What are your favorite fall color plants in your garden? Sometimes they aren’t what most people think of. My peonies look wonderful when they get a touch of frost. The big leaf turns color from the edges and then into the middle, a range of light pink to dark pink, changing to red as the weather cools. Amsonia hubertii, or Blue Star, is another stunning plant as the fall progresses. Fine-needled leaves start yellow then become fiery orange.
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Fine Gardening – Issue 220
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Fragrant sumac, Rhus aromatica, is common along field margins and road edges here in west central Illinois and turns a bright, lovely orange / red in the fall. It echoes the sasafras and sets off the yellow hickories. Won't be long!
I love the sumac. We have a native called Rhus galbra that has the same fantastic colors. The Katsura tree, Cercidiphyllum japonicum, is lovely with its bright yellow leaves and compliments it in the garden. Katsura also smells like cotton candy in the fall.