Garden Photo of the Day

Nick’s Michigan Garden

Favorite shrubs in fall

By GPOD Contributor
grasses and evergeen plants surrounding yellow foliage plants

My name is Nick Bresso. I live in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, which is just north of Detroit. My garden is in Zone 6a. We moved to our home four years ago and started with a blank slate for the garden.

grasses and evergeen plants surrounding yellow foliage plants
Fothergilla gardenii (Zones 5–8) put on a magnificent show of fall foliage, surrounded by liriope (Liriope spicata, Zones 4–10). This is my favorite view from the bedroom window.

various foliage plants in fallLow Scape Mound aronia (Aronia melanocarpa, Zones 3–9), golden yew (Taxus, Zones 4–7), and ‘Emerald Gaiety’ euonymus (Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald Gaiety’, Zones 5–8) have all done well in dry soil under a huge pine.

yellow hostas next to round evergreen shrubs and newly planted dogwood trees
Hosta ‘June’ (Zones 2–9) and ‘Summer Gold’ variegated dogwood (Cornus kousa ‘Summer Gold’, Zones 4–8) swap colors in the fall. During the summer, the dogwood has green leaves edged with yellow, and the hosta has green leaves with gold centers. As you can see, in the fall the dogwood turns red and white, and the hosta turns gold and white.

close up of bright red and orange japanese maple
I love Japanese maples, but this ‘Autumn Moon’ variety of full-moon maple (Acer shirasawanum ‘Autumn Moon’, Zones 5–8) has my favorite fall colors.

ornamental grass and various shrubs in the garden
Yews (Taxus spp.), boxwoods (Buxus spp.), and arborvitae (Thuja spp.) are the core of my garden, with a ‘Bihou’ Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Bihou’, Zones 5–9) adding some color.

 

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Comments

  1. cheryl_c 11/24/2022

    Beautiful choices for your garden. You've made some of the same choices I did: fothergilla, hosta "June", Bihou and August Moon. Yours are all further along than mine, so it is exciting to see how they play with their gardenmates.

    1. User avater
      brezzno 11/24/2022

      Thank you!! All have so much to offer in each season

  2. btucker9675 11/24/2022

    Perfect garden to view after a long Thanksgiving day!

    1. User avater
      brezzno 11/25/2022

      Thank you!

  3. [email protected] 11/24/2022

    Happy Thanksgiving, and thanks for sharing your garden. Very nice, and I'm wondering what the pretty grass is. Thanks

    1. User avater
      brezzno 11/25/2022

      Happy thanksgiving!
      The grass in the last picture is a Northwind Switchgrass

  4. User avater
    vanhatalosuomi 11/26/2022

    Great photos, thanks for sharing your garden. I supposedly live in a climate that would support Lirope, but sadly the 100 I purchased to line borders all died. OUCH!

  5. theconstantdecorator 11/26/2022

    Love the showcase of fothergilla & the color/texture mix there! Great gardens. Well done Nick.

  6. User avater
    simplesue 11/28/2022

    I love your awareness of color changes throughout the various seasons, you've done a lot in such a short time creating a beautiful garden!

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