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!

Fall Colors

Here we are, a day away from October. The temperatures outside are wonderful. Who doesn't love the 60's? Things in the garden are looking great, although a lot is starting to go to sleep. It's interesting to see how things change from year to year dependent on how the weather is or was during the summer. We had a lot of drought this year, which means certain plants are losing leaves earlier. Some are not coloring at all. Our Viburnum 'Redwing' in the landscape looks poor compared to last year. Check last falls post to see how gorgeous it can be. So onto the plants. Many things were looking quite nice this morning.

Easy Elegance™ Mystic Fairy® Rose
Mystic Fairy® has long been one of my favorite roses. It produces clusters of many flowers on each stem. The flowers size is about 2" across, but the richness of the color is what I find most striking. Foliage on these plants looks great as well. What I have noticed on this plant that further increases my appreciation is the fact that the Japanese beetles seem to stay away from it. At least more than some of the other varieties we carry.
Speaking of Roses, when a bed of them can look this good going into October, it's amazing that we don't use them more often in our fall plantings. I know it's not the most traditional mum or kale in the world, but the richness of the colors and their variance should make them a natural option for fall color programs.

Rhus 'Prairie Flame'

Speaking of beautiful fall colors. The Rhus are starting to color up in the landscape here. I show this every year, because I think this is such a great substitute for the Burning Bush. Similar textures, but much greater color in my opinion.

Hosta 'Patriot' with Carex 'Ice Dance'

This is a combination that was developed in a shady container. I liked it so much that I had to try it out in the landscape. While 'Patriot' is an old classic, why not still use it. It looks great in combination with the Carex. It especially looks good now that the deer have started to leave them alone.

Aesculus parviflora

This was more of a surprise than anything this morning. I was walking and shocked by the fact that these June bloomers had flowers on them now. Not just one or two, but there are many flower buds starting to open. When I spoke of weather conditions above changing what plants are supposed to do, this was the one that got me thinking the most today.
Viburnum prunifolium

The fruit of this giant shrub are spectacular every year. I urge you to read the excerpts from Michael Dirr's Manual on this plant. He creates an amazing image with his description of his group of fellows eating the fruit. They are just now starting to color up, and will eventually share purples with its current reds and pinks.

Callicarpa

This is a yet to be named cultivar that Chicagoland Grows™ is working on. I have been trialing them for 3 years now. They have made it through two winters. The fruits of these are extravagant. Multiple shades of purple tantalize the eyes, but of course are currently unavailable. Feedback would be exceptional on these. If you feel that this is something that you would like to have in the future, please send us a line.

Baptisia Twilite Prairieblues™

In the talks of fruits, I should perhaps mention the seed heads of this great plant. If you are thinking of trying any from seed, you should pick them now as the seeds are falling fast, I thought on first examination today that the seed pods looked like little mouths asking for food.

Sedum Sod Flats

A potential contemporary option for fall colors in your landscape is to use our Sedum sod flats. Not only are the reds that come from these plants great, but it also gives you a little touch of the holidays to come. Green and Red. Time to start setting up the Christmas trees! But really, this is a simple quick solution to a color program. Lay out the sod flats like you would grass and have a beautiful layout for the fall.

I have a whole bunch of Asters to show in the next post. These are looking quite nice as well. For more information on the plants that are in this post visit www.midwestgroundcovers.com

Until next time, have a great day!

Beautiful Fall Colors

Hello friends,
This week is the week that proves most difficult in our industry. Threats of frost and snow mean covering plants in the nursery and annuals that look terrible! It's not a time most of us look forward to unless we have a nice plowing contract for the winter. I look forward to this time of the year because I love the colors fall produces. We were just talking in the office about how nice it usually is this time of the year. Where did the jeans and t-shirt weather go? We didn't seem to have it this year. Well, some plants are surely disrupted by this cold weather, but others go on looking great. Here are some examples of plants that look good after a hard frost.

This morning, I was excited to see this container. Usually the Geranium 'Jolly Bee' goes to bed after a hard frost, but here they are still blooming with a nice specimen of Festival Grass™ accompanying them. Both plants I predicted would look terrible today when I came in. I was wrong on both accounts. The Festival grass has really stood up well this year to all the climactic change. They still show the deep burgundy color everyone loves. While not hardy, the fact that they look good now speaks volumes for planting them in your customers planters. I am still not the biggest annual fan in the world. Or if you truly want to classify it differently and call it a tropical, that's fine. But this plant is beginning to win me over. It is worthy of being in our landscape and yours.

Flower Carpet® Scarlet
It is still blooming. And it's not just a scattering of blooms. This plant is really blooming well! The foliage is very glossy green and tough as nails. This is a great plant. It reminds me how nice the new generation of Flower Carpet® roses really are.


Calamintha nepeta ssp nepeta
I feel like I'm constantly sticking up for this plant in the landscape. I first have to talk about how it is a sterile plant and will not run you down like the straight species Calamintha nepeta would. Then I have to convince people that the bees that cover this plant throughout summer will not sting their customers as they walk to the front door. If you've ever been on a tour here, you know what I like to do to the bees. I dive into the plants and they all scatter drunkenly to the next plant to get more pollen. They don't care about me! But look at this picture taken today. For those of you looking for a long bloom time in the garden, it's still blooming. It has not stopped since June!!! This is a must have! If you don't like the scent of peppermint, well I can't help you there. But I am more than willing to sell you on this plant if you need more pushing!
Sedum kamtchaticum
Not the first plant you think of when considering fall color. But it should be up there. Think of this color as a groundcover! We have it installed on a roof here at the nursery and it looks stunning. We have it mixed with Allium 'Forescate' and other varieties of Sedum. Imagine having a planting of this as your groundcover, and Asters and Amsonia hubrechtii intermixed. Ooh. Bright yellows, purples and reds!
Iroquois Beauty™ Aronia
What a nice plant for fruit and fall color. Oranges and yellows and reds oh my! Add black to that and you have Iroquois Beauty™. This has the best fruit display of any Aronia I have ever seen. It stays short so it adds value because of that. These have not completely changed, so think of how great they could be! Though I like the contrast of green and oranges. Herman Tiedeman and I both agree that Aronia could be a great substitution for Burning Bush in the future, but the time is now to make the change! Aronia 'Brilliantissima' is the best for fall color and adds red fruit to boot.
Rhus copallina Prairie Flame™
It's not that we hate the look of Burning Bush. It's that it is so one dimensional. It turns red in fall. Yea! With Prairie Flame™, you add a bloom time in summer where it looks great again. The texture of the plant is far nicer than that of a burning bush. It does sucker a tad, but otherwise is a fabulous plant. The fall color is outstanding as well. Pictured in reds and purples, it also takes on tones of yellow and orange before it drops. Quite the nice plant.
Redwing™ Viburnum
When I started writing this, it wasn't intended to throw Euonymus alatus under the bus. But since I've started, I feel more inclined to do so. Not only does this have phenomenal foliage, but it is also a native cultivar. So it is beneficial to the environment in addition to being beautiful. The fruit of this species is attractive to birds. In early spring, the new foliage is a reddish tinge which gives it the name Redwing™ as the new foliage amongst older green foliage looks like the wings of a bird.
Corylus americana
Few shrubs rival American Hazelnut for fall color. It is also a native so there are many benefits to this plant. It produces hazelnuts for one!!! I've tried them, and they are just like the flavor you add to your coffee. They are tough to crack, so a nutcracker is recommended. If you are looking to plant the seeds, abrasion is necessary. Be careful though. It says to make a puncture hole on one side of the nut before planting. I'm still not sure what the best way to do that is. The way I tried produced a hole in my finger. Anyways, you can see how nice the foliage is.

It's hard to do a segment on fall color and not show you any trees. I walked by some Amelanchier and Sugar Maples that I would have liked to add. But shrubs are so often forgotten. Grasses and trees can be the easy stars of fall, but there are some great shrubs that deserve your attention as well. It's been a pleasure. Until next time, have a great day!