Garden Blogger Fall Color Project

This year's fall color sees many neat things changing in the garden. The trees are usually the stars of the show but in today's post we are not going to just lump all trees together. I hope to show you some different trees, shrubs, and flowers you might not be familiar with for fall color. I was also happy to see that on Dave's blog he stated fall color is not just about the trees. I will be linking to Dave today and his Dave's Garden Blogger Fall Color Project.
 
In the past when I've posted fall color I have traditionally posted pictures from areas other than my gardens. This year all pictures are from Tiger Gardens.


We'll start with my little Korean maple, aka Pseudo Japanese Maple.  I love this little tree purchased from Don Shadows nursery in Winchester Tennessee in May of 2008. During the past three years it has doubled in size and is starting to look like a real tree. It seems to take a l-o-n-g time for baby trees to mature but the wait is worth it. I love this tree because no matter what I throw at it it still hangs out in the garden and looks good. Fall and spring are the best looking seasons for this tree and its foliage. In the spring the leaves emerge a limey green with graduations to yellow and pink. In the fall the color is unmistakeably orange.

I don't have many good orange trees in my garden and actually, I don't see a lot of oranges in Middle Tennessee. We mostly have golds, reds, russets, browns, and the purples of dogwoods with few orange trees. There is an occasional stunning maple but generally I miss orange and this is probably why I love the trees in my yard that kindly turn orange for me. I also grow a serviceberry that turns orange but that tree usually loses its leaves before the show in the fall due to summer droughts. I do have one other tree that turns orange and that is a stunning Japanese maple. It will start its change anytime now but is still green.

The 'Sheffield Mums' are putting on a quite a show. I got my initial start of these lovelies from a fellow Tennessean blogger. It was a most kind gift as I did not know what they were prior to her gifting me with some. Last year I added another 'Sheffield' style mum that is only just beginning to bloom now. Its blooms shows promise of a vivid maroon/magenta so I am very excited to see them in bloom. The cultivar name was lost with my garden catalog a few months ago. I kick myself almost everyday for losing that catalog.

The asters in the Rear Center Garden are in a perfect spot. I may spread them around to make this short hedge a bit larger. Asters are a very drought tolerant plant. These grow in a partly shaded garden and are doing quite well. You just have to love drought and shade tolerant perennials that can look this good in the fall! Directly behind the aster hedge are two smoke trees that will soon start changing colors.

A view of the colorful Sunny Perennial Border. I just can't get enough of it. It is normally a full border but this year I seem to have a greater variety; which I like very much.

Winged sumac, Rhus copallinum,  turns a brilliant red each fall. This species does not grow showy seed heads (not in my garden anyhow) like its cousin the Staghorn sumac, but it is still a nice small tree in my natural style garden. I did not plant this sumac but have allowed it to grow and sucker on a small bank behind Mr. Fix-it's garage.

This small native tree is commonly called Sourwood, Oxydendrum arboreum, and has stunning fall color. The leaves are turning a brilliant and deep red.

So far my tree is but a seedling (purchased in the summer of 2010 at Jackson's Summer Celebration) but it has pretty good fall color. Someday it will get large enough to give me lily of the valley like blossoms that will add to the allure of this tree.

The Greenhouse Garden is doing well. I planted the pink impatiens back in April and all summer long they did nothing but languish. Now that the weather has cooled down and we have received some rains they decide they want to bloom. Ironic right?



Oakleaf hydrangeas are a multi season shrub without a doubt. This native looks good all year long.

The mottled kaleidoscope leaves are very special.

The 'Forest Pansy' redbud is beginning to turn yellow. I enjoy the fall color of the redbuds almost as much as I enjoy the blooms in the spring. This tree could be considered a winter interest tree when it is loaded with seedpods but I personally don't find much attractiveness from them in the winter.

Here is some definite fall color in the form of  the light tan of the ornamental grass plumes. This grass is fronted by 'Chocolate' eupatorium. The flower forms of the ornamental grass and eupatorium contrast nicely.

Now this little shrub is a fantastic shrub that is deer resistant and easy care-think no care! It is called 'Lo-Gro' sumac (Rhus aromatica). As a side note NONE of the sumacs I have talked about in these posts will give you a rash or bother you in any way. Every time I say sumac to a friend I get a worried look so I thought I should reassure you all ahead of time. I do NOT grow poison sumac in my garden. When I find it I quickly take action to eliminate it right away since I am allergic to the oils. 'Lo-Gro' is a suckering shrub that stays about three feet tall but will spread to six feet or more. This picture was taken from the back side of the Front Center Garden.

Here is a picture of the same shrub from the front of the Front Center Garden. The yellowish shrub to the right of the colorful (red, yellow, green, orange) 'Lo-Gro' is Japanese kerria. Both of these shrubs are shade and drought tolerant. Some of the fabulous oakleaf hydrangeas are located further down from the 'Lo-Gro'.




There are yellows, golds, oranges, reds, browns and green. This shrub is electric in its fall finery and the wide variety of colors makes the shrub very interesting.

I think it is pretty neat that while trees all around the crepe myrtle are changing color and preparing for their long winter's sleep this crepe myrtle is still putting on a fine show of blooms. I am not sure which variety this crepe myrtle is but I'd like a few more of them.



Asters and lantana provide great color in the fall. It seems the 'Miss Huff' cultivar of lantana I grow does not really catch its glory until the fall! When it does begin blooming it blooms in a big way. The blue of the asters sets off the oranges and yellows of the lantana. This picture was taken in the Front Sidewalk Garden. Do you see the swing in the distance? We'll soon move to a better vantage point to see it.

This is a look at the Foundation Garden that shows some mums and grasses with a few 'Sheffies' beginning to bloom. This is the view you will see when you approach my front door. It is quite a different view you see from the swing you see in the background. Gardens are neat in that you can almost have different gardens within the same garden.  This garden is obviously closer to the house than the previously shown Sidewalk Garden. Both gardens tie together though.





The fading flowers of the 'Limelight' hydrangeas give us some fall color and texture. The textures are the best I think. These hydrangeas front the crabapple in the Greenhouse garden. The crabapple is just beginning to turn yellow and it will soon drop its leaves as a another fall turns into winter. Time sure does pass quickly and I think that if you are a gardener you seem to mark the seasons even more acutely due to the changing seasons. Fall is a time when I get a bit melancholy. 

What is your favorite fall color plant in your garden? Mine is of course the Korean maple (at least for today)....


in the garden....
Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden