While most of us associate autumn with blazing sugar maples and glowing aspen, trees aren’t the only plants to put on a riotous fall finale. These dynamite shrubs ignite sunny garden beds with an explosion of red, orange, and golden hues. And they provide knockout style the rest of the year, too.
DownHome Harvest™ Rabbiteye Blueberries
The word blueberry probably doesn’t bring an image of autumn to mind, but these native beauties are among the showiest shrubs in the landscape as fall turns the foliage a fiery red. Blueberries offer three seasons of color with a patriotic theme – red fall foliage, white blooms in spring, and luscious blueberries in summer. Plant a row for a unique, edible hedge, or tuck bushes individually into mixed borders to provide a vibrant autumn accent.
Fire Chief™ Arborvitae
This compact evergreen dons a fresh hue for each season, from bright gold in spring to soft orange tones in summer. Foliage darkens to an amber red in autumn that holds through the winter. Fire Chief™ offers a rare combination of season-long structure and dynamic shifts in color all in a tidy, round package. Perfect for dressing up entryways and framing patios.
‘Kaleidoscope’ Abelia
One of the most playful plants in the garden, ‘Kaleidoscope’ Abelia packs an abundance of color into a compact shrub. Variegated foliage emerges in lemon and lime hues, taking on more golden tones throughout the summer months. Autumn brings brilliant orange and red tones to the harlequin foliage. A spray of fragrant white blooms continues to open even as summer wanes. Among the longest-blooming abelias, ‘Kaleidoscope’ flowers well into fall.
Flirt™ Nandina
Add dimension to the autumn palette with the gorgeous multi-hued colors of Flirt Nandina, a dwarf variety whose convenient scale suits myriad uses in the landscape. New growth emerges in a dazzling scarlet red in early spring, but unlike other Nandina varieties, Flirt holds its red tones throughout the summer and maintains attractive, showy foliage through the fall. Glossy crimson berries add additional visual delight, making Flirt Nandina a four-season stunner.
Golden Oakland® Holly
Golden Oakland® Holly is one plant that shines no matter the time of year, and autumn is no exception! Gorgeous variegated foliage packs a powerful visual punch in hues of yellow and green. A dense-growing holly with an attractive vertical growth habit, it makes the perfect colorful screening plant when planted in rows. The golden yellow tones of this evergreen beauty pick up on surrounding plants’ red, orange, and purple hues in the fall, creating a visual masterpiece in the landscape.
