Autumn’s colour trends

Keats was so inspired by the season of autumn that he wrote of it thus;

‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells’.

(To Autumn by John Keats 1819)

There is so much happening in the garden at this time of year.  The fruit trees are being harvested and the days are closing in, but not before we are treated to the leaves turning from green to reds, yellows, pinks, oranges and coppers.

Autumn is a magic time and one that I particularly enjoy.  My favourite plants for autumn colour here at Western Plant Nursery are as follows;

Hydrangea quercifolia or oak leafed hydrangea, this is not a common hydrangea but its cones of creamy white flowers in summer give way to a most usual autumn display of pinks and reds.

Glorious autumn colour on Hydrangea quercifolia

Japanese maples are at their best coming into autumn.  Their foliage will light up a sheltered corner of the garden.  These compact and mound forming trees create an interesting focal point.

Japanese maple in autumn colour

Euonymus alatus compactus, sometimes call the spindle bush, it is a very regular looking shrub until it lights up in autumn, it produces interesting berries and then the shrub turns to pink and red.  It is just stunning.  This is a plant ideal for a small to medium sized garden reaching a height and spread of 1 metre.

Autumn pinks on the compact spindle tree

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