Suburban Gardener—

Let’s Go Shopping!

By Gerry McCabe

With autumn in full swing and the temperatures being kind, there is no better time than right now to visit nurseries and garden centers to hunt the bargains. Next to spring, autumn is the busiest planting season of the year and in most cases the best time to plant. With the days getting shorter, a plant’s internal clock is telling it to start fattening up and storing sugars in their roots to get through the winter. So it actually makes more sense to plant in the fall and establish a strong root system to carry the plant through many productive years ahead.

Fall is a great time to work on the bones of the garden by planting woody ornamentals. Both conifers and deciduous shrubs and trees just adore being set in during this cooler weather and will respond with a glorious show next spring and summer, just when you are busy planning for your perennials and annuals.

Hmmm… Let’s back up here. Why woody ornamentals just for spring and summer? The garden should be a four-season event. We all know that the garden looks fabulous May though August, but what about the rest of the year? Look around you… what do you see? What will you see in November or February? Let’s take a peek.

With the sugar maples and birches providing painter’s pallette backdrop of reds and golds, a Virginia creeper vine (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) beaming its bold, red autumn coat, has twined up a twenty foot tall Tamarack (Larix laricinia). Within weeks this tamarack will shock passersby by transforming its deciduous needles from olive green to bright yellow. Together these two plants have created simple autumn splendor against a cloudless blue sky.

Beyond this scene, envision an October dressed Ginkgo tree (Ginkgo biloba) with its banana yellow, fan-shaped leaves trembling in the chilly breeze behind a robust crabapple (Malus ‘Adams’) sporting hundreds of hot, scarlet fruits being swiped by the bolts of the brilliant Blue Jay.

Working together small scenes such as this can stretch your garden though what seems to be an endless six months. Autumn is a gift to gardeners. Even if not planned, we stand in awe at the spectacular colors around us. If your garden is beginning to look a bit drab, take along a few of the following suggestions to brighten up with fall color!

1. Red Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii var. atropurprea) with its arching canes of purple-red leaves;

2. PJM Rhododendron ‘Olga Mezitt,’ whose leaves variegate in fall between deep green and scarlet;

3. Ilex veticullata ‘Sparkleberry’, a variety of the native Winterberry, has scads of orange-red berries that will hold on through the winter;

4. Acer palmatum dissectum ‘Ever Red,’ the popular, mounding tiny-leafed Japanese maple which turns bright red in fall;

5. Gold Flame Spirea (Spiraea x bumalda ‘Gold Flame’) — a chameleon! Gold Flame has leaves of bronze-gold in spring, yellow-green in summer, and copper-orange in fall; and

6. Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), a large tree with unusual star-shaped leaves which transform to a blazing orange-red-purple in fall.

Another thought: While shopping, consider puchasing some early spring-flowering shrubs and trees. No. I do not mean late April or May, but February and March. Witch Hazel (Hamamelis spp) is an extremely early bloomer.  ‘Arnold’s Promise’ will bloom late in February with multiple tiny fragrant yellow mopheads edged in crimson, and ‘Firecharm’ has fragrant copper-orange blossoms at about the same time.

A white forsythia? Abeliophyllum distichum has perfect white with a tinge of baby pink flowers that appear in late March. Try interplanting with yellow forsythia for a playful effect.

So put on your walking shoes and head out to explore and learn. Scope out your landscape before you leave to see what areas may need a little life this time of year. Try to purchase and place in groups for continued seasonal interest. Autumn is never dull, but winter can be bleak. Happy shopping!

(When she isn’t tending to her garden at home, Gerry McCabe spends some of her time continuing her gardening education at Naugatuck Valley College in Waterbury. Gerry — who is a certified master gardener in Connecticut — can be reached at TNGCATS@aol.com.)