Ready for a change? You shouldn’t have to wait long – the brilliant display of fall foliage is right around the corner! Not to mention, this is also the best time of year to plant a new tree or shrub! If you are interested in having your own garden oasis check out some of our favorite trees and shrubs for this fall!
Trees:
Autumn Blaze Maple
Okay, okay, okay – another maple tree? You bet. This tree is everything you want in a shade tree – adaptable, fast-growing, and finishes with hues of bright red and orange fall color. Grows 50 feet tall and wide.
Rising Sun Redbud
Perhaps no other tree provides as much color variation as this one – and not just in the fall! Rising Sun is covered with pink/purple flowers in spring. After the flower, heart-shaped, leaves emerge light green in color. Well into summer when other trees are looking tired, Rising Sun looks its best. New leaves emerge in an aura of colors – yellow, orange, and pink. Fall color is a nice yellow. Grows 15 feet tall and wide.
Wildfire Black Gum
Move over maple trees. There is another shade tree with spectacular bright red fall color and that tree is Wildfire Black Gum. No, no, no – this is not the tree with spikey pokey gum-balls, that would be Sweet Gum. In spring, Wildfire’s leaves emerge red before transitioning into a dark, glossy green. Before falling from the tree, leaves turn a bright fire engine red. Grows 50 feet tall and 30 feet wide.
Green Giant Arborvitae
If fences make good neighbors, then Green Giant Arborvitaes as a living fence make for great neighbors! Often used for screening purposes, this tall narrow evergreen grows fast, is friendly to the touch, and is green year-round. Grows 30+ feet tall and 12 feet wide.
Oaks
An oak tree is a living link between generations. Oaks are generally long-lived and easy going trees that provide cooling shade for our homes and yards and a habitat for wildlife. Our favorites include Swamp White Oak because of its interesting bark texture and glossy green leaf; Burr Oak because of its adaptability to our clay and alkaline soils, and of course White Oak because of its broad spreading habit, russet-red fall color, and also because it is our name! Grow 50+ feet tall and 50+ feet wide.
Shrubs:
brandywine viburnum
Brandywine Viburnum is one of those must have plants with multi-colored jewel like berries, glossy leaves and deep, dark, red fall color! Because the leaves are glossy, they seem to shine in the sunlight. Deer resistant, salt tolerant, seasonal interest and easy to care for makes it the perfect plant for the homeowner! Grows to be 5 to 6 feet tall and wide. Partial to full sun.
Fire Chief Arborvitae
This plant adds yet another color to the year-round and evergreen landscape – orange. Soft light-green evergreen foliage is accented by an aura of orange tips that give the impression of an overall orange shrub. The bronze-orange foliage intensifies through the winter. Grows to be 4 feet tall and wide. Full sun.
Little Lime Hydrangea
A summer-blooming hydrangea for the fall? It is never too early to be thinking ahead to next year. Besides, this variety of hydrangea will likely still be flowering well into September as the large showy plumes continue their color transition into a rich pink hue. Maintained at 3 to 4 feet tall and wide. Full sun.
Bloomerang Dark Purple Reblooming Lilac
This plant was all the rage this year, and why wouldn’t it be? It flowers more than once! Dark purple flowers emit a sweet-smelling fragrance in the spring and yet another round of flower later in the year! Maintained at 3 to 5 feet tall and wide. Full sun.
aphrodite sweetshrub
Covered in big, glossy leaves, this shrub explodes with enormous cupped flowers that look a bit like a deep red magnolia. They start in early summer and continue through the early fall. This is a quite large shrub that needs plenty of space to look its best but when given the space it needs it won’t disappoint. Maintained at 6-8 feet tall and 5-6 feet wide. Part to full sun.
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