Ready, steady, glow
Summer may be just a memory but autumn’s stunning orange, gold and scarlet hues are a joy to behold
Just when you think the gardening season is gliding gracefully to a close, nature lays on a stunning last-minute firework display of orange, gold and scarlet leaves to celebrate autumn with a colourful bang.
The season is at its most spectacular when seen on a large scale at stately gardens and arboretums, so now’s a great time to go visiting.
The traditional stars of the autumn landscape are big trees such as Parrotia, Liquidambar and the maples – but there are many more.
My favourite is the katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum), which has pink-tinged fiery autumn foliage that produces an improbable whiff of toffee apples. Great chunks of autumn colour turn up in large stately water gardens too. Look for great drifts of Darmera peltata, with rusty orange leaves that look like saucers on sticks, or swamp cypress – the conifer that turns golden yellow in autumn before shedding its leaves in a most un-conifer-like fashion.
Putting some autumn colour in your own back garden is easier than you think. On the tree and shrub front, you’ll naturally want to keep things small. Some Japanese maples known for stunning colour (such as Acer palmatum ‘Osakazuki’) are thought of as slowgrowing bushes, but given time they’ll turn into a proper trees. So if you don’t fancy that, stick to smaller species.
Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum’, with its elegant, lacy leaves, is so slow-growing that in most gardens it only reaches about 3-5ft, and you can keep it at this size almost indefinitely by growing it in a tub. All sorts of dwarfish acer palmatum varieties are suitable for this type of cultivation. Just remember, when you’re growing for autumn colours, choose cultivars that have green leaves in summer as they put on the biggest colour change.
Pot Japanese maples in equal parts John Innes No 3 and peat-free ericaceous compost since they dislike lime, and keep them well watered in summer. Grow them in a well-sheltered corner in light, dappled shade so the leaves don’t scorch. For a more easy-going shrub with great autumn colour, it has to be the spindle tree.
Euonymus europaeus ‘Red Cascade’ has leaves that turn pink, red and gold just as its bunches of shocking pink fruits split open to show orange seeds inside.
The effect is loud but somehow it works. If you have a chunk of wild garden, then go for Euonymus alatus instead. It has larger leaves with similarly striking colouring and makes a bigger bush.
But don’t imagine coloured leaves are all there is to autumn. You can have remarkable late flower borders if you set aside an area for plants such as Sedum Spectabile ‘Autumn Joy’, Michaelmas daisies and Schizostylis.
A well-tended dahlia bed will continue flowering late into autumn, and shrubby salvias – the large herbaceous sort – are real stars of the season.
If you don’t have room for an autumn corner, you can still add seasonal colour by carpeting the ground under trees and shrubs with autumn-flowering bulbs such as hardy cyclamen, colchicums and autumn crocuses.
It’s too late to plant autumnflowering bulbs now, but with a bit of planning you’ll get an extra two months of colour next year.
Red Cascade turns pink, red and gold with shocking pink fruits