Shrubs and Trees for Fall Color and Winter Interest

The end of summer doesn't have to be the end of color in your landscape. Choosing plants for their fall color, persistent flowers, and ornamental berries will keep your yard attractive well after the first frost. Many trees and shrubs produce brilliantly colored foliage in autumn.

Why do the leaves change color? As temperatures drop, and days shorten in the fall, plants show off their yellow, orange and red pigments. These colors have been present in the leaves all along, but were masked by green pigments during the growing season.

In addition to fall color many trees and shrubs can provide Fall and Winter interest through their fruit and flowers. Several trees and shrubs also have interesting bark and silhouettes throughout the Winter months.

Shrubs with good Fall Color

Deciduous azaleas: bronze, orange-red
P.J.M. rhododendron: bronze
Sumac: orange-red
Chokeberry: red/purple
Enkianthus: yellow, orange, and red
Burning Bush: red
Forsythia: purple
Fothergilla: yellow, orange, and red
Witchhazel: golden yellow
Virginia Sweetspire: reddish purple
Bayberry: bronze
Spireas: orange-red or purple
Viburnums: orange-red

Trees with good Fall Color

Red Maples: orange-red
Sugar Maple: gold, yellow, red, and orange
Silver Maples: yellow
European Alder: yellow
Ashes: yellow, orange, or purple
Ginkgo: yellow-gold
Sweetgum: gold-bronze and red
Tulip Tree: bright yellow
Dawn Redwood: apricot-gold
Oaks: yellow or red
Sourwood: yellow, orange, and red
Bald Cypress: orange
Linden: yellow
Zelkova: bronze-red
Serviceberry: yellow and orange
Redbud: yellow
Tupelo: yellow, orange, and purple
Katsura: apricot-orange
Flowering Dogwoods: red
Hawthorn: coppery-red
Flowering Pears: maroon and red
Hornbeam: yellow
Tschononski Crab: orange, red, and yellow

Plants grown for their fruit or Fall flowers

Evergreen Hollies: red or yellow berries
Winterberry Hollies: red berries
Pyracantha: orange berries
Chokeberry: red or black berries
Oakleaf Hydrangea: persistent flowers
Bayberry: silver berries
Buckthorn: black berries
Viburnums: black, blue, or red berries
Hawthorn: red or orange berries
Flowering Crabapples: yellow or red fruit
Ornamental Grasses: persistent foliage and seed heads

Plants with interesting Bark

Redtwig Dogwood
Yellowtwig Dogwood
River Birch
Paper Bark Maple
Beech
Oakleaf Hydrangea
Sycamore
Amur Maple

Plants with interesting Winter silhouettes

Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
Weeping Cherry
Sargent Crabapple
Weeping Pines
Japanese Maples
Corkscrew Willow
Red Jade Crabapple