We’re visiting Colleen’s garden today to enjoy the beauties of fall.
I’ve been gardening for more than 30 years in the Hudson Valley of New York State. I appreciate all things gardening but lately am loving texture, foliage, natives, shade gardening, and container gardening.
If you want to see more, check out Colleen’s garden on Instagram.
Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum, Zones 5–9) is a small native tree that has beautiful sprays of white flowers in the spring and brilliant leaf color in the fall.
The foliage of this oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia, Zones 5–9) is just beginning to blush red for the fall.
Close-up of oakleaf hydrangea foliage beginning to color up. The flowers of this shrub are beautiful, but they might just be upstaged by the big, dramatic foliage.
A mix of hardy sedums—yellow-green ‘
Angelina’ (
Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’, Zones 3–9) and a dark red–leaved selection of
Sedum spurium (Zones 3–9).
This good-old ‘Autumn Joy’
sedum (
Hylotelephium spectabile ‘Autumn Joy’, Zones 3–9) is living up to its name with big masses of
pink flowers at the end of the growing season.
Sometimes called autumn crocuses,
Colchicum look similar to true
crocuses but differ in many ways, most notably for being highly toxic, which is great if you have trouble with squirrels or voles eating your bulbs. The flowers on colchicum come up in the fall without the leaves, and then the leaves come up in the spring.
Close-up of the colchicum flowers, which look to be the species
Colchicum speciosum (Zones 5–8)
Dahlias (
Dahlia variabilis, Zones 8–10 or as tender bulbs) bloom much of the summer but always peak with the shorter days and cooler weather of fall.
An aster, probably a selection or hybrid of
New England aster (
Symphyotrichum novae–
angliae, Zones 3–8), brings beautiful purple blooms to the fall, much to the delight of a honeybee.
Virginia creeper (
Parthenocissus quinquefolia, Zones 3–9) is a vigorous native vine that loves to scramble up fences or trees, and turns brilliant shades of red in the fall.
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Comments
Really pretty fall colors
Thank you Patty!
Asters - one of my fall favorites.
Love them...think this is purple dome.
Hi, Colleen. Thank you for sharing a variety of autumn colored leaf and flower photographs.
I don't remember seeing Oxydendrum arboreum inflorescence before - nice! I hope we'll see some of your container plantings in the future!
Hi Cynthia, they can be a little fussy-best grown from container and resent being moved. This was a particularly scrappy little specimen but has grown up nicely:). Thank you for the kind words!
A very nice perspective of your garden, focused on all the interesting textures. I really like the photo with Autumn Joy showing 3 layers of textures all working together.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! Was going for the layered look...happy you noticed:)
Love these rich colors and textures!
Thank you! Great color here in the northeast, despite the VERY dry and exceptionally hot summer we had.
GREAT to see a garden designer with good taste in color and texture combinations; the extra bonus [for us] being your great skill with a camera. thx. so much for the treat!
mindy
Thank you Mindy...made my day!
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