Colorful & Cool Autumn Gardens

This is the best time of year; of course I’ll say that again in the spring.  But there is something about the fall that is just refreshing and invigorating when you are out in the garden.  To me the autumn doesn’t signify a period of shutting down and dying off but rather of new beginnings and the generation of fabulous, fresh ideas.  I’ve noticed that colorful autumn gardens seem to elude most of us; even with the best intentions in mind the fall landscape can often seem muted and drab.  Is it because we are consumed with raking every leaf that flutters to the earth, or in rapture with football frenzy, maybe we’ve blown the budget on gourds and pumpkins and those perishable items are considered our seasonal “color”.  Well, shake it off because if the colorful autumn landscape of George Osborne’s garden does not titillate and inspire, you need to get your eyes examined.

Osborne, Owner of George Osborne Landscape Design, does not just have just the obvious little round mum or two nestled by the entryway; he is clearly not dependant on the plumes of an ornamental grass here and there for fall liveliness and forget about the predictable cabbage, kale and pansies to accentuate a little oomph of color in this spectacular fall garden, no, no, no.  Instead you’ll witness the waxy leafs of tropical beauties, a billowing, pillow effect of thousands of blooming annuals bright with brilliant colorful faces, and flora that you’ve never even heard of.

“You have to not be afraid to experiment and try to get a sense of things that repeat.” Osborne espouses, “Making plants look like they fit in and aren’t out of place is essential plus you have to use lots of annuals for exceptional year-round color.”  He is definitely not shying away from wowing onlookers with a bevy of flora that is out-of-the-ordinary.  The north side of Osborne’s home is brimming over with a tropical Eden, there is Angel’s Trumpet Brugmansia with huge apricot blooms dangling off the woody-stemmed potted tree, towering Red Stem Thalia waving it’s delicate purple blooms in the autumn breeze, deep eggplant blooms of the Datura with enormous flowers and fascinating lotus-like pods, the purples are intermingled with the petite blooms of Mexican Heather and Periwinkle Vinca, it is a stunning display of fall colors working together effortlessly.  Osborne states, “The garden has to fit together like a big picture it cannot be a bunch of individual areas.  Pots are great as well; they are easy to water and can be changed out often.  People tend to be bashful about pots.  I cram them together until they are about ready to explode.”  As we stand next to a pot brimming over with yellow Lantana and Copper leaf Acalypha wilkesiana.

How did Osborne seem to master the art of a colorful autumn garden while the rest of us are struggling to add interest?  Well, his resume is long and he is clearly not afraid of trying the unique and unusual, he says, “I started working at Fred Pence Garden Center as a summer job.  When I started I didn’t know one plant from another.  I didn’t know an annual from a perennial.  Then I worked for the city for 24 years installing gardens.  For thirteen years now I’ve been doing private landscaping.  I like the challenge, the plants can be difficult but the people can be great.  If I’ve changed a difficult landscape for a client then they often times turn into gardeners.”

Osborne gets a lot of his ideas and inspirations from traipsing around public gardens; he frequents Powell Gardens in Missouri, Muriel Kauffman Gardens in Kansas City and the Botanica Gardens in Wichita.  But he says that the bottom line is you just have to be willing to learn, “You have to learn trees, woody plant, turf and long grasses, annuals and perennials, you have to learn it all to have a spectrum to weave together.  If you hear a gardener say, ‘I don’t want to replant every year…’ well, that person is not going to have continual color.  There will inevitably be periods of no color in an all perennial garden.”

A garden with a plethora of annuals is one sure fire way to keep lasting color but there are plenty of fantastically interesting flora that will stick around year after year and add that lasting structure plus a great boost of color.  In any garden evergreen, variegated and deciduous shrubs with bright autumn foliage will transform the scene into a tapestry of interwoven green, bronze, reds, browns and bright yellows that will last into the winter.  By getting a few base plants that add textural barks, magnanimous berries and surprisingly colorful stems and twigs a gardener can have autumn color through the use of perennials and then add a bevy of annuals as well to mimic Osborne’s creative landscape. 

George Osborne’s Top Pick for Autumn Colored Annuals

• Impatiens
• Vince Periwinkle
• Cup plants, Bat Face Cuphea
• Globe amaranth, Gompherena
• Mexican Heather
• Tropicals, Coleus, Cannas, Thalia, Brugmansia, Datura
• Plectranthus
• Copper leaf Acalypha wilkesiana