Fall Landscape Ideas for Colorful Plants
My favorite fall landscape color is when I see trees with red foliage, such as this Japanese Maple.
Japanese Red Maple
A mix of colors is wonderful, but I have to admit that I am parcial to reds. And berries...I love berries! Be sure to get the female plants which produce the berries and include one male which is needed for the berry production.
Here are some plants that will provide fall spectacular color:
Trees
- Red Maple 'October Glory' or 'Red Sunset' - you will be amazed at the fire engine red colors
- Chanticlear Pear - this is a tree with late fall color......purples and golds
- American Holly - great red berries and evergreen
- Purple Leaf Plum - purple leaves all season
- Zelkova
- Flowering Dogwood - red Fall color and berries too!
- Japanese Maple
Shrubs
- Winterberry Holly - an abundance of red berries
- Meservae Hollies - red berries and evergreen
- Burning Bush - wow...fabulous red leaves in the Fall
- Nandina
- Red Barberry - red leaves all season
Planting Design For the Fall Landscape
Imagine this. You are walking or driving along, and you spot a really pretty shrub with bright red leaves. It stands out among some evergreen plants nearby. Now imagine this. It's the same scene, but instead of one of these shrubs, you see five...or seven...or nine. Now that red color is all the more striking because there is so much of it!
My point is, that when planting for the Fall landscape, try to use a
mass of a particular shrub. (This is true in all of landscape design.)
It is less important with trees because of their large sizes and mass of
foliage. The colorful leaves of a single tree will stand out anyway,
but if you would like to use a group of three trees...go ahead.
Here is an example of a planting design for a specific area that will burst with Fall color.
You can create a bed in your front lawn to break up the large amount of
grass. Create a curvilinear bed. It might be kidney shaped or something
similar. The next part depends on the size of your property, but lets
say the bed is 25' long by 7' wide.
Place a Red Maple 'October Glory' or a Flowering Dogwood at one end. If
you are standing at your house looking out, place seven Meservae Hollies
along the back of the bed, and stagger them. In front of the Hollies,
place five to seven Nandina 'Moon Bay'. You could also use Red Barberry
instead. By the way, the texture of either the Nandinas or the Red
Barberry against the Hollies looks great.
On the end opposite the Red Maple, but towards the front a bit, place
three Burning Bush. In the Fall, you might purchase nine Mums, and place
them in front of the Nandina...perhaps in the gold colors.
You might have noticed that I suggested placing the Nandina or
Red Barberry on the house side of the Hollies, rather than the street
side. The reason for this, is that when I have a choice of the design
being oriented for a view from the street, or from the house, I opt for
the house!
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