Setting up a garden harvest of colors
Autumn offers an abundance of opportunities to refresh your garden
with annual color. Plants that show off flowers and leaves in shades
of gold, red, orange, brown and plum celebrate the season and give
your summer-weary garden an extra dash of excitement.
Bulbs, grasses and annual flowers come in a huge assortment of
colors and sizes. There are a lot of great choices for planting and
for picking. Incorporating a few, or a lot, of these harvest-tone
coquettes will give you an October and November garden to remember.
Perennials can stand the test of time and become part of your garden
army.
Ornamental millet is a burgundy grass that has long pointed leaves
and interesting spires of small flowers that turn to seeds. Smaller
grasses such as “red bunny tails” have delicate cattails and slender
leaves. Purple fountain grass has plum-colored blades and blond
cattails.
Established grasses can provide a touch of fall in every room in
the house. After cutting, these bulletproof beauties don’t even need
water to look their best.
If you are planting annual flats of seasonal color, take a look at
the “orange duet” violas and the “jolly joker” pansies. Their orange
and purple color scheme will add a cheerful note to any garden.
Brown and bronze are exciting colors to amplify your garden
volume. Chocolate cosmos have deep brown flowers that look like
velvet. And believe it or not, the fragrance is remarkably like its
namesake.
“Rustic colors” rudbeckia have a red-brown hue and will flower for
two months if you deadhead the blooms-on-the-wane. Sweet potato vine
“blackie” is an unusual groundcover that provides plenty of contrast
in the garden.
Adding “palace purple” coral bells or “dragonwing” begonias to a
shady spot will supply some unexpected texture. These selections look
striking when paired with chartreuse foliage such as Meyers
asparagus.
The soon-to-be-released rose named “hot cocoa” is a floribunda
rose with a beautiful brown character. Floribunda roses have stems
laden with flowers.
If you have planting space in the sun or an empty corner in your
rose garden, you need to incorporate this rose into your collection.
Don’t let the garden hoard all of the elegance. Employ these
special flowers and grasses inside as well. Using a few flowers and
bundles of ornamental grass from your garden can perk up a
store-bought bouquet.
Invest in a few, or many, pumpkins and you can decorate your
kitchen, dining room, entry, porch and garden until December.
Good-bye chrysanthemums, hello “coffee twist,” “chocolate chip,”
“baby bingo” and “brown-eyed Susan.” There are a few new kids on the
block and these fall babies are so cool, they’re hot.
* KAREN WIGHT is a Newport Beach resident. Her column runs
Sundays.
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