Hi Everybody!
Although today’s warm temperatures don’t feel much like it, November is just days away, and that means it’s almost bedtime for the garden. Temperatures may plummet to frosty levels quickly, so get ready! Bring in house plants that vacationed outside for the Summer, but be sure to examine them closely for any hitchhikers (like stink bugs!) that would like to spend the winter in your house.
Many flowers are still blooming beautifully and some are at their peak right now. It would be a shame to leave those gorgeous dahlia blooms to Jack Frost, so watch the weather forecasts and create some lovely floral arrangements before he strikes. Other great additions to your Fall bouquets are Sedum Autumn Joy, Gaillardia (Blanket Flower), Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan), Perennial Geranium, Spiderwort (Tradescantia) hybrids, Pincushion flower (Scabiosa columbaria), Clematis Autumn Joy, Coreopsis Full Moon, Red Yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora). If you’re missing some of these, make a note to add the plants to your garden. There is still time to get perennials in the ground now, and they will come back for several years.
The end of the Summer season doesn’t mean the end of beauty in your garden. Late Fall and Winter gardens can be as lovely as the warm season gardens, if you plan ahead and add plants with “Winter Interest”.
Your newly-planted mums will look even more spectacular with the addition of some decorative cabbage and kale plants, and although they are called pansies, tough little violas can take some pretty cold temperatures before they give up their blooms to the snow.
Adding Ornamental Grasses (staged or planted) to your late Autumn and Winter plantscape will add movement, color, contrast, textures, shape and layers.
Fall is a great time to add some trees and shrubs that have beautiful form and colorful, interesting bark throughout the Winter.
My favorites: Heritage Birch (Betula nigra), Japanese Kerria (Kerria Japonica), Red-twig dogwood (Cornus Sericea), Tall Stewartia (Stewartia monadelpha), Harry Lauders Walking Stick (Corylus avellana Contorta), Small Maple Trees (dissectum, sanguineum).
Create a striking backdrop of colorful evergreens for your plantscape tapestry.
Here are just a few good choices:
Burgundy foliage:
Creeping Juniper (Juniperus horizontalis), Arborvitae Thuja accidentalis “Degroots Spire”, White Cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides) Red Star.
Chartreuse foliage:
Golden Japanese Cedar (Cryptomeria japonica), Sawara false cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera) “Lemon Thread” dwarf.
Blue foliage:
Weeping Blue Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica) “Glauca Pendula”
Don’t forget the birds!
Evergreens and plants with seeds and berries provide food and shelter for our fine feathered friends!
For help with your plantscape, garden questions, or more ideas for your Fall and Winter garden, please contact me. You can reach me by phone at 908 872-8387, by e-mail at, laura@finaltouchplantscaping.com or stop by the website, finaltouchplantscaping.com
Happy Halloween!
Laura Final Touch Plantscaping, LLC is a certified member of the New Jersey Small Business Development
Council Women Business Enterprise
Small Business Enterprise