Plants for Autumn Colour in the Garden

This season of mists and mellow fruitfulness can be a bit damp and dreary, but its saving grace is a flurry of spectacular leaf colour as trees get ready to shed their leaves for winter.  Here are some of my suggestions for creating a fiery farewell to your summer garden

Most Acers have great autumn foliage colours, but I love watching plain green Acer palmatum dissectum light up in the latter part of the year. 

Euonymus alatus is a wonderful shrub with a layered outline and interesting stems with lateral projections.  It really comes into its own with spectacular fiery autumn foliage earning it the common name of ‘Burning Bush’.  It also has lovely, delicate fruits that the birds feed on through the winter.

Callicarpa bodinerii is notable not for its colourful foliage, but for the clumps of gorgeous bright violet fruits that decorate its bare stems throughout the winter.

Cornus kousa is a fantastic tree for many reasons, not least of which is its deep burgundy red autumn colour. 

Rhus typhina is not a fashionable plant, but you can’t beat it for gorgeous flaming autumn tints.

Ginkgo biloba is a wonderful tree and its lemon yellow autumn foliage is unique and extremely impactful.  If you have the space it’s a must.

Parrotia persica is another spectacular tree with pinkish red flowers on bare stems in late winter/early spring, then lush green leaves throughout the summer that turn yellow, red, orange and purple in the autumn it's a real star. 

Liquidambar styraciflua is a fabulous tree with cork like bark and leaves rather like a maple.  It is renowned for it's deliciously coloured autumn foliage. 

If you would like help designing your garden, please drop me an email, or visit my Web site for telephone contact details.  You can also see examples of my work on my Facebook page and Houzz profile.

Planting Design - Spring Bulbs

Autumn is well underway and it’s a great time to start thinking about planting bulbs.  There’s nothing more cheering than a cluster of creamy narcissus on a dull spring morning.

I choose bulbs to create a succession of colour and interest from the first Snowdrops in January right through to the Alliums in June.  Order online through J Parker or GeeTee for great choice and prices.

Galanthus nivalis (Snowdrops) flower in January, plant in large drifts.

Next up are Crocus which will provide much needed colour throughout February and March.  I get a mixture of the large flowered and species and plant where you can see them.  They grow well in pots of naturalised in lawns and boders.  

Anemone blanda will poke up their heads in borders, under trees and in pots from March through ‘til April.  Their delicate nodding heads among fern-like leaves have earned them the common name Windflower.

Plant narcissus and daffodils in pots or naturalise in grass.  I keep mine in pots as I don’t like having the leave the scruffy looking foliage in my borders.  I simply hide the pots when they’ve flowered and bring them out again the next year.

I love this Narcissus Thalia – it’s scented and a lovely cream colour.

 Tulips will flower throughout April and May.  I prefer the pastel colours to the gaudy reds, but it’s a matter of personal preference.  There are so many different varieties to choose from including the blowsy paeony flowered and parrot types.  I usually select a mix of early and late flowering varieties and plant them in pots.  They don’t like to get too wet and do not last very long in the ground, so need to be re-planted every couple of years.

Alliums are perfect for bringing colour to your borders before herbaceous plants start to kick in.  Different varieties will flower from June onwards into July.  I like ‘Purple Sensation’ and ‘Christophii’.

 

If you would like help designing your garden, please drop me an email, or visit my Web site for telephone contact details.  You can also see examples of my work on my Facebook page and Houzz profile.

Garden Design Surrey

I design gardens all around London and the Home Counties, here are some projects completed in Surrey:-

1.  Long, Narrow Garden Woking Surrey

A long, narrow garden in Woking, Surrey with outdoor rooms connected by a series of curved level changes and turf steps.  Lots of blowsy perennial planting for the client who is a keen gardener. A sunny evening terrace area enclosed with a curved, clipped Hornbeam hedge.  This garden has structure, but is also soft and natural, blending well with it's surroundings.

2.  Large Sloping Garden Design, Kenley, Surrey

A fabulous family garden with multiple terraces and garden rooms in Kenley, Surrey.  Walls are clad with Purbeck stone.  Paving is Black Limestone.  The garden has several large entertaining terraces, a large lawn, tennis court, vegetable garden and black basalt paved driveway.

3.  Large Steeply Sloping Garden Design, Guildford, Surrey

This is yet to be built but is another of my schemes on a very steep slope.  The design includes many different rooms, rendered blockwork retaining walls, entertaining terraces with outdoor fireplaces, a garden room with an outdoor kitchen, a canal water feature, steps and ramps connecting the different garden levels and loads of planting to blend the heavily landscaped scheme into its rural surroundings.

Garden Design Tips - Planting Design

Planting design involves more than simply picking some plants you like and arranging them in a border.  When combined correctly plants should provide year-round interest and colour. Although, this doesn’t mean using a bland combination of evergreen shrubs.  It is the changing nature of plants throughout the year that is part of a garden’s charm.

Plants should be assessed for their individual merits, the most important quality being outline form. Plants with strong outlines give a planting scheme structure and interest even when they have no leaves or flowers. Combine different plant shapes, for example, place a plant with a rounded outline next to one with a spiky upright form like to create some drama.  

 The spiky, dark leaves of Phormium 'Bronze Baby, contrast well with the rounded dark green shape of Hebe 'Rakiensis'.

Leaf shape, size, colour and texture is important.  Combine plants with large leathery leaves with others that have smooth or hairy leaves to create some interesting textural effects.  Choose plants with dark purple leaves and place these next to others with gold leaves for a dramatic contrast.  Place plants with small dark matt green leaves against others with large glossy palmate leaves to give the planting scheme depth.

The rounded, shiny leaves of this Asarum, are a lovely contrast to the large, leathery leaves of Rodgersia and they look great together in a shady, damp border.

 



The gold foliage of Choisya ternata 'Sundance' contrast well wiuth the feathery, dark leaves of Sambus nigra 'Black Lace'.

 

Use plants with dramatic, unique outline forms as focal points to draw the eye to specific parts of the garden.  These plants should have something that separates them from the other plants in the planting scheme such as a dramatic leaf shape, or unusual foliage colour, or both.

Trachycarpus fortuneii and Cornus contraversa 'Variegata' are good examples of plants with strong outline forms and interesting leaf shapes. 

  

Most planting schemes have a backbone of shrubs mixed with herbaceous perennials and grasses.  Although it is important not to allow the plants to obscure one another, it is possible to use larger plants with more open structures further forward in the border.  This will give the planting a looser, more informal look.  

Herbaceous perennials that flower at different times will add colour to the border throughout the growing season.  Plant perennials in odd numbered groups and drifts of no less than three.  Single perennials in a border create a spotty scheme that lacks drama and cohesion.  When working with perennials try to resist the urge to cram in all your favourites – a large drift of one plant works much better than several smaller clumps of different plants.

Echinacea and Achillea are long flowering herbaceous border staples.





Grasses are great for texture and some of the larger ones make good focal points or informal screens.  Many grasses have airy flowers that make a wonderful foil for other plants in the border.  Grasses can be planted in drifts or dotted throughout the border.  Some of the smaller grasses like Pennisetum and Stipa tenuissima make good border edging plants.  Grasses work equally planted in a perennial border or used with architectural plants like Phormiums to soften and blend them together.  Most grasses can be left intact over winter, providing something interesting to look at in the border especially when their dead flower heads are dusted with frost.



 Miscanthus is an excellent tall, architectural grass, whilst Pennisetum is smaller but no less dramatic.

Include scent in the planting by using shrubs with scented flowers that bloom at different times of the year – there are plenty that will flower in the winter.  Heavily scented herbaceous perennials are not so common, but there are varieties with good scented blooms and these can also add scent to the border.  Also, some perennials and shrubs have scented foliage.

Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata' and Skimmia are heavily scented evergreen shrubs that will grow well in shade.   

Good planting design results in a strong, cohesive scheme that has drama, softens the hard landscaping, provides scent and colour, and helps to set the house into its plot.  

If you would like help designing your garden, or if you simply want a new planting scheme please drop me an email, or visit my Web site for telephone contact details.  You can also see examples of my work on my Facebook page and Houzz profile.