maple foliage in fall

While I find it hard to choose a favorite flower, naming a favorite season in the garden is much easier.  Fall or autumn with all its finery never disappoints me.  Unlike spring which seems to  explode almost overnight with color and fragrance and then fade quickly (especially in the South) when heat sets in, fall often lingers and delights  us with a last flush of roses, colorful berries and foliage that ranges from pale yellow to brilliant shades of orange and red. 

Rosa 'Penelope' (hybrid musk) blooms in late October

roses with Japanese maples in background, November

Yesterday, I decided to take my camera along when I walked the dog so that I could document some of the fall show in my neighborhood.  I also made one of my biweekly visits to the Atlanta Botanical Garden.  What follows are photos of a few of my favorite shrubs, trees and perennials in fall. 

Cornus florida, native dogwood-a four season beauty

In my own small garden, Acer palmatum ‘Sango kaku,’ coralbark maple glows with its yellow leaves that are tinged  pink.  Single chrysanthemums (unnamed seedlings from a friend that owns a nursery) are most welcome at this time of year.  The botanical name  for these fall-flowering mums is now Dendranthema x grandiflorum  (Zone 5-9) .  Whatever you call them, they are as my English friends would say “good doers.”  I favor the “ Daisies,”  single daisy-like flowers with yellow centers.  To keep them from getting leggy and floppy, cut them back (by ½ is fine until the 4^th of July. 

Acer palmatum 'Sango kaku' and smoke tree

Dendranthema x grandiflorum (unnamed seedling) in November

Oxydendrum arboreum, sourwood- a great native, Zone 5-9

Hamamelis virginiana, witchhazel-fragrant flowers in November, Zone 3-8

Hamamelis flowers up close

Symphoytrichum oblongifolium (still an aster, ) 'Raydon's Favorite'

Cercidiphyllum japonicum-katsuratree-when the leaves change color and begin to fall they have a fragrance like burning sugar or cotton candy

Fagus grandifolia -native beech tree with seed pod

bird with beechnut

Hydrangea quercifolia, oakleaf hydrangea in November

hickory foliage in fall

Hovenia dulcis fruits

Back in September, I noticed across from my daughter’s school a tree with odd looking fruits.  When I got closer I recognized it as the Japanese raisin tree, Hovenia dulcis.  I first encountered this tree when I worked at the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College.  The fruits- actually the fleshy branches are (according to Michael Dirr, chewed by the Japanese and Chinese and are “actually not bad tasting.”  I have nibbled on them and found the taste unremarkable.  Still, I am drawn to their curious look.  Native to China, this unusual exotic makes a good medium size shade tree (up to 30’ tall) and is hardy to Zone 5. 

Taxodium distichum -immature cones

Some of my best plant sitings happen when I walk our dog in my neighborhood.  Recently I noticed a group of bald cypress loaded with 1” green cones.  I will have to check back as they should be mature (brown and looking more like cones) in a year.  What’s surprising about this tree is how adaptable it is.  Native to swamps bald cypress, Taxodium distchum will also grow in full sun and in a well drained soil.  In mid- October the foliage is just beginning to turn orange, brown and red. This deciduous conifer is known for its “knees” which only occur when they grow in or near water.  I have fond memories of canoeing at Trap pond in October when the trees were completely russet color.  Located in  Laurel,  Delaware this pond is home to “the northernmost stand of natural bald cypress in the United States.”  There’s something magical and mysterious about these trees that appeals to me at every season. 

Aesculus parviflora foliage in October

Some trees like Cercidiphyllum japonicum , also known as katsuratree  offer their own special brand of fragrance when the leaves begin to change color in the fall- shades of yellow, red and orange.  On a recent trip to Seattle, I was at Lakewold Gardens touring the collection and wham, that welcome scent of burning sugar or cotton candy, you decide, hit me before I saw all the leaves on the ground and realized it was the now leafless katsuratree  that was responsible. 

With ample moisture and space this tree can become quite large.  One of my favorite specimens is located at Dumbarton Oaks, a public garden in Georgetown, a neighborhood in Washington, DC. 

Cercidiphyllum japonicum at Dumbarton Oaks

As a group many magnolias offer colorful and fragrant flowers in spring.  But there are also those with interesting fruits and foliage.  One of my favorites, Magnolia macrophylla (big flowers, big leaves) offers its own form of fall interest when the leaves turn yellow and then drop to the ground, exposing silver undersides.   Even the ordinary Magnolia grandiflora displays colorful fruits in October.  Great for decorations if you get to them before the critters do. 

Magnolia grandifolora fruit in October

A trio that caught my attention last fall at the Atlanta Botanical Garden includes our native dogwood, Cornus florida, a red  maple and Stewartia pseudocamellia.

Cornus kousa fruits in October

Cornus florida fruits are red and shiny but not very large.  This is not the case with Cornus kousa, which produces fruits that look like large raspberries.  They are edible but probably appreciated more by squirrels and birds. 

Fall foliage

Heptacodium miconioides in Fall

These are just a few of the gems that add interest and color to one of my favorite seasons in the garden.

Aster 'Blue Bird' and Amsonia hubrichtii

We finally got some much needed rain, temperatures are cooling off and I am ready to order my spring bulbs and plant them.  This is also a great time in many parts of the country to add plants to your garden. And, when I see them doing their thing, whether it’s fruiting, flowering or showing off colorful foliage, I am inspired to garden. After a two hour stroll through the Atlanta Botanical Garden this morning I have a list of plants that are garden worthy for many reasons.  Some are old favorites and others are less familiar but good doers.  A few that caught my eye include Aster ‘Blue Bird,’ with violet-blue flowers (Zone 4 to 8 ) and Amsonia hubrichtii, (Zone 4 to 9) with willowy foliage that turns golden yellow later in autumn.  ‘Blue Bird’ will reach 3 to 4’ and will need staking if you forget to pinch it back in June.  Either way, it provides welcome late-season color. I also like Aster novae-angliae ‘Purple Dome,’ (Zone 4 to 8 ) a selection of New England Aster with vivid purple daisy-like flowers. For the gardener who wants a bullet-proof aster, Aster tataricus fits that bill.  In spring the foliage looks almost weedy so be sure you mark where it is planted.  This long bloomer starts as early as September and continues into November producing masses of pale lavender daisies with yellow centers.   If you like tall plants this aster grows 6 to 10 feet tall and won’t need staking in most soils and full sun.  The selection ‘Jin Dai’ is supposed to be a more compact form but mine is already at 6’ tall and growing.  Pinching back in the summer is bound to make a difference. Combine it with goldenrods or the Willowleaf Sunflower, Helianthus salicifolius (Zone 5 to 10) which also grows 4 to 8 feet tall at maturity. (You can pinch back this perennial too, stop by the end of June)  Ornamental grasses are fall favorites and Panicum virgatum ‘Dallas Blues’ was paired with Ilex verticillata (deciduous hollies) and hardy garden mums. 

Aster tataricus and Helianthus salicifolius

For a bright spot of yellow the rain lily Zephyranthes citrina is perfect at the front of the border or as an edger along a pathway.  Even easier to grow is the white rain lily blooming in my garden now, Zephyranthes candida. (Zone 7 to 10 ).

Zephyranthes citrina

Fall without Viburnums and other berried shrubs would not be as colorful. The Tea Viburnum, Viburnum setigerum, continues to be one of my favorites and although it is open in habit, it makes a welcome addition to the edge of a woodland border where it gets at least a half-day of sun.  Although I would not have thought to combine the two, Malus sargentii, Sargent’s Crabapple (Zone 4 to 7) looks good paired with the Goldenrod,  Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks.’

Viburnum setigerum, Tea Viburnum

If you’re looking for something different to try this fall and you live in the Atlanta, Georgia area stop by Ashe-Simpson Garden Center and ask about Angelica keiskii.  It’s hard to find much about this plant but the glossy foliage is handsome for months (it grows in part sun or shade)  and then disappears only to return next year.  Pair it with evergreen foliage groundcovers for the best effect. 

Just a few ideas to get you out in the garden.  More to follow on plants for fall or plants to add to your garden this fall.

American beautyberry

While I support the concept of a sustainable landscape where one grows food to eat, in my own garden I don’t discriminate against non-edible fruits.  I seek out and grow all types of plants including those that are beautiful, useful and edible.  It’s hard for me to imagine the fall garden without the colorful but non-edible fruits  of  ornamentals like American beautyberry, Callicarpa americana, viburnums, and  winterberry, Ilex verticillata, as well as other deciduous hollies.  I consider these plants to be food for my soul.

On a recent trip to Raleigh, NC, where I visited some lovely private gardens, I was reminded that some plants like the japanese persimmon, Diospyros kaki ‘Tanenashi’ for example, produce fruits that are both ornamental and edible.  In the case of japanese persimmons the tree and the fruit make for a handsome addition to the garden.  When growing persimmons it is useful to know whether the fruits  are astringent, like our native persimmon, Diospyros virginiana,  (I love this tree for its winter silhouette and chunky bark) which means they are bitter and astringent until fully ripe and soft  or non-astringent when the fruit is crisp and sweet even before they are fully ripe.

Diospyros kaki 'Tanenashi'

Other edible fruits that are also ornamental include blueberries, fig trees, pomegrantes and pawpaws.   I have eaten pawpaws, Asimina triloba, (a custard like fruit that tastes like a cross of banana, strawberry and some say mango)  that were growing along the C and O canal in Maryland.  They  are hard to miss, especially in the fall when they are loaded with 2 to 6”  oblong fruits and large leaves up to 1’ long;  they tend to grow in large groups.  Reaching  20 to 30’ tall or taller at maturity, I would like to try the dwarf species, Asimina parviflora which is reported to grow 4 to 5’ tall.

Whether your garden is large or small, there are many plants that you can grow that are not only beautiful but productive too, offering ornamental and delicious fruits.

Ilex verticillata with foliage in November

Erica’s pick

Japanese persimmon

Botanical name: Diospyros kaki

About the plant: Depending on the cultivar this lovely tree grows 20 to 30’ tall and produces beautiful and edible  orange to orange-red fruit in the fall.  The green foliage becomes glossy as it matures, adding to its ornamental appeal.  The leaves may turn shades of red, orange and yellow in the fall.  Non-astringent types include ‘Fuyu’ and ‘Giant Fuyu.’

Use in the garden:  A good choice for creating a tropical feel and providing colorful fall fruits and foliage.

Planting and care:  Plant persimmons in full sun or part shade in a moist, well-drained soil.

Source: Ashe-Simpson Garden Center, 4961 Peachtree Industrial Blvd, Atlanta, GA 30341

770-458-3224