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Seeing Red
Viburnum juddii |
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All of the ingredients required
to produce colorful fall landscapes in Wyobraska
have come together this year to produce another
memorable display of fall foliage. A dry late
summer and early fall season, an early fall cool
spell with just one or two mornings with light
frost, followed by a sunny, warm early autumn with
not too much wind. It all adds up to Wyobraskans
seeing a lot of……….yellow. To be sure, yellow fall
foliage can produce some dazzling fall foliage
experiences—like the mid-day walk through an aspen
grove a few years ago when about half the leaves
were already on the ground, but half still on the
trees. The light from the fall noon sun filtered
through the trembling leaves of the tall aspen trees
above and reflected off the carpet of still shiny
golden leaves below and created what I can only
describe as a golden aura that filled the high
mountain aspen grove. It was one of those rare
experiences that end up permanently etched in one’s
memory. |
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Burning bush is probably the
best known of the traditional landscape shrubs with
red fall color. The traditional burning bush is a
large 10’ tall by 10’ wide shrub, and its fall color
is a bright red as the name implies. It has been
almost entirely replaced by a smaller version of the
plant known, appropriately, as compact burning
bush. The compact form tends to stay in the 4 to 6’
foot height and width. Both of these will grow in
most Wyobraska landscape settings with soil
amendment and irrigation. Two other traditional
landscape shrubs with red fall foliage that I prefer
are serviceberry and viburnums. Serviceberry is a
large shrub which is proving to be adaptable to most
Wyobraska settings. It grows best as a small
multistem tree. It flowers relatively early in the
spring before it leafs out, has attractive and
edible small fruit in the early summer, and provides
a long-lasting show of red and orange fall foliage.
Serviceberry is a large shrub which is proving to be
adaptable to most |
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Previous Articles
April 27, 2006
Crazy Clematis
May 04, 2006
Ornamental Grasses
May 11, 2006
Perennials
May 18, 2006
Herbs
May 25, 2006
Hummingbird Garden
Party
June 1, 2006
Gardening with Kids
June 8, 2006
Wildflower Week
June 15th
Shade Garden
June 29
Thumbs,
Feathers, Fruit
July 6, 2006
Reading Plants
July 13th
Back to the Oregon
Trail
July 20th
Theatre West Garden
Walk
July 27th
Notes from the Garden Walk
August 4th
Cereal Killers
August 10th
Grass Hedges
August 17th
Xeriscape
Refresher Course
August 24th
Fall is for
Planting
August 31st
Tree Roots at the
Old Pen
September 7th
Recipe for Enjoying
Autumn Landscapes
September 14th
On the Road to Casper
September 15th
Fall is in the Air
Coming Soon
A Prairie Garden Journal
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For many fall foliage
aficionados, however, the gold standard of fall
color seems to be red. Red is a dominant fall
foliage color in the hardwood forests of the eastern
United States, but relatively rare in the native
fall landscapes of the American west. The key to
seeing red fall foliage in your Wyobraska landscape
is to think large shrubs, rather than trees. I have
seen many homeowners who want red fall color,
attempt to get it by planting trees which turn red
in the fall. Unfortunately, most shade trees which
turn red in the fall, turn dead in the winter in
Wyobraska landscapes—for a variety of reasons—mostly
related to an inability to grow well in our native
soils. But dependable red fall foliage can be
found in abundance in a group of very adaptable
plants that fall into the large shrub/small tree
category. These are shrubs that achieve mature
heights ranging from 8 to 20 feet, many of which
have other landscape interest other than their red
fall color—like flowers in the spring, colorful
fruit in the summer or fall, and often very
attractive green summer foliage.
It turns out that these are a very useful, but often
underused size of plant in residential landscapes.
They are well-suited to places like building
corners, property corners, and in front of large,
plain wall spaces. In other words, these are the
plants that create the structure of the
landscape—the landscape “bones”.
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Wyobraska settings. It
grows best as a small multistem tree. It flowers
relatively early in the spring before it leafs out,
has attractive and edible small fruit in the early
summer, and provides a long-lasting show of red and
orange fall foliage. Most of the viburnums that
are adaptable to Wyobraska will also provide
excellent and long-lasting displays of red fall
foliage. The viburnums are traditionally-shaped
large shrubs, almost all of which have white flowers
in spring, attractive summer foliage, and
predominantly red fall color. Among my favorites
are lentago viburnum, blackhaw viburnum, jackii
viburnum, and juddii viburnum. All reach a mature
height of 8-12 feet with a 6-8’ mature spread.
So if seeing red—fall foliage in your Wyobraska
landscape—is your goal, there’s no need to take an
anger management course. With a little planning,
and judicious plant selection, it is entirely
possible to see quite a lot of red in your landscape
in coming falls.
Serviceberry
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