbaceous perennials that contribute to the late year floral display. Lots of herbaceous perennial wildflowers bloom in fall, and two that make excellent additions to the garden include wild ageratum (Eupatorium coelestinum) and goldenrod (Solidago species, since they do not cause hay fever, that is ragweed). Using wildflowers and the ornamental grass plumes you can make a wonderful fall flower arrangement.

Of course fall means changing leaf color. Several trees that have reliable color include ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), which provides yellow this time of year; sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua), which yields purple, burgundy, orange and yellow; maples (Acer sp.), which yields yellows, oranges and reds; and Chinese pistachio (Pistachia chinensis), which gives purple, red, orange.

Trees also provide fall and winter with fruit. Hollies are beginning to color their brilliant scarlet-red berries now. Some popular holly choices include 'Savannah' holly and 'Foster' holly (Ilex x attenuata 'Savannah' and 'Fosteri'), both small trees. The 'Savannah' holly grows to about 25 feet and the Foster's to about 15 feet. Another great thing about holly berries is that they are excellent wildlife food for birds. Two beautiful native hollies are the yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria) and deciduous holly (Ilex decidua). The yaupon has one of the most beautiful berries in the group. Its fruit is the typical red - but is translucent. When sunlight shines through the berries, they glow like stained glass. The deciduous holly is quite unique, since it drops its leaves in winter, unlike other commonly grown evergreen hollies. Once the leaves fall, the bright red berries, which literally cover the branches, put on a traffic-stopping display. The deciduous holly is not planted nearly as much as it deserves. Two other excellent native hollies for berries are the American holly (Ilex opaca) and dahoon holly (Ilex cassine). If you like unique there are yellow berried hollies, also. Several of the plants listed above can be enjoyed at the Wilson Botanical Gardens, 1806 S. Goldsboro Street.

Don't forget broad-leaf evergreens, such as gardenia, azalea, Indian hawthorn, holly and cherry laurel to add shiny green in a browning landscape.

The most outstanding shrubs for bloom in the fall are sasanquas (Camellia sasanqua). Sasanquas are one of those indispensable shrubs for our landscapes. Dwarf types stay under 3 feet, while standard varieties will slowly grow to 10-12 feet tall and can be trained as a clipped hedge, large shrub or tree shape. The 2- to 3-inch fragrant flowers are produced in abundance and come in shades of light red, rose, pink and white, depending on the cultivar you choose. Soon, camellias (Camellia japonica) will begin to bloom and continue through the winter.

Rose bushes are putting on an outstanding display now. My David Austin English roses are looking great! It has been a hard year for diseases like black spot but now the foliage is clean the blooms profuse. Virtually all of the everblooming groups, including hybrid tea, floribunda, grandiflora, noisette, China, tea, miniature and others bloom as beautifully in the fall as they did in spring and early summer.

Some azaleas like the Encore series are fall blooming (repeat bloomers)., Azaleas that bloom during seasons other than spring are becoming more available and popular. One of the new Encore Autumn series includes "Autumn Embers," an intense red variety.

So get gardening, fall is a wonderful time of year for flowrs and planting. The Master Gardeners can answer your gardening calls Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from 1-3 PM by calling 237-0113 or my email at wilsonmastergardener@hotmail.com.

Date Created: 12/10/2004.