Top Plants for Autumn Colour in Small Gardens
The clocks have gone back and the nights are drawing in, and after a spectacular summer it really has turned cold. If your garden is looking rather dull and gloomy right now, then this selection of plants can transform that in the future.
Here is my list of favourite, easy-to-grow trees, shrubs and perennials for breath-taking autumn colour in your garden.
Everything I’ve selected will work well to bring autumnal colours to small, suburban gardens, and with a little care will make your garden glow in the autumn sunshine.
Rhus Typhina ‘Tigers Eyes’
This is a small tree with sensational jungle-like, strappy leaves, which gives the most vivid red of all the autumn stars! It has a tendency to spread out suckeringroots, so don’t plant it too close to your lawn.
Euonymus Alatus ‘Compactus’
This is a new, compact version of the Fire Bush. It has incredible red leaves in autumn, followed by red seed pods. Plant it where the low sun will set it ablaze in the evening. Beautiful!
Acer Palmatum ‘Sango Kaku’
The best Japanese maple in my book as it looks fabulous all year round. Its leaves turn butter yellow in autumn, and it also looks gorgeous in winter, after all the leaves have fallen, when its new shoots glow coral-red in the winter sunlight.
Hydrangea ‘Wim’s Red’
This is one of the longest flowering hydrangeas, with huge, wine-red blooms that continue to flower to the end of October, and then look beautiful covered in frost on a winter’s morn.
Salvia ‘ Amistad’
This Salvia flowers well into November in my garden. It can be a little tender, so the odd very cold winter might kill if off, but it’s worth replacing if it does for its glorious purple flowers that go on and on.
This Salvia flowers well into November in my garden. It can be a little tender, so the odd very cold winter might kill if off, but it’s worth replacing if it does for its glorious purple flowers that go on and on.
Anenome x hybrids ‘Konigin Charlotte’
A late summer through to autum favourite, these tall stems proudly cover in pink, cup-shaped flowers. It’s great for the back of a border, and happy in semi-shade.
A late summer through to autum favourite, these tall stems proudly cover in pink, cup-shaped flowers. It’s great for the back of a border, and happy in semi-shade.
Hakonechloa macra ‘Nicholas’
Grasses come into their own in the autumn, and this beautiful, arching low grass adds movement to a planting scheme. It turns to fiery colours in the autumn and is very effective planted en masse.
Grasses come into their own in the autumn, and this beautiful, arching low grass adds movement to a planting scheme. It turns to fiery colours in the autumn and is very effective planted en masse.
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides
A great small shrub for the front of a sunny border, where it will be covered in blue flowers from August to October, this plant also rewards us with vivid scarlet leaves until late autumn.
A great small shrub for the front of a sunny border, where it will be covered in blue flowers from August to October, this plant also rewards us with vivid scarlet leaves until late autumn.
Symphotrichum ‘Little Carlow’
Asters are always a popular choice for autumn, and this is one of the longest flowering, still going strong in October. An autumn star!
Asters are always a popular choice for autumn, and this is one of the longest flowering, still going strong in October. An autumn star!
Nerine bowdenii
Nerines are exotic looking bulbs which flower September to November, just when the rest of the border is going into decline. They like to be baked in full sun, somewhere dry, and enjoy being congested in pots.
Nerines are exotic looking bulbs which flower September to November, just when the rest of the border is going into decline. They like to be baked in full sun, somewhere dry, and enjoy being congested in pots.
Amelanchier lamarckii
One of my favourite small trees. Airy, multi-stem and great value, with white flowers in spring, berries in June and soft orange hues in autumn.