Don’t let those outdoor pots sit empty — it’s time to add some color to the garden

In the Garden

Nothing detracts from a garden more than empty pots, or worse yet, pots filled with dead plants left over from summer displays.

This is a great time to repot them with a combination of colorful evergreen shrubs, perennials and flowering annuals. Planting them up now will give the plants time to acclimate before really cold weather sets in, and at this time of year the nurseries are overflowing with great plants for fall planting.

The key to creating a stunning winter combination is to use a variety of colorful evergreen plants with varied form and texture. You don’t have to worry about sun or shade because the winter sun isn’t strong enough to make a difference. It is important to choose plants that are well-proportioned to the size of the pot you’re working with.

Start with something spiky, such as a small conifer (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana ‘Blue Surprise’ for example) or maybe a columnar Japanese holly as the centerpiece. Then fill in with intermediate-sized evergreen shrubs with colorful foliage, such as Gold Coast Holly or the holly-like Osmanthus heterophyllus ‘Goshiki’; then nestle in a showy heuchera or two in-between.

Add bold texture with the leathery golden-orange, swordlike leaves of Libertia peregrinans, or go with the softer touch using the fine textured feathery foliage of a few upright-growing heathers. Reflect the variegated color scheme while adding a spiller effect by placing a few variegated ivy or Vinca major along the outside to weep over the side.

Finally, give your design a splash of color by tucking in as many winter-blooming pansies as possible. Your newly planted containers will make your winter garden look so cheery and attractive, it might end up featured on the cover of Sunset Magazine!

Spice up the autumn garden with a sweet shrub

Now and then a shrub comes along that is not only highly attractive, but pest-free and amazingly adaptable. Virginia sweetspire (Itea virginica) is native to the eastern United States. This deciduous shrub thrives in both moist and dry conditions, including drought. It can handle baking sun or deep shade, although it flowers more profusely and develops the best fall color when it receives some sun.

In May or June, 6-inch long, drooping bottlebrush flowers will appear. The tiny white blossoms are sweetly fragrant, eventually forming light tan seeds that last well into winter, contrasting beautifully with fall leaf color.

In autumn, depending on the cultivar, leaves will change color to brilliant shades of red, orange, purple or yellow, but one of the magic qualities of these shrubs is that they are semi-deciduous. The leaves don’t drop until temperatures fall well below 20 degrees, and the colorful display often lasts until at least the end of January.

The most popular cultivar is ‘Henry’s Garnet’, growing up to 6 feet tall and wide. In fall, its foliage turns dazzlingly beautiful shades of red and purple. If you don’t have room for such a large shrub, ‘Little Henry’ is equally attractive, but maxes out at 3 feet tall and wide. In autumn, this pint-size powerhouse makes up for its small stature when its leaves turn a radiant mixture of orange, yellow and red.

Pest-free, the only problem with sweetspire shrubs is they tend to sucker, especially in moist soil, and left unchecked will eventually form large colonies. If you prefer they stay put, hold off on the watering once established. In dry conditions these shrubs sucker much more sparingly, putting out just enough new shoots to allow you to dig one or two for divisions to propagate new ones in fall.