Annual Fall Color Review

Hello again,

I always like to do a fall color edition. This is my favorite time of the year when the plants are in the midst of transformation. Just like spring when they come to life, fall is nearly as spectacular with all the colors. While I love the trees a lot, the shrubs and perennials also have some great color. Here are some of the most outstanding at our facility.


Viburnum molle 'Morton'
This is a plant under consideration for the Chicagoland Grows program. It grows similarly to Viburnum dentatum, or Arrowood Viburnum, but it has beautiful exfoliating bark similar to that of an Oakleaf Hydrangea. Fall colors range from dirty yellow to the red you see in the picture. All colors are on the plants at the same time. Hopefully this will be offered in the future.

Sporobolus heterolepis
This is a plant that I talk about often. To me, there are not many grasses better than this one. A drift like this under a tree makes for an artistic impression. Very little maintenance is ever required for this. We burn in March and let it go the rest of the year. No watering is ever needed and it will look this nice well into winter. In this particular planting, Echinacea pallida is mixed in to give some spring color to the area.

Viburnum x juddiiThis is an all time favorite for me. I love the fact that I can say this is the first plant I ever planted once in the industry. I planted it because the flowers in the spring are very fragrant. Later I learned of its' amazing fall color. Growing 6-10' tall and just as wide, this is a great plant for the back of the border, or somewhere near a window where you can enjoy the sweet and spicy smells in spring.

Deschampsia 'Goldtau'This has been a very difficult plant for me to photograph. The delicate seed heads are difficult to get without blurriness. This variety is nice because it is very resistant to foliar rust. Other types of Tufted Hair grass are very susceptible. I have it interplanted with Flower Carpet® Scarlet and the two look great together. You should give it a try. They look great in containers as well!

Rhus Prairie FlameOne of the best fall coloring shrubs in my opinion is the Prairie Flame Sumac. The bright reds and oranges that come from this plant are spectacular. The plant can sucker a little, but it does offer an excellent substitute to the overplanted Burning bushes you see everywhere.






Amsonia hubrichtii
One of the best fall coloring perennials around is the Narrow leaf blue star. Read on later to learn about one of her sisters. A. hubrichtii has very fine textured foliage and can come in all sorts of shades of gold in the fall. While this plant tends to look chlorotic a lot of the summer, the fall color more than makes up for it. Mixed with Aster oblongifolius 'October Skies', the blues and yellows can highlight any garden.

Physocarpus 'Coppertina'

Most of us have grown to love the purple summer colors of our new Ninebarks that have hit the market. But I especially like the contrasts of reds and purples when fall colors start to appear. 'Coppertina' gets its' name from the early spring colors it displays on new growth. This is a Proven Winners™ ColorChoice™ shrub.

Amsonia tabernaemontana var. salicifolia

This is one of those plants that looks great all year long. The willow-like leaves gently sway in the winds throughout the summer, and in spring, when first emerging, the purple to red stems look great in contrast with the light green foliage. Then this time of the year, mostly golden foliage with some tints of red show off for all who wish to see. These have proven to be very drought tolerant, and for those looking for more flower color during the summer, it would make a nice combination with Perovskia 'Little Spire' or Echinacea 'Sunrise'.

Thanks again for reading the fall edition. Hopefully more things will color up soon, and different fall pictures will be available. Until next time, have a great day!

Cool Summers make Warm Fall Colors

Hello again,
It seems like the fall colors are fairly extended this year. Certain things dropped immediately with the first frost, but others maintain there beauty for much longer. I've been very impressed with the golds I'm seeing this year. They seem so much richer than in years past. Here are some interesting fall pictures I took yesterday.
First I'll start out with our recycling program. It has been a very beneficial thing to some of our customers. This is the product that we ship out. So once we've collected enough plastic, we make these nice cubes of containers that we send out to be recycled. People have asked what it looks like, so here it is! Beautiful isn't it? It is much more beautiful than sending it to the landfill.


Tilia cordata 'Glenleven'
Glenleven Lindens haven't been the greatest for fall color the past few years. This is because of the invasion of Japanese Beetles who make the foliage nearly completely lacy which doesn't allow for much color. We did spray our trees this year so that the beetle wouldn't affect the plants as much. It worked! Our Lindens are beautiful this fall. What a sight!

Metasequoia glyptostroboides
While on the topic of trees. How about these beauties. I love the coppery-orange color these create in fall. We have Taxodium as well on the property, but they don't color up as nice as these do.




Viburnum lentego
This could be considered a small tree or large shrub. Nannyberry Viburnums have always been one of my favorite plants. I love the fruit and love the fall color. The flowers aren't the greatest, but overall the plant is a winner. Native to our area, this particular shrub is always covered in Cedar Waxwings when the fruit comes. They strip these plants of fruit in a matter of hours, not days.

Viburnum 'Winterthur'
Sticking with Viburnums, there are few plants that rival the fall color of this plant. The reds it produced each year are magnificent. I get little fruit on the plants because they require another variety of V. cassinoides to pollinate them. But fruit is secondary to the fall color and year-round appeal that 'Winterthur' foliage offers.

Viburnum molle 'Morton'
Another Viburnum!!! They sure have nice fall color, don't they? Native plants might be the best way to go for fall color! I liked the array of colors this plant was displaying. This is a future introduction for the Chicagoland Grows® program. It is similar to a Viburnum dentatum, but the foliage seems more broad, and the bark peels. So once the fall color is done, the bark provides winter interest!
Physocarpus Summer Wine®
In fall, the Ninebarks start to show nice red colors. While typically a purple foliaged plant, the combination of purple and red is outstanding. Some leaves have half purple, half red foliage and are quite desirable. I've noticed this in the past, but not to the extent that I'm seeing it this year. All the cultivars look nice, including Coppertina, Diabolo and 'Center Glow'.

Rhus aromatica 'Grow Low'
Who thinks of 'Grow Low' Sumac for fall color. I usually don't. This year has changed my mind. This planting which borders our prairie is quite beautiful. Everywhere I look, these are looking nice. And by everywhere, I mean everywhere. These are planted in every commercial job from Chicago to the Mississippi. So every commercial site looks pretty good right now. This salt tolerant plant has become a staple for our customers. While that does not need to change, I just need to stress diversity. If we can make these areas more diverse, we will not have to face a disease like we have with Ash on these guys. There can be too much of a good thing.
Vernonia glauca

The only thing I don't like about the plant is how it likes to reseed itself anywhere it can find a piece of dirt. Of course, my favorite thing about the plant is its seed though. Look at how great it looks going into winter. It does however move around with reckless abandon, so a formal garden or a smaller garden is not screaming out for it. If you have a larger area where you don't mind a few volunteer plants that get close to 6' tall, then this is for you!
Oenothera 'Cold Crick'

This plant was truly spectacular in bloom. I've never seen such brilliant yellow and so profuse. Then it goes into summer being a somewhat boring piece of foliage. Then in fall, it turns into a blazing sunset of colors. Allan Armitage says there are no perennials better for fall color than Amsonia. I beg to differ. He wrote that before the introduction of this plant. It reminds me of Geranium 'Max Frei' for fall color, only much better. We are still in the trial phase of this plant, so we do not actually grow it. I'm not sure what the market would be for it. If you are interested and think we should grow it, please email me at mgplanttrials@gmail.com

I've realized lately, that I do not show enough garden pictures. Sure I show you a lot of plants that are in the garden, but sometimes, the look of the whole garden says so much more than it's parts. In this case, we have Sporobolus heterolepis with Echinacea pallida and Allium 'Forescate'. This area of the garden receives very little maintenance. In fact, we weed it once a year, and do a spring burn. Watering is not necessary. It has become one of the more sustainable areas of the landscape. The plants cover the soil well enough that weeds are not growing in between. Except for a seedling Miscanthus, this area has been virtually weed free all year this year. That says a lot. I've never seen weeds as bad as they have been in '09. So, I will be efforting to show you more garden pictures in the future. You all want the big picture, right?

Thanks again for taking the time to read this. I hope you find something interesting in here. And if not, let me know what you'd like to see. I love getting feedback, but I don't receive it enough. Until next time, have a great day!