Get on the Ball and Plant for Fall!!!

If the clear crisp air and the vibrant colors make fall your favorite season then the following plants and trees are a must for your garden:

1. Aster novi-belgii (Michaelmas Daisy)
Photo: © Marie Iannotti (2007) licensed to About.com, Inc.

In shades of pink, purple, blue and white, these delicate daisy-like blossoms start popping open in late August and continue on until frost. Pinching in the early summer turns these Asters into mounds with dozens of flower buds. [p]Asters will tend to creep throughout your garden, but their airiness allows them to blend particularly well with other flowers.

Chrysanthemum
Photo: © Marie Iannotti (2007) licensed to About.com, Inc.

There are many varieties of mums, not all particularly hardy. The plants sold in the fall as 'Hardy Mums' should have been sold to us in the spring, to be reliably hardy in the north. However we wouldn't have had the patience to plant them and wait. Mums and pumpkins are the flag bearers of fall. Try and get your potted mums in the ground ASAP. Keep them well watered and mulch once the ground freezes and you'll stand your best chance of having truly hardy mums.


Sedum (Stonecrop)
Photo: © Marie Iannotti (2007) licensed to About.com, Inc.

Sedum 'Autumn Joy' comes as close to perfection as any plant can. It looks good all year, requires minimal attention and attracts few problems. It's only drawback is that it is not deer resistant. 'Autumn Joy' has been joined in the garden by a growing number of fall wonders like: 'Bertram Anderson, 'Brilliant' and 'Matrona'. No fall garden is complete without sedum.

TREES:

Quaking aspen trees (Populus tremuloides), with their golden-yellow fall foliage, are perhaps the dominant fall foliage tree of western North America. It is from this fall foliage standout that the ski resort of Aspen, 
Colorado derives its name. In the Rocky Mountains there are stands of quaking aspen trees that stretch for miles, their autumn gold perhaps punctuated here and there by an evergreen or two, as if for contrast.
Quaking aspens are closely related to poplar trees, such as Lombardy poplar trees.
If their fall foliage weren't enough of a contribution, quaking aspens also have a lovely, whitish bark. Aspens usually reach a height of 20'-50', with a spread of 10'-30'. Plant them in full sun and in rich, well-drained soil. Like their willow-family relative, the pussy willow, quaking aspen trees bear catkins in the spring.


Characteristics of American Sweetgum Trees:

American sweetgum trees bear leaves shaped like stars. The leaves provide excellent fall foliage color: in some cases, at the peak of the fall foliage season, some leaves may be red, others purple, others yellow, others orange -- all on the same sweetgum tree! On some trees, the branches are "winged," as on winged euonymus (burning bush), displaying corky flanges. Most people consider their seed pods (or "fruits," "balls," "gumballs," "capsules") to be messy, so I recommend the fruitless 'Rotundiloba.' Rotundiloba grows 60'-70' tall with a spread not even half that, which helps give it a narrowly pyramidal form.

"Crimson Queen" Japanese Maple

Courtesy Missouri Botanical Garden

Japanese maple trees are prized for their foliage throughout the growing season, including fall foliage season. Click on the picture to your right for a tree leaf identification for three types of Japanese maple trees (a photo gallery will open up, displaying additional pictures).

Japanese maple trees can be classified in various ways. I'll focus on a couple of classification criteria: fall foliage color and leaf type. For while Japanese maples with red fall foliage are better known, some varieties have golden fall foliage (e.g., Acer shirasawanum 'Aureum'). Meanwhile, particular Japanese maple tree varieties are prized for their lacy, or "dissected" leaf type. The taxonomy given for these Japanese maples will often include the term "dissectum

Characteristics of Oakleaf Hydrangeas:
Photo of oakleaf hydrangea blooms.David Beaulieu

In summer, oakleaf hydrangea flowers in clusters, and the white flowers fade to a pinkish-brown in fall; their floral display is extremely long lasting. But the plant's distinguishing characteristic is its oak leaf-shaped foliage. The leathery leaves are large and turn purple, orangey-bronze or red in the fall. Oakleaf hydrangeas routinely achieve a height of 4'-6' and a spread of 4'-6', but can grow to be larger than that. They are multi-stemmed shrubs, and the branches can shoot out from the center in any direction. Exfoliating bark offers winter interest.
Oakleaf hydrangeas are flowering deciduous shrubs.

Carol and Jim Bremer

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