Hit the Dirt; Plants for Autumn

Hi this is Claire Ackroyd and you're listening to hit the dirt. Last week I talked about Autumn in the fall and I promised to mention a few specific plants that I think of a sort of highlights of the full start obviously it's hard to begin anywhere but with the maples and I feel like an intruder an imposter telling any New Englander to look at maple trees since that's probably what brought me to New England in the first place. I expect you all know the sugar maples of these old orange ones and the red maples all the red ones. And as I'm recording this at the end of September the red maples are extraordinary. Every time I see one I really can't believe that a tree can go that red and it's fun to try and look and see you try to play the game with yourself and finding the absolutely read history in the world. There are other maples that you can get that are not native that contribute incredible fall colors that's a beautiful little thing called the Amur maple. AM You are come from the Amur Region in Siberia I think which tons sort of fire engine red is the most shocking burnished. Darn it feels like it be sort of polyurethane for display. Small

leaves a small shabby tree that is unbelievable Citgo station right what it is. Another beautiful plant that's under appreciated and misunderstood. Myth unknown is a thing called the Shan Tung maple Acer truncate M which in my nursery right now is the most extraordinary peach colored sort of soft apricot So it is really almost too pretty and too fragile a colorful fall but makes a lovely contrast with the hotter brighter colors. Burning Bush is a good old favorite I've mystified my mother every autumn for the last nearly twenty years by mailing. Pink burning bush leaves back to England and then out of the envelope. Ten days later dropped a dead broad leaf and she can't understand what that was all about. But they I have never seen in England I had never seen that color in the fall. To find something that is crimson pink as a burning bush you want to miss is amazing is over planted over used but everybody has to have one. An alternative to

that is sort of back up full color plant. There's a delightful little Viburnum called Alfredo. It's a dwarf form with the native bush cranberry has a little leaves that stand straight up and it goes a bright bright orange the right incredible bright harsh gorgeous color with the sun shining on that it's hard to believe that the plant world can produce. Bright colors that becomes another popular plant one that should be well known here that is often grown for its spring flowers rarely thought of for its fall color. Is the Shad Bush or service berry which is I'm a lanky native little tree that has a pretty gray bark. The earliest little white flowers sort of peek out along the hedgerows only you don't have haters in America along the edges of the woods. It sort of hangs out over the road. Little tiny white flowers will hang in while the dainty little drooping clusters. It has beautiful fall colors and if the AMA like your tone well does a series of plants are being

selected by one of these plant breeding selecting programs which are all known as order brilliance as an order brilliance Shadd their order brilliance other things as well. It's worth trying to find that one it's beautiful. Don't overlook some of the common things the F trees. I want to add that everybody realizes that there are two distinct colors. That's because there are two distinct trees. The common a green ash ace of ace a Fraxinus Pa. which tones at this season. A lovely light golden color which is a very important color as a contrast for all the reds and oranges and its near relative. The white ash which is also known as the brown ash in its native wild form goes a rather mysterious sort of brown the purple color and then selected forms as one called. Autumn purple Now the long cold autumn applause is a lovely bright properly read. Excellent colors the contrast with each other. Going to plant two trees plant both I have trees and you can have a

golden a poco my sweet child in the fall populous. People shun poplars an ornamental plant which is correct. The trashy trees but the little quaking aspen the native Popple is grown as a grove you keep cutting out the old ones because as they get old they get nasty black fungus ie diseases and get sort of ratty looking and you cut them out when they get old and the new ones bring up they are the most incredibly beautiful things in the fall. Look at them on a misty day when the sun isn't shining and it looks as if the being artificially lit that gold color sort of reflects light that isn't even there. That mystical and marvelous looking trees in the fall sumac hard to interest people in plucking sumac is regarded as a weed. But if you want to find the brightest colors in the fall the sumac have them they're extraordinary and they're all cut leafed into selected forms of sumac which you could grow in your garden without embarrassment because you could explain that you won't growing native weeds you are growing a fine selective variety and that would make it OK. Don't overlook berries that a wonderful berries in the fall of winter Berry this year is going to be really good. Crab apples you should buy for their better is their fruits as much as for the

flowers. BusinessWeek many others enjoy the full look at all the beautiful colors and keep planting with all in mind and this has been hit the dirt again this week.