autumn colour ideas please

what are good plants to have for some autumn/winter colour please?

wince we moved in our garden has/had lavender, sage, heathers, heucheras (I want more of those), hebes, buddleia, bluebells, daffodils, a peony, 3 spring camellias, wildflowers, fennel, some ferny things, anemone, hydrangeas and fuschias as well as climbing hydrangea, clematis and honeysuckle. I have identified some bushes as fireberry, barberry and cystus (sp?) and something which is currently producing purple flowers but otherwise I think thats about it. oh and my new palm tree and electric pink cordyline. so nothing which will really provide colour over the winter other than the heucheras.

what would be good things to plant to have some colours towards the end of the year. are there autumn flowering bulbs? I do prefer investing in things that I will get every year rather than just one year although I plan to get some winter pansies and cyclamen. I want to get some tulips in for the spring as well, when is best to plant those?

thanks in advance

 

Heleniums, asters and perennial helianthus flower till really late autumn, there are some really lovely winter flowering clematis too(something I'm after this year:WINK1 if you have room Mahonia 'Charity' is a lovely scented winter flowering shrub,bit prickly but nice, my favourite winter flowering shrub has to be viburnum bodnantense which flowers on bare stems in winter(lovely scent).
Best time to plant your tulips is around bonfire night.

 

Tulips are unlikely to be long-lived ?

Acers for Autumn leaf colour in a shrub-sized plant, Liquidamber for a tree. Plenty of other choices for medium to large trees if you have room.

There are Cornus / "Dogwood" that have attractive coloured stems in Winter. Cut them hard back in the spring to general new, strongly coloured, stems for the following year.

Snowdrops and Aconites for early Spring flowering bulbs

 

sorry Kristen the tulips were just an additional mention and separate planting question!

forgot snow drops. I have heard of acers but think I will have to look up everything else.

thanks for your help

 

wow my 2 little girls will love viburnum bodnantense.

space for trees wise is a bit more difficult. we have an enormous bay tree(s) and recently had a very unhappy enormous fir thing removed. We have bamboo and lots of small tree/big bush things down the bottom of the garden and in the front have an enormous yukka, lots of biggish bushes and my new palm tree but I think really space is probably limited to large bushes/small trees.

Acers look beautiful, next door seem to have quite a few, now I know what they are, I was admiring the colours over the winter but didn't know what on earth they were.

my parents used to have a gorgeous copper beach and a silver birch and I always loved the colours on them but I think they would grow too big for the spaces we have

 

Copper Beech makes a nice hedge - in case you need a hedge, you could then get the beenfit without need a fully-blown tree :thumb:

 

hmm will have a think about where we could put a hedge then...
thanks

 

I so love my calicarpa the leaves are nice just now but in Autumn the berries are stunning they are purple.

My many heucheras and helabores.

Christmas box the perfume is so nice on it.

And many more I shall post some photos for you.

 

lol - more things I have never heard of! thanks Scotkat. I would love to see some photos

 

Talking of which I like Butchers Broom - unattractive name, and no scent, but evergreen and nice red berries. Useful under other plants. Bit prickly though!

 

Daphane a must have shrub too and lavendar plants Tree poeny if you have room and peony roses .

 

I would like to get another peony (now i know thats what one of the plants we have is, still a few I am waiting to flower - buds are there - so I can try and work out what they are) and I have lavender everywhere, especially in the front garden along the drive so that we can enjoy the scent. I also have quite a few thyme plants now because I like the foliage as well as the smell

Daphane is another one to google

 

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This my Tree Peony. even if it does not bloom I so love the foliage.



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Lily of the valley is nice to under shrubs.

Skimmia foliage today




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the tree peony leaves are beautiful scotkat.

think we might have a skimmia in the front from the looks of things. didn't know what it was but the name is very familiar and I vaguely remember buying one at some point I think - will have to look for it. it would have come from the old house in a pot but no idea where it has gone, perhaps it died and never made the move. will investigate that.

thanks for the pictures