Sunny days and chilly nights in fall trigger glorious leaf colours not only in trees but in vines, shrubs and ground-cover plants. For instance, some bergenias flame through the winter with red or purple leaves. If you want to acquire this type of bergenia, look for Autumn in their name or possibly purpurea. But regardless of foliage colour, bergenia is a lovely plant because it has leaves all year, pink flowers in spring and spreads, but not too fast. It is easy to split pieces off or, if you wish, to remove.
Another ground-cover with winter beauty is Geranium macrorrhizum, which produces a dappled pattern of purplish and red leaves through cold weather. It’s a constant pleasure because leaves remain all year round and pink flowers appear in summer.
As well it’s almost unkillable. One gardener told me that she edged her driveway with this geranium. Her teenage sons used to drive their cars over it and it thrived just the same.
Another rugged beauty is Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia).This has spectacular red leaves in fall though it’s perhaps best to admire it in a neighbour’s garden. Though it’s lovely, this vine needs careful placement: on walls it’s scarily tenacious and must be pruned away frequently from windows and doors. On trees it puts down long droppers which need to be cut before they root.
Among fall foliage shrubs, one of the most popular is the Burning Bush (Euonymus alata) with leaves of a dense, emphatic red. Brilliant leaves are all it does, but it’s the kind of red that yells at you across huge parking lots. The variety Euonymus compactus can reach 1.5 metres if you let it.
Two other shrubs with bright fall foliage are the Red Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa Brilliantissima) and the more compact Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa). Both are thick with berries in autumn. These look tempting but are very bitter. They last all winter until they’re mellow enough for birds to eat.
Besides delicious berries for people, blueberries also have clusters of white bell-flowers in spring and in fall reddish leaf colour sometimes with red stems. Blueberries are very valuable in combining food with ornamental value.
In rural areas bears are as interested in blueberries as people are and may be drawn to those gardens. It’s not unknown for bears to tear blueberry bushes down while eating the fruit.
The Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) is one of the most well-loved trees for brilliant fall colour. It has quite a few different cultivars but one of the most widely grown is ‘Bloodgood.’
Mountain Ash (Sorbus aucuparia) trees usually display a mix of yellow, reddish and purplish colours in their fall leaves along with fruit which is usually red or orange. In other species it can be yellow, pinkish or white. The red and orange berries attract flocks of berry-eating birds.
