September 27, 2006

Mark J. Talbert

Clemson Extension Service

                                         It Is Time to Color Your Landscape

 Autumn is a great time of the year to add color to your landscape. Planting flowers is the usual way to provide color variety. However, the nursery industry has propagated a kaleidoscope of colorful shrubs that can provide contrast while generating depth and appeal. If you think about it, everywhere you look outside it is green. Now we can paint our outside picture with striking  reds, crisp yellows, complemented with hues of purple and burgundy.

 Blending these colors with the basic green that hollies and Indian Hawthorne provide, can add a dramatic effect to the garden. The following are a few cultivars of hardy species that can paint a colorful picture.

 Shown above are Knock Out Roses that flower throughout the summer and are evergreen. Whoa, an evergreen rose, reminds me of my wife, so pretty she doesn’t need make up.

 Vicary privet is a bright yellow, open evergreen that contrasts sharply with the mass of green provided by surrounding shrubs. It has a spread of six by six feet. Dwarf Nandina is a small, evergreen plant that changes colors with the seasons. As fall greets the winter the soft, medium sized leaf turns to red, in the spring it is pale green, giving way to dark green in the summer.

 Winged Euonymous is a deciduous (loses leaves in the winter) shrub that sports a fire red glow in the autumn, it makes a statement in masses intermixed with evergreens.

 Loropetelum is a large, open shrub that has a purplish leaf with a tint of burgundy. It has pink clusters of flowers that bloom intermittently through the growing season. This plant makes an excellent twelve by eight feet screen.  It has a brand new cousin (Daruma) with the same color pattern but in the dwarf size maxing out at four feet tall. Another beautiful screen is the Carolina Saphire, 30 feet by 16 feet, an evergreen tree with a bluish tint, great replacement for Leyland Cypress which grow to 65 feet.

 Dwarf Japanese Barberry is a smaller deciduous plant with thorns. It is open in its form.  The leaf is small, maroon with splashes of pink. It looks very nice in front of Dwarf Yaupon  Hollies or Indian Hawthorn. Deciduous plants blend better when they are mixed with evergreen plants.

 Increasingly more variegated cultivars and colorful plants are being propagated. The use of only green shrubs in the landscape would be like painting all the walls in your house white; OK, but could be more interesting. Contrasting and complementary combinations remove the repetition from the look of the landscape.

Talk to a nurseryman about the species of plants that can provide the colors that you like. Have a good garden. For more information, go to our website, www.clemson.edu/Fairfield.

 The Clemson Extension Service offers its programs to people of all ages, regardless of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital or family status and is an equal opportunity employer.