Fall Foliage Below the Sugar Maples
"Society speaks and all men listen, mountains speak and wise men listen" - John Muir
It’s hard to stop looking out the window as I write this, drawn to the ephemeral mosaic of impossibly beautiful colors. As my garden has evolved in recent years, fall now rivals the best of spring or summer for the breadth and range of color it exhibits.
Many foundation landscapes this time of year are dominated by box, rhododendrons, hollies, junipers and other evergreens that maintain the same color, shape and appearance year round. What is lost by this unchanging assemblage is the opportunity to enjoy the variety of the seasons. Because we live in the great Eastern deciduous forest, any landscape with a generous amount of deciduous shrubs will be more successful in aesthetically connecting the home to its surroundings, which in turn will produce a more successful living experience.
Remember, when you make any design decision, always consider the next larger context; a plant in a garden, a garden in a landscape, a landscape in an environment.
A few weeks ago I talked about deciduous shrubs that you can use in the garden for fall interest. Here are some perennials that you combine to extend you fall show:
Variegated Solomon's Seal (Latin: Polygonatum odoratum 'Variegatum'): This is a wonderful foliage plant for the shade. This herbaceous perennial grows up to two feet tall with gracefully arching stems that are produced from the densely branched rhizomatous root system. The root system has the capacity to form large colonies. The leaves grow up to four inches long and are bordered with a wide white margin that lighten up a shady site in the garden. Right about now, the leaves turn a wonderful soft yellow that absolutely glow in the garden. Note: this is not a deer resistant plant.
Japanese Blood Grass (Latin: Imperata cylindrica 'Rubra'): A great red tipped upright ornamental grass, about 15" tall that becomes increasingly red as the season progresses. It becomes blood red by fall and when backlit, this plant is positively radiant. It is useful in borders, rock gardens, containers or as a colorful accent. Deer resistant.
Bluestar (Latin: 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.
Sedum Autumn Joy (Latin: Sedum 'Herbstfreude'): Autumn Joy has a floral display that lasts for 3 months, beginning with green broccoli-like buds in mid-summer which gradually open into enormous dusty-pink flower heads, finally deepening to rich bronzy-red. Even the dead flower heads have good winter effect. In rich soils, plants may be pinched in June to prevent floppiness. A classic perennial! Note: this is not a deer-resistant plant.
Heartleaf Bergenia, Pigsqueak (Latin: Bergenia cordifolia) This useful ground cover plant is noted for its beautiful red fall and winter foliage. Its leaves are rounded to heart-shaped and sometimes puckered, growing to about 12 inches. It bears pink to rose-red flowers on red stalks in late winter to early spring. Useful in woodland or shady beds.
Numerous ornamental grasses can be used for their tawny-colored flowers, and in some cases for their red-tones in grass. Two examples are:
Prairie dropseed (Latin: Sporobolus heterolepis) Foliage 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.
Switch grass (Latin: Panicum virgatum 'Shenandoah'): This ornamental switch grass cultivar features some of the best burgundy-red foliage of the many Panicum cultivars currently available in commerce. The grass forms a compact, narrow, erect, 3' tall clump of foliage which is topped in summer by finely-textured, reddish-pink flower panicles which hover over the foliage like an airy cloud. Panicles turn beige as the seeds mature in fall with the seed plumes persisting well into winter. Foliage also turns beige in fall and provides good winter interest.
On another note, last week I received a call from a reader responding to my article about organic lawn care in the sustainable gardening column. (I always enjoy hearing from readers!). They have recently replaced about three quarters of their back lawn with clover and invited me to see it. Although it was mid October it still exhibited a modest amount of white globe-shaped flowers. They said that during the summer the area was filled with white, dusty pink and purple flowers which attracted butterflies, honey bees and birds. They have mown a serpentine path through it to reach the lawn in back where children can play, but prefer the clover to be closer to the house for the interesting wildlife it attracts. They recommend putting it near a breakfast area to enjoy the view and activity.
And to make this too good to be true, the clover suppresses almost all weeds and does not need to be mown or watered (It has longer roots, enabling it to access water at deeper levels). Because clover "fixes" nitrogen (Clover snatches nitrogen out of the air, bringing this most essential fertilizer "down-to-earth" by means of nitrogen-fixing bacteria living in nodes along the roots) it doesn’t need to be fertilized or any other application. They have seen their landscaping maintenance bills lowered as a result.
