Nick Bailey adds blue conifers for a striking autumn contrast
Blue conifers create a strikingly cool contrast to autumn colours
Autumn leaf colour seems especially vibrant this year, which is likely due to the odd weather we’ve had over the last 10 months. Oranges, reds, coppers, yellows and burgundies are glowing. This fiery assortment of colours embodies the visual warmth of autumn, but I’ve always felt these tones can be cranked up another level if they’ve a colour to contrast with. Fiery tones may be exciting, but with the addition of blue they really pop. I’ve regularly added blue foliage plants to ‘autumn colour plantings’ and it works a treat. The hot ember tones look even more vibrant with the addition of pale dust-blue.
A group of plants that provide this ravishing colour contrast are blue conifers, which can look superb in the autumn garden. Here are four to add to fiery schemes no matter the size of your plot.
Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star’
This ground cover conifer creates a foamy mass of spiky, ever-grey-blue foliage, which reaches a meagre 40cm (1¼ft) high but will spread up to 70cm (2¼ft). It tolerates most soils and creates a perfect foil for autumn colour shrubs.
Grow it with the impossibly red compact shrub Euonymus alatus, or as a foil below Japanese maples.
Picea pungens ‘Edith’
One of the finest intense blue conifers, ‘Edith’ forms a balanced cone of densely branched needles. It will eventually form a tree of some 3m (10ft) with a 1.5m (5ft) spread at the base.
Grow it with copper heucheras as a foil or with larger autumn colour shrubs such as fothergilla or parrotia as a backdrop.
Cedrus atlantica (Glauca Group)
Not for the faint-hearted, the blue Atlas cedar will reach an eventual height of around 12m (40ft) but it will take 50 or more years to do so. In its youth its conical form is clothed to the ground, but with maturity its sheds its lowers branches to form a series of pleasing tabulate layers.
Grow it with deciduous azaleas which take on striking red, yellow and orange autumn tones or any of the Japanese cherries with strong orangey autumn colour, such as prunus ‘Tai-haku’.
Chamaecyparis lawsoniana ‘Pembury Blue’
Great for smaller gardens, this vibrantly blue Lawson’s cypress matures into a dumpy cone some 2m (6½ft) in height and around 1m (3¼ft) wide. It works well in mixed borders where it can provide permanent structure and it holds its colour come what may!
Grow it with red-toned Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’, fiery multi-tonal aronia ‘Autumn Magic’ or burgundy-red Hydrangea quercifolia.