Catching the Fall Color Wave with Native Shrubs and Grasses
"In the garden, Autumn is, indeed the crowning glory of the year, bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and toil.
And at no season, safe perhaps in Daffodil time, do we get such superbcolour effects as from August to November."
- Rose G. Kingsley, The Autumn Garden, 1905
One of the greatest shows in the natural world occurs yearly in the forests and fields in the northeast with a spectacular color range. For this we can thank great the variety of broad-leaved deciduous hardwood trees that makes up the great Eastern forest.
Living in New England we tend to take this spectacular fall show for granted, but it’s useful to know that that it is anything but the normal experience for most people. Colorful fall foliage is limited to just three regions of the world: portions of eastern Asia, a small area of central South America, and large portions of North America with the prime area occurring in New England. This is because colorful foliage requires the convergence of several factors, such as moisture, day length, latitude, plant species, temperature, and even the mineral content of the soil which occur in a close-to-perfect symphony in our own back yard!
And you can even extend and enhance the fall display on your own property by adding wonderful species of native deciduous shrubs. Provide additional highlights of yellows, oranges, reds, burgundies and plum to your autumn palette over an extended period.
If you add ornamental grasses, the tawny seed heads and colorful foliage will create the perfect complement to the turning foliage for a complete natural fall scene wherever you so desire it - outside your dining room window – along your driveway path to your front door - along your property border synchronizing it with the woods and fields beyond.
The fall planting season is here. A low-maintenance fall garden can be installed for modest costs and will delight you every fall season with increasing vigor. Plants will provide their display immediately and have plenty of time to root and get ready for the long winter ahead. Following are ten great native plants for fall.
- Oakleaf Hydrangea, (Hydrangea quercifolia) is one of the few hydrangeas native to the United States. It is a dramatic, white-blooming shrub with four seasons of interest. The Oakleaf gets its name from the shape of its beautiful large leaves. These leaves often turn colors of brilliant red, orange, yellow and burgundy in the fall if planted in a sunny location with a little afternoon shade. The plant can grow 6 to 8 feet tall or kept smaller with regular pruning. In winter, the bark has an interesting shape and pleasant light brown color.
- Dwarf Fothergilla, (Fothergilla gardenii ) is a compact, slow-growing, deciduous shrub with a dense, mounded, upright-spreading habit which typically grows 2-3' (less frequently to 4') tall and as wide. Ivory white bottlebrush-like flowers appear in spring, usually before the foliage emerges. The Rounded to oblong, leathery, dark green leaves turn varying shades of red, orange and yellow in fall.
- Virginia Sweetspire ‘Henry's Garnet’ (Itea virginica) is an understory shrub native to moist woods. White, fragrant flowers arch and cascade above the foliage beautifully on drooping racemes (elongated clusters) 4 to 10 inches long in early- to midsummer. 'Henry's Garnet' is a truly outstanding selection. Fall foliage turns deep burgundy. The colorful leaves seem to hold on forever, too, sometimes persisting well into the winter.
- Winterberry Holly, (Ilex verticillata), is a deciduous holly. In mid-autumn, however, its slender branches are draped with small but numerous red berries right to the branch tip. It looks spectacular in winter providing color well into February when it is most needed. Two popular cultivars are 'Winter Red' and 'Red Sprite'. It is dioecious, meaning that you will need to purchase at least one male for every three to five female plants and to plant the male in close proximity.
- Highbush cranberry (Viburnum edule) Another outstanding fall item is which turns a dark, frosty red in the fall but sports bright cherry red berries until the cedar waxwings find them!
- Half-high blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum 'Northblue') after the berries come some of fall's reddest foliage. Blueberries can tolerate zone 3-7 conditions and like moist to wet soil in sunny locations. This variety has a manageable size even for the small space gardener.
- Switch Grass ‘Shenandoah’ (Panicum virgatum 'Shenandoah') This beautiful selection of Switch Grass is valued for its red foliage. By mid-summer the grass blades are colored green and tipped with red. In the fall the color intensifies as the entire plant turns a striking blend of reds and oranges.
- Arrowwood Viburnum (Viburnum dentatum) bears white flowers in spring. Viburnums native to North America don’t possess the intense, spicy fragrance of their Asian cousins. However they do offer a fabulous fall display and abundant fruit clusters, popular with birds and wildlife. In autumn, arrowwood viburnum foliage changes to yellow, red or reddish-purple and also features bluish berries in clusters. Its fruit is eaten by several species of birds, including: bluebirds, cardinals, mockingbirds and robins and many use the shrubs for nesting and protection. They reach a height of 6'-15', with a similar spread.
- Prairie Dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis) The foliage of this grass turns golden with orange hues in fall, fading to light bronze in winter. Open, branching flower panicles appear on slender stems which rise well above the foliage clump in late summer to 30-36" tall. Flowers have pink and brown tints, but are perhaps most noted for their unique fragrance (hints of coriander). Tiny rounded mature seeds drop to the ground from their hulls in autumn giving rise to the descriptive common name.
- Bluestar (Amsonia Hubrechtii) is an uncommon native perennial. It is an erect, clump-forming plant that is primarily grown in cultivation for its late spring blue spring flowers, feathery green summer foliage that turns an beautiful bright gold in autumn. The foliage is feathery, soft-textured, and needle-like.
