Can you smell autumn? It is definitely in the air! I love fall for many reasons, but one favorites is the focus on the garden and fall planting.

Fall is the ideal time to “Plant More Plants” as our Virginia Chesapeake Bay initiative encourages. Nature is cooperative with great conditions for both plants and humans. Planted in fall, shrubs, trees etc. can enjoy a long mild season to adjust before winter weather sets in. Once in the ground, they are busy putting roots down and getting acquainted with their new home.  By the time next summer rolls around, they are more able to buck-up to the potential of nature’s punishing heat and drought.

I love all plants and would have one of everything if space and budget allowed. But I have to choose and get real, so I’ll focus on some of my favorites. Since we will be going into winter soon, here are some great plants to provide a special seasonal show.

SHRUBS

• Winterberry, Ilex verticulata ‘Red Sprite’ and other cultivars. Striking red berries on bare stems in winter. FYI, plants need a pollinator companion holly nearby for berry set.

• Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick, Corylus avellana ‘Contorta.’ This plant is almost more interesting and beautiful in the winter with it’s bare, contorted & twisting stems. Often used in arrangements!

• Variegated Winter Daphne odora ‘Aureo-marginata’. Not an easy plant but oh worth the effort. Immensely fragrant blossoms in February when nothing else is blooming much less fragrant.

• Paperbush Edgeworthia. Large shrub will form large colonies or as I prefer can be kept to a single stem displaying a beautiful tropical look in summer. Drooping clusters of yellow or white blossoms in late winter are immensely fragrant.

• Witch Hazel, Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Diane’ and other yellow to coppery flowered cultivars. Large shrub or small tree, immensely fragrant, ribbon like flowers in late winter.

No secret I love fragrant and aromatic plants and foliage.

TREES

• Heritage® River Birch, Betula Nigra ‘Cully’. Amazing exfoliating bark on stems. Unique tree tolerating moist, even wet conditions.

• Crepe myrtles, many various cultivars have beautiful coppery and variegated exfoliating bark with interesting stem and branch structure. Crape myrtles range from a mature height of 3′ to 35′ and vary in many ways. Research the size and color blossom desired and bark characteristics before selection.