Do you plan for fall color in your garden?
I have so much red in my garden right now, that I’m going to claim I planned it that way! Who would know otherwise?
Forget that I don’t really like red flowers. In the fall, red rules in my garden.
This first red shrub is Viburnum carlesii, the Korean Spice Viburnum. I actually got it because of the fragrant spring blooms, without thought to the fall color, so this is a happy red surprise!
In the backyard, the Red Maple, Acer rubrum, is a perfect red right now.
I’ve already noted that I don’t know if this is ‘October Glory’ or ‘Autumn Blaze’. But if I were a betting gardener, I would go with ‘Autumn Blaze’ because this is far redder than the Red Maple in front. (This would also mean that I did NOT do something ridiculous like plant them in alphabetical order from front to back to remember which was which.)
Here’s a close up of the foliage of that maple.
That’s red.
Another red shrub in my garden is the native Sweetspire, Itea virgiania ‘Henry’s Garnet’.
Like the Korean Spice Viburnum, the Sweetspire also has good spring blooms.
Over at the neighbor’s house, this flowering dogwood, Cornus sp., complements the red in my garden.
I always think of the writer Henry Mitchell when I stop to admire this small tree in the fall. There’s no time in the fall, as he noted, to be ‘lolling’ around admiring the dogwoods turning red. There is way too much work to be done in the garden for that!
Elsewhere in the neighborhood, there are some Burning Bush shrubs, Euonymus alatus ‘Compacta’.
Thanks to search engines, the post I wrote called ‘The Truth About Burning Bush’ is the most read post on my blog.
Even my wheelbarrow, standing ready to assist in fall clean up, is red.
Me and my wheelbarrow go back a few years, 20 years to be precise. It sure has hauled a lot without complaining. Other than needing a new tire a few years back, it hasn’t asked for much in return other than a dry place to rest in the winter and an occasionally hosing out.
What color dominates in your garden today?
I have an “October Glory” red maple, and I really can’t tell from your photo….Sorry
EG
I think I have the same wheelbarrow…although mine has a wooden replacement crosspiece my dad added when the metal one bent. Mine needed a replacement wheel a few years ago too but otherwise is still going strong.
Plant the trees alphabetically from front to back? are you flippin’ nuts? why not just make a map. A topo map. Or save the tags. And, I did not know you didn’t like red. 😉
That maple is gorgeous, whichever one it is! I like the Viburnum, too.
here’s a picture of mine…it’s the second tree photo, although it’s not a very good picture…sorry.
http://engineeredgarden.thegardenjournals.org/?p=900
EG
I’m going to have to go out and see what I can find in my garden but it won’t be as pretty as this.
EngineeredGarden… Thanks for helping me try to identify which one this is. I’m sure if I look around here I’ve got some notes that tell me which one I planted in front vs. back.
Leslie… they don’t make wheelbarows like these any more, do they?
MA, Ah, you know I do keep all the tags, just forget to keep track of the two maples to know which got planted where. Keep reading, you learning something new about me every time.
Cindy, MCOK, Thanks, that Viburnum is one of my favorites, too!
Lancashire Rose, I’ll be you find some flowers still in your garden, something we don’t have a lot of right now.
Thanks all for the nice comments,
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
Today, it’s golden delicious because of a Maple down by the creek. (see penngardener.blogspot.com) Before, it was the mahogany of sedum, miscanthus, and heptacodium. thanks for sharing!
I realize my garden seems to be evenly split between red and gold. This would not be a problem but the colors are not uniformly scattered about the garden. I’ve wound up with a red side and a yellow one — so some thinking about solutions needs to happen this winter. Your pix have inspired me to take a few of my own.
The maple in the front is yellow. So are the hosta leaves and the forsythia leaves. I’m thinking yellow is most dominate. But the azaleas are red and so is the burning bush.
Carol, I was surprised at all the red…we knew you weren't crazy about red, but then…you explained the presence of reds! We have a few reds hiding among the golds at C&L; the Japanese Maples and dogwoods. Soon to be reddest tree will be the Viburnum rifidulum/Rusty Blackhaw.
Have a great day Carol!
I wish I had more red in my garden, the only thing other than Firecracker Fern is the Japanese Barbarry…need Maples!
Well, my garden is mostly green. With a strong sprinkling of brown. The new fences are pretty too.
I’m not particularly fond of red in the garden either, but in the fall it’s the perfect color! Thanks for the link on the burning bush; I’ve been thinking about trimming mine back–next spring; now I’ve got another resource for ideas.
And I do think you should take some time to admire the dogwoods no matter what anyone says:)
Carol, I just read your last post–Congratulations on hitting 1,000! That is quite a milestone. You’ve expressed all the benefits of blogging so well; I never would have guessed last winter when I started reading them all that I would gain.
I can’t imagine what the week would be like without some gardening advice and humorous reflections from you, Carol. I wish you many more blogging days!
I search for shrubs that have good fall color. I’m one of those people who wants it all – flowers, fall color, good winter silhoutte. I think the Korean Spice Viburnum may be the one for me.