Planning
Adding Fall Interest to Your Landscape
Story Highlights
With cooler temperatures, vibrant colored foliage, and wonderful scents in the air, Fall is an absolutely remarkable time to be outdoors. Whether planning a patio, deck, or poolscape, you'll want to include plants in the landscape that will enhance your outdoor living during the Fall season.
In this article, we provide a comprehensive list of trees, shrubs, and perennials that will help you create fall interest for the landscape of your outdoor living space.
Starting Tall with...
Trees
When thinking of fall foliage, most people immediately envision our native forests in stunning shades of red, yellow, and orange. Along with the many great natives found in forests, there are also numerous other garden trees that provide stunning fall foliage.
Pictured: Maple trees, both native and Japanese, provide stunning fall foliage color. Depending on the variety, maples provide fall foliage in shades of red, yellow, and orange.
Known predominantly for their masses of summer flowers, Crape Myrtles also provide stunning fall foliage. Varieties feature red, orange, and yellow foliage.
A true show stopper, Gingko trees offer BRIGHT yellow foliage in the fall. The unique leaf design & branching patterns make this tree an Autumn work of art.
Whether you use a native or Kousa variety, dogwoods provide stunning crimson foliage and attractive red fruit during the fall season.
Though mostly known for their attractive bark and whimsical shape, river birch trees also offer bright yellow foliage in the fall.
This small native tree, best known for it's white Spring flowers and delicious berries, also offers attractive Fall foliage.
Whether it's Higan, Kwanzan, or Yoshino, flowering cherries offer stunning fall foliage. The Autumnalis Cherry also flowers for a second time in the Fall.
Stepping Down to
Shrubs
Where trees mostly offer fall foliage interest, shrubs offer the potential for colorful foliage and flowers in the Fall. Be sure to pair these Fall-interest shrubs with evergreens to increase their impact.
Pictured: When it comes to shrubs, Burning Bush is an all-time favorite for adding fall interest. They are essentially the maple tree of fall shrubs.
This native is named for it's sweet-scented summer flowers, but it also provides a bright spark of yellow in the fall.
Reblooming azaleas, like Encore and Bloom-a-thon, provide a welcome show of flowers in the Fall. Cool pink and purple flowers provide a beautiful contrast with warm-colored Fall Foliage.
It's hard to beat the fall foliage of the native Fothergilla. With every plant, you are guaranteed a perfect mix of reds, yellows, and oranges.
This quintessential Fall bloomer makes a great addition to shade landscapes. As with reblooming azaleas, the cool-colored flowers provide the perfect contrast with warm-colored Fall foliage.
These long-blooming hydrangeas offer flowers into the late summer and early fall. Though early flowers are white, late flowers fade and dry to beautiful shades of cream and pink.
Though their flowers have long since faded, oakleaf hydrangeas offer stunning red and crimson-colored foliage in the Fall.
Another great native shrub that offers red and crimson-colored foliage in the Fall.
To contrast warm-colored fall foliage, consider the purple berries of this shrub.
Much like the sweetspire and fothergilla, consider this native shrub for Fall color.
Ornamental grasses, especially miscanthus and muhly, provide beautiful plumes and foliage in the Fall.
Rarely discussed for anything other than its berries, this shrub also offers bright red foliage in the Fall.
No matter the variety, viburnum shrubs offer stunning fall foliage that ranges from red to deep crimson.
Down to the Ground with...
Perennials
Though trees and shrubs typically grab all the attention in the Fall, there are many perennials that can add significant and subtle impact to your landscape.
Pictured: Asters are a native perennial that provide stunning Fall interest. They offer masses of flowers from late Summer into Fall, where their cool colors perfectly contrast the warm colors widely associated with the season.
This fun little perennial lights up the landscape in late Summer and Fall. Looks best when planted in mass.
This low-growing perennial produces masses of blue flowers Summer through Fall and offers red Fall foliage as well.
Though often treated as an annual, mums can be planted in the ground for yearly Fall interest.
This native wildflower lights up highways and open areas from late Summer into early Fall.
Varieties like 'Autumn Joy' and 'Autumn Fire' bloom well into the Fall while other varieties provide vibrant Fall foliage.
This late-Summer blooming perennial will reliably put out flowers well into the Fall, providing cool color interest.
This late-blooming native provides a bright pop of yellow as Summer fades into Fall.
Though rarely discussed for their Fall foliage, hosta provide a bright pop of late-season yellow to shade gardens.
The name is a giveaway that this fern's greatest interest comes in the Fall, when its foliage turns auburn/copper in color.
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