Features

ON GARDENING

September 6, 2008

The shades of fall ON GARDENING MARY PAT APPEL

AUTUMN IN NORTHEASTERN Pennsylvania is usually more pleasant than the cool, damp, fickle springs to which we are subjected. Comfortable temperatures and dry days extend into October, allowing us to savor the last of the gardening season.

I am partial to several key plants for amazing color this time of year. Maples have long held the reputation for being the key players for fall foliage; however, with Asian Longhorned Beetle (a serious, invasive pest) on the horizon, perhaps we should look for other players for this display.

What would fall be without sunset yellows? Larch larix laricina and bald cypress taxodium distichum are deciduous conifers. These fast-growing trees lose their needles for winter but before doing so turn a scrumptious mustard yellow. The tall, tough shade tree ginkgo biloba can’t be beat for lighting up the landscape. For more permanent yellow color, try a hinoki false cypress chamarcyparis obtusa “crippsii” for a slow-growing, medium-size evergreen.

If you yearn for red color, tupelo nyssa sylvatica is a fiery shade tree in autumn. In the shade, our native sassafrass albidum is no slouch. One of my favorites, sourwood oxydendrum arboreum, boasts creamy pendulous seed heads against its crimson leaves.

Shrubs also can add fall foliage. Oakleaf hydrangea quercifolia and sweetspire itea virginiana are strong contributors.

For those of you with minimal garden space, the small, slow-growing paperbark maple acer griseum will add its cinnamon, exfoliating bark to the landscape vista all winter.

American bittersweet celastrus scandens and beautyberry calicarpa americana are not only sources of appealing berries in the landscape, they are notable for cutting and adding to arrangements and wreaths. Do not add Asian bittersweet berries to the landscape or outdoor wreaths. They are an invasive species.

If planting any of these species now, water well as long as the ground is thawed, avoid fertilizing and mulch well for the winter. Evergreen planting is best postponed until spring.

Mary Pat Appel is an arborist certified by the International Society of Arboriculture and a master-gardener coordinator for the Penn State Cooperative Extension. Reach her at 825-1701 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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