There is no need to complain about the lack of colors in the autumn garden. The luxurious transformation of the crowns of shrubs and trees more than compensates for the reduction in the number of flowering plants. But after the splendor of summer, you don’t want to part with delicate flowers! In order not to languish in anticipation of spring with its riot of flowering, it is worth planting special late-flowering plants for autumn. And you don’t have to limit yourself to perennials. After all, even among the bushes there are stars that bloom in autumn. Shrubs blooming in autumn are not so numerous, but how valuable they are!
What ornamental shrubs bloom in autumn?
Barberry Thunberg
This shrub is famous for its leaves of unusual color - from green to red-violet with a contrasting border or veins. In autumn, the leaves change their color to orange and rich red tones, which makes it even more decorative. It is unpretentious, lends itself well to pruning and grows well in a shady garden.
Derain
Red and white deer trees are grown in city parks and on private farmsteads. Both of these shrubs are attractive in the summer thanks to their large leaves (they can be of different colors, including variegated ones) and small flowers, and in the fall they become even more elegant: numerous berries ripen on the bush, the leaves change color to yellow, red or purple.
Derain white Elegantissima in summer
Red derain in summer
And even after the leaves fall, the turf does not look pale and dull thanks to strong vertical branches with bright yellow-orange or burgundy-red bark.
White dogwood in autumn
Red dogwood in late autumn
cotoneaster
Ideal for hedges. Cotoneaster bushes as part of a landscape composition will delight you all year round: some varieties are found with evergreen foliage with red or black berries. Depending on the season, the leaves are painted in different shades: from bright orange to dark burgundy.
Sumac
In the climate of the middle zone, only one species feels good - downy sumac (staghorn). In autumn, its trifoliate or odd-pinnate leaves become orange or deep burgundy in color.
Staghorn sumac in summer
Staghorn sumac in autumn
Elder
The plant is a bush or small tree with a height of 2 to 6 meters. In our climate, the black elderberry (“Black Tower”) looks most impressive - with large leaves and fragrant flowers. In autumn, it is decorated with black berry-shaped fruits, and the purple leaves turn red-brown.
Euonymus
In summer, this shrub is green in color, but in autumn its foliage turns bright pink with red and purple hues. Euonymus does not require complicated care and pleases the eye throughout the entire summer season.
In landscape design, it is used to decorate fences or outbuildings. In a garden plot, euonymus is often used to create a hedge.
Fragrant plantings
Most flowering shrubs exude a delicate aroma, filling the air with incredible freshness. They should definitely become a decoration of the garden. Fragrant bushes of jasmine, hydrangea and other perennials can brighten even the most gloomy mood.
Jasmine
Jasmine is considered the favorite of many gardeners. If you grow it correctly, you will get a real blooming waterfall.
Jasmine
From June to July, part of your site will be covered with a white cloud of delicate flowers emitting a delicate aroma. What is attractive is that jasmine is a frost-resistant plant that does not require daily care. Despite the fact that it loves moisture and light, it can grow anywhere.
Jasmine bushes grow very quickly, so they are suitable for creating a hedge. There are many varieties of jasmine. There is even terry jasmine. Its appearance is so magnificent that it captivates at first sight.
Its bloom will take you back to spring again and again. To form a snow-white hedge, seedlings are planted at a distance of 0.5-0.7 meters from each other.
Deytsia
The charm of this next gardening favorite can make you want to spend days admiring its intoxicating beauty.
Deytsia white
Deutzia blooms with white, pink and lilac buds starting in late May. This true long-liver is distinguished by its unpretentiousness and frost resistance. He is ready to decorate your site for 25 years.
Deutzia pink
A short but amazingly beautiful shrub has another name - “Bride's Flower” for its abundant graceful color. Drooping branches add luxury to the plantings. If you plant deutia bushes, you will get a lush flowering hedge in a short time.
Deytsia has the following varieties:
- "Star-shaped";
- "Lemoine";
- "Large-flowered".
Buddleya
Buddleia, having bloomed large lilac flowers, will bloom all summer and until October. This is one of the first flowers to bloom, which begins to delight with the aroma of its buds almost immediately after the cold winter.
This type of perennial can be multi-colored, it all depends on the variety.
You need to watch him especially carefully. Its seeds germinate so quickly that they can fill everything around. The plant can be pruned into the most bizarre shapes.
Hydrangea
Perennial, unpretentious hydrangea bushes will delight you with large inflorescences all summer long. Flower growers value this flower for its rich palette of shades (blue, pink, white, lilac) and various forms of inflorescences.
Hydrangea paniculata
Popular varieties:
- Serrated;
- Chereshkova;
- Sadovaya;
- Paniculata.
Despite its frost resistance, it is better to insulate the shrub in cold winters.
Weigela
This perennial is increasingly winning the hearts of gardeners.
Weigela
Weigela blooms small bells somewhere in late spring. Purple-red inflorescences of divine beauty will delight you until late autumn. The beautiful shrub does not tolerate frost, so it requires shelter.
Almond
To decorate your garden, you should definitely buy almonds. The tree can easily tolerate drought and is undemanding to the soil. The most valuable thing is that the tree abundantly blooms beautiful white and pink flowers, reminiscent of sakura flowers.
There are low almonds called “bean” that are not afraid of drought and frost. This exotic variety does not grow more than one and a half meters, has a spherical crown and branches with a reddish tint.
Almond blossom
To admire the blooming almonds longer, you should also plant “Pink Flamingo”. It blooms earlier than other varieties, covered in a pink cloud of velvet flowers.
Pink flamingo
Irga
Tall shrub reaching 3–4 meters in height. Irga is unpretentious and grows successfully on any soil. The plant pleases not only with lush flowering in the spring, but also with delicious berries in the summer. And when autumn comes, the leaves of the serviceberry turn red, sometimes even burgundy.
Hydrangea oakleaf
This large hydrangea is attractive not only for its paniculate inflorescences that decorate the plant from June to autumn, but also for its bizarrely shaped leaves, almost like those of an oak tree. In summer they are dark green, and in autumn they turn deep purple.
Oakleaf hydrangea in summer
Oakleaf hydrangea Little Honey in autumn
The most common varieties of oakleaf hydrangea are Harmony (with white-cream inflorescences up to 20 cm in diameter) and Appleloose (with snow-white flowers).
Bladderwort viburnum
An ornamental shrub with spreading branches that fall beautifully to the ground. Dimensions usually do not exceed 3 meters in height. And thanks to the variety of varieties, every summer resident can find a suitable one, for example, the “Amber” variety turns crimson in autumn, and “Diablo” retains the purple color of its leaves in summer and autumn.
Hawthorn
This ornamental shrub with edible fruits comes in different types. Some in the fall change the color of their leaves to yellow, scarlet or orange, while others remain “dressed” in a dark green outfit until the frost. In September-October, hawthorn fruits in the form of small apples are especially attractive. Their color can be scarlet, orange-yellow, burgundy-black. Moreover, the fruits remain on the bush even after leaf fall.
Hawthorn monopistillate during flowering
Hawthorn monopistillate in early autumn during fruiting
Forsythia
Flowering begins in early spring: the branches of the bush are showered with lemon-yellow flowers, attracting attention. Forsythia is often used as an addition to flower beds and landscape compositions. It pleases with its colorfulness not only in spring, but also in September, when the foliage acquires a bright golden color.
Bodinier's beautiful fruit
The spreading shrub paints the garden palette with purple colors with the help of many small purple-lilac berries. The bush reaches a height of 1.5 to 3 meters, has long dark green leaves and is therefore not noticeable in summer. But in the second half of September, the beautiful fruit plant pleases with its unusual appearance, and the berries remain on the branches until winter.
How to choose a shrub for your site
If you plan to carry out landscaping on your own, without the help of a specialist, then you should choose proven flowering shrubs that are suitable for the climate of the area.
Before purchasing plants, you need to pay attention to the following properties:
- Appearance of the shrub: height, splendor, shape of leaves, flowers and berries, the ability to shape the crown to your liking, compatibility with other flowering shrubs in the garden;
- Time and duration of flowering. When purchasing, it is necessary to take into account seasonal changes in the appearance of flowering shrubs;
- Features of caring for shrubs. If agricultural practices are incorrect, the plant will quickly lose its decorative properties.
With the right choice of plants for the garden, bright flowering bushes will delight the owner with their beauty all year round. It is important to take into account climatic features and cultural characteristics. And also do not forget that even the most unpretentious flowering plants need care and attention.
Spiraea japonica
An amazing plant that changes the shades of its foliage throughout the summer season: bronze in spring, deep yellow in summer, and golden in September. Spring variegation appears in varieties that are brightly colored throughout the summer. Some varieties of spirea do not shed their leaves until the first snow and look very beautiful against its background.
"Magic Nut"
This is perhaps the most amazing shrub that can decorate a garden in the fall. After all, at a time when other plants are withering, it is entering the flowering season. The botanical name of this unusual shrub is Witch Hazel. Unlike its non-winter-hardy counterparts (varieties of witch hazel intermediate), which are often sold in garden centers, it is able to withstand even cold winters, although in severe frosts its annual shoots may freeze. But at the same time, it recovers quite quickly, so there is no big problem in this.
But, most importantly, in October, unusual yellow flowers with a pleasant light aroma bloom on its branches.
Each of them has several very narrow petals, provocatively sticking out to the sides, like tight springs. Collected together in several pieces, the flowers seem like bright spiders “occupying” the branches. It looks attractive and unexpected, adding an original touch to the autumn garden canvas. Hamamelis virginiana. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Snowberry
A shrub with snow-white or pink fruits looks simply amazing in autumn and winter. They are given a decorative appearance by flexible branches strewn with dense balls of berries. Snowberry bushes are medium-sized shrubs, not exceeding 1.5 meters. They easily survive frosts, and their fruits serve as food for birds.
The onset of autumn is not a reason for sadness, because in place of your favorite flowers in the garden you can plant beautiful plants with bright foliage and unusual fruits. Red, yellow and purple shades will create a great mood and decorate your garden.
Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida)
Flowering dogwood (C. florida) is a deciduous tree or shrub 4–6 m high with a wide spreading crown on thin slender stems. The plant's homeland is the eastern parts of North America, where it grows on forest edges.
This type of dogwood has two peaks of decorativeness. In early spring, it blooms very beautifully: a cluster of small greenish-yellow flowers is surrounded by four large petals-bracts (bracts) of white or pink hue.
C. florida in bloom is a stunning sight
Flowering turf also looks no less impressive in the fall. Its foliage acquires such a bright crimson color that it seems as if a fire is burning in the garden. In winter, red berries serve as an additional decoration - inedible for people, but very loved by birds.
Autumn outfit of blooming dogwood
Although the tree is rare in our gardens, it is not difficult to grow. The plant loves the sun, but not hot sun. A place where it will be well lit in the morning and slightly shaded at noon will suit it. Deren prefers fertile, moisture-permeable soil with an acidic pH reaction. The first year after planting requires regular watering, then water only in case of prolonged drought.
In the Kaliningrad region, the shrub is winter-hardy, but since it has a shallow root system, it is better to mulch the tree trunk of young plants in the winter. The optimal planting time is spring.
During flowering, Florida grass goes well with rhododendrons and azaleas. Formed in the shape of a tree, it looks beautiful near a pond, on the lawn, and will decorate the patio.
