Fall is my favorite season – colorful leaves, cooler temperatures, tasty apples, and football (in a normal year, that is). If your desire for autumn color goes beyond the potted Chrysanthemums for sale in every garden center and grocery store, consider these two deciduous shrubs: Callicarpa and Fothergilla.
Beautyberry (Callicarpa) has tiny white or pink blooms in late spring, and so-so foliage. It is a forgetable plant until September, when clusters of purple berries adorn its branches. The berries hold fast to the stems, even after the yellow leaves shed. There are cultivars with white, pink or lilac berries, but why select one of those when you can have grape jam, Barney-like, intense purple? Berry set is heaviest when several plants are grown together. Callicarpa prefers full sun and well-drained soil. It won’t tolerate constantly wet feet. Beautyberry has arching stems, similar to Forsythia. Callicarpa americana is a big shrub, reaching 5 to 6 feet, while its cousin Callicarpa dichotoma is more compact, reaching 2 to 4 feet. The smaller stature plants are easier to incorporate into the home garden. ‘Issai’ is a compact cultivar known for heavy fruiting at an early age.
Beautyberry produces blooms and berries on new growth, so do not hesitate to prune hard during dormancy. These easily-grown shrubs will tolerate severe cut backs, even to a few inches above soil level. A bonus feature is that the leaves contain a compound that repels mosquitos, ticks, and biting flies.
Fothergilla is another easily-grown shrub, a native member of the witch hazel family, with multi-season beauty. In spring, it has white bottle-brush blooms that appear on bare stems. Summer leaves have blue undertones. These shrubs have outstanding fall color, showing yellow, orange, red and burgundy shades all at the same time. If you are considering Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus), please reconsider and choose Fothergilla instead. Burning Bush has red fall color, but it is invasive and should not be planted. (Visit http://invasive.org for more info.)
Fothergilla likes full sun and moist soil. There is a size to fit your need. ‘Mount Airy’ is widely available. It reaches 5 to 6 feet, with similar spread. ‘Suzanne’ reaches to 2 ½ feet with a width to 3 feet. Diminutive ‘Harold Epstein’ reaches only 12 inches in height, with a spread to 18 inches. Bonus feature: This shrub is not normally browsed by deer.
The bright purple berries of Callicarpa show how it earned the common name, Beautyberry.
Even though it has only been in the ground for one year, this ‘Mount Airy‘ Fothergilla shows fantastic fall color.
This is the same shrub shown in the fall color photo. The white bottle brush flowers decorate the early spring garden.