Plants for Fall Color

The medium to large, semi-double to loose peony form flowers are composed of rosy pink to rosy red petals that are edged in a narrow and starkly contrasting bright white band and are centered by a boss of golden stamens often mixed with petaloids. Flowering occurs in early to midseason, October to February, attracting bees and other pollinators. Tama Beauty Camellia is a large flowered Japonica type with a moderate rate of growth and an upright to rounded, densely branching habit maturing into a large rounded evergreen shrub. Provide Camellias with a fertile soil rich in organic matter, with average moisture, and an organic mulch. Images courtesy of Cam Too Camellia Nursery, all rights reserved. Item# 13245

A show stopper! Tangerine Beauty Cross Vine produces a huge mass of 2" orange trumpets with yellow throats in late spring with some blooms throughout summer on well-established vines. An easily grown and vigorous clinging native evergreen vine that can easily grow up masonry, tree bark, or other structures without support.Cross Vines are a low maintenance choice for fences, posts, and large trellises. The trumpet shaped flowers attract hummingbirds, bees and other pollinators. The unusual compound, glossy, dark green foliage takes on orange, red, bronze, and purple tones when grown in full sun during fall and winter.  Item# 12029

An RHS Award of Garden Merit winner! Large, deep red, rose form to formal double to loose peony form flowers accented with darker veining are produced over an extended period from early to midseason, October to February. Tom Knudsen Camellia is a large flowered Japonica with a moderate to vigorous rate of growth and an upright, moderately dense branching habit maturing into a large, upright and rounded, evergreen shrub. Provide Camellias with a fertile soil rich in organic matter, with average moisture, and an organic mulch. Images courtesy of Cam Too Camellia Nursery, all rights reserved. Item# 13246

Yellow trumpet shaped flowers are heavily accented by deep brick red in the throat and are produced in mass in spring to early summer with flowering coinciding with the arrival of migrating hummingbirds. The flowers have a fragrance similar to the candy Bit O' Honey that my mother often enjoyed as we were growing up. The flowers also attract larger bees and other pollinators. The Wabash Valley Crossvine, a selection of Bignonia capreolata from its northern most regions in Wabash County in southern Illinois and was selected by the late Dr. Wesley Whiteside and was introduced to the nursery trade by Ellen Hornig via Broken Arrow Nursery. It was selected at least in part for its reliable zone 6 cold hardiness. The Crossvine is a vigorous semi-evergreen, clinging native vine that produces pads at the ends of its tendrils that can attach to most surfaces without harming brickwork and masonry. These native vines make a low maintenance choice for fences, posts, arbors, and larger trellises. Item# 13055

Another excellent native shrub for the landscape! The dense neat mound of whorled deep green glossy foliage and red tinged stems is topped by clusters of white flowers in spring which make way to red berries ripening through purple and finally black. The flowers attract a variety of pollinators and the fruit attract songbirds and smaller fructivores. Walter's Whorled Class Viburnum is a medium-sized selection of the southeastern native Walter's Viburnum, Viburnum obovatum, and as its name implies, its foliage is whorled around the stem thus providing 33% more greenery as compared to non-whorled selections of this species. This shrub's dense habit lends it to use anywhere a medium-sized shrub is desired in the landscape. It is generally evergreen into zone 8A and tends to be deciduous to semi-evergreen in zones 6 and 7. Use this tough native shrub in place of Dwarf Yaupon, Indian Hawthorne, or anywhere a medium-sized, disease resistant, low maintenance shrub or hedge is desired. Provide a full sun to part shade site in an average to well-drained soil for optimum vigor. Images shown are an example of what to expect with this cultivar but are of the common Walter's Viburnum, Viburnum obovatum. Item# 12730

This white fruited selection of the American Beautyberry adorns itself in dense clusters of 1/8" wide, creamy white, berries that encircle the stems. The fruit begins to ripen and color up in summer but they are most noticeable on the bare winter stems. Apparently the berries sweeten as winter sets in and songbirds find them irresistible. This is a fast growing, native, deciduous shrub that is tolerant of sun to semi-shade but generally flowers and fruits best in full or mostly sunny conditions. Because it flowers on new growth, if the American Beautyberry gets too large it will benefit from periodic hard pruning and still produce fruit the same year if pruning is done before new growth begins in spring. Item# 12224

In late summer and fall loads of dainty 1/2-1" wide white daisies, with yellow centers or disk flowers that age to red-purple, literally cover the plants for weeks and offer nectar and pollen to a variety of smaller pollinators. The White Wood Aster, Aster divaricatum now Eurybia divaricata, is a medium-sized bushy, shade and drought tolerant, vigorously spreading rhizomatous, native perennial common throughout the Eastern US. This is one of the earliest Asters to begin flowering in late summer and can even be utilized as a mum replacement in containers if desired. The White Wood Aster may be best suited to semi-shaded to shaded, naturalistic areas where it will readily colonize eventually creating a groundcover-like mass of offsets. Provide a partly shaded site in average to well-drained soils with average to dryish (once well-established) moisture conditions. Images courtesy of North Creek Nurseries, all rights reserved. Item# 12991

In fall loads of dainty 1/2" wide white daisies with a pinkish-purplish 'eye' literally cover the plant for weeks and offer nectar and pollen to smaller pollinators. The White Woodland Aster or Calico Aster, Symphyotrichum lateriflorum, is a small bushy clump forming native perennial common throughout the Eastern and Central US and spilling over into Canada. It is a common component of our local Pineywoods region that adds a bolt of color beneath that of the changing foliage as well as providing a pollinator food source at a time when many plants have gone to seed for the year but native bees are still stockpiling. The White Woodland Aster is fairly tolerant of full sun to partly shaded sites and is a good choice for meadows, prairies, and roadside plantings. It may reseed on exposed soils, although it does not appear to be aggressive. Caterpillar host: Field Crescent, Pearl Crescent, Texan Crescent, Roadside Checkerspot, Hoffman's Checkerspot, and American Lady. Item# 12039

The tall stems of this native perennial cover up in 1" light purple daisies in late summer and fall. Willowleaf Aster, Symphyotrichum praealtum, produces a multitude of upright to arching stems once well-established and makes a grand statement in the fall garden, prairie, meadow, or roadsides. The flowers attract a variety of pollinators but are an especially important late summer and fall nectar source for native bees. Caterpillar host: Field Crescent, Pearl Crescent, Texan Crescent, Roadside Checkerspot, Hoffman's Checkerspot, and American Lady. Willowleaf Aster or Willow Aster is long rhizomatous, versus clumpforming, and will slowly colonize an area once established creating a dense stand at maturity. Provide a full to mostly sunny site in moist to average moist soils. Cutback to ground level after flowering to prevent unwanted seedlings if desired. Item# 10693.

Clusters of extra large (for a Beautyberry) showy purplish-pink flowers are produced for an extended period beginning in late spring or early summer and continuing into fall all the while ripening clusters of showy rich purple berries. The Willowleaf Beautyberry, Callicarpa salicifolia, is something of a rarity in the horticultural trade but is gaining in popularity for being one of the showiest. This large growing deciduous shrub has a naturally upright to rounded, well-branched habit lending it to use as a specimen plant and as an informal hedge or screen. The fruit attracts songbirds, small mammals, as well as likely deer and other wildlife while the nectar rich flowers attract bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. Provide the Willowleaf Beautyberry with a full to mostly sunny site in an average moist, well-drained, fertile soil for optimum vigor and flowering. Item# 12455

Only one of two Amsonia species to receive a 5-star rating in the Chicago Botanic Gardens trials! Showy clusters of light blue star-shaped 1" wide flowers are produced in spring atop sturdy stems cloaked in dark green willow-like foliage. The Willowleaf Eastern Bluestar has the same basic habit and growth requirements of the more common Eastern Bluestar, Amsonia tabernaemontana var. tabernaemontana, but with larger showier flower clusters that seem to cover the plant, a neat dense vase-shaped habit, and clean disease resistant foliage. An easy to grow, clump-forming native perennial that is tolerant of wet to average moist soils preferring a full to mostly sunny site in the garden and landscape. The flowers of Bluestars attract butterflies and hummingbird moths. Images courtesy of North Creek Nurseries, all rights reserved. Item# 11945

Grown mainly for it's beautiful silvery blue-green foliage, Woodlander's Blue Zenobia also produces large spikes of fragrant anise-scented, 3/8" wide, bell-shaped white flowers in spring and often golden, and sometimes even red and purple, fall color that may last well into winter. Excellent for mass plantings in moist acid soils that are well-drained. Item# 10154.

Light blue narrow rays surround the eye of contrasting yellow disc flowers sit atop the neat mounds of foliage beginning in late summer and continuing into fall. The nectar rich flowers attract a variety of smaller pollinators. Wood's Light Blue New York Aster, a selection of Symphyotrichum novi-belgii or Aster novi-belgii, is a 8-12" x 8-12" compact selection of the species that is a good choice as a replacement for fall mums and can be enjoyed as both a container plant as well as near the front of the border in the garden and landscape. Provide a full to partly shaded site in an average moist, average to well-drained, fertile soil for optimum vigor and flowering. Caterpillar host: Field Crescent, Pearl Crescent, Texan Crescent, Roadside Checkerspot, Hoffman's Checkerspot, and American Lady. Images courtesy of North Creek Nurseries, all rights reserved. Item# 13151