Autumn Colour In The Garden

The rich, glowing colours of autumn leaves can rival any exuberant show of flowers in spring. October and November are usually the best months to admire autumn colour as the green leaves of many deciduous trees and shrubs lose their chlorophyll. Turning wonderful shades of bronze, scarlet and purple. Hidden in the leaves are other pigments that are usually masked by the chlorophyll. But as the daylight hours shorten and the temperatures cool, plants begin to shut down for winter. 

Probably the best known trees for autumn colour are the Acer rubrums or North American Maples. Cultivars such as ‘Brandy Wine’ and ‘October Glory’ make excellent garden trees as they don’t grow too large and have a fairly upright and compact habit.

There are many smaller garden trees that produce superb autumn colour such as Aesculus x neglecta ‘Autumn Fire’. This is a lovely tree that grows no taller than four or five feet and has a brilliant orange glow in late October. Amelanchier ‘Snowflakes’ is another stunning small tree that displays single white flowers in spring and pretty bronze-red autumn leaf colours.

Many flowering cherries provide dazzling blossom shows in spring, followed by fantastic leaf colours in autumn. Prunus ‘Beni-yutaka’ is one of the very best for this two-season interest having semi-double sugar-pink flowers in April, followed by red-crimson leaves in autumn. For a smaller flowering cherry tree there is Prunus ‘Frilly Frock’. This little weeping gem is covered with delicate white flowers in early spring. Then in autumn its unusual variegated leaves turn to striking shades of red, yellow and brown.