Autumn colour: Our top 12 trees and shrubs

How often do the words ‘good autumn colour’ seal your decision to ‘buy now’ when browsing a tree or shrub you hadn’t actually set out to purchase at all?

Don’t feel guilty. Trees that round off their summer performance with a blaze of glowing crimson give you twice as many bangs for your hard-earned bucks. And there’s something about the vibrancy of a flaming autumn leaf that isn’t quite captured in anything else during the year.

But which are the best to choose? In our view, there are some go-to trees and shrubs if you’re after an autumnal blaze…….. 

Thank heavens for autumn colour! A little compensation for saying goodbye to another summer forever. Prepare to don your sunglasses one more time…….

1. The stag’s horn sumach (Rhus typhina) must be one of the best-known – its jagged leaves at this time of year would put a rainbow to shame in terms of colour palette. Just a ‘heads’ up’ though, it’s horrendous for producing suckers – have you noticed how you never see just one? Resolve to be ‘on this’, or simply admire it in other people’s gardens?

2. The Persian ironwood tree (Parrotia persica ) is a very hardy beauty and its October/November finery is a fabulous spectacle. It’s not a quick grower – could take more than 30 years to reach a max height of 8m – and could even be grown as a large shrub. It is wide-spreading though, which is rather wonderful because it can display that awesome leaf-colour to perfection.

3. A medlar tree (Mespilus germanica) is a bit of a rarity these days. Maybe because its fruits taste like sweet mud and look like a cat’s bottom. Nevertheless, a medlar is a very pretty small tree to have in the garden in both spring and autumn… it’s that double ‘bang for your buck’ right there.

4. If you have plenty of space, how about Liquidambar styraciflua ‘Worplesdon’ ? It’s a eye-popping kaleidoscope in the autumn. My only caveat here would be that its branches are rather brittle so it’s not a tree for a windy spot.

5. And if you want a truly extraordinary and unearthly picture, get a Callicarpa bodinieri ‘Profusion’. It’s hardy pretty much everywhere in the UK and its brilliant purple berries among the turning leaves are 100% guaranteed to blow your mind!

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For botanists like us (I’m excluding Elaine and Caroline here for obvious reasons) autumn is an exciting time.

Millennia ago, deciduous trees took the evolutionary pathway of closing up shop for the winter, withdrawing green chlorophyll from their leaves when light levels dropped, and revealing background beige and yellow carotenes before falling off.

If the autumn is cool and damp, but not frosty, some tree taxa carry out further chemical recycling revealing those gorgeous red and orange compounds of anthocyanin, and this year’s weather pattern is shaping up nicely to make these colours particularly intense. So what trees will really pull out all the stops?

6. For me one of the most valuable contributors to the autumn garden fireworks are the Hamamelis, or witch hazels, and if you are thinking of investing in one I would always check it is a cultivar that gives autumn colour as well as their valuable early spring flowers. Their eventual autumn hue often matches the colour of their spring flowers, so my red-flowered H. ‘Diane’ flaunts beautifully orange and ochre leaves before ending up a solid red, whereas H. ‘Jelena’ settles to a burnt orange, echoing the amber colour of its late winter tassels.

7. If you don’t have space for a spreading witch hazel (or a whopping great Parrotia – they can grow huge…) , try the smaller Fothergilla major. With me it has never missed putting on a fantastic autumn display since I planted it. It’s a neat little tree, which I grow mainly for its autumn colour so am delighted when I spot its sweet little cream flowers in spring like miniature bottlebrushs.

8. Another multi-purpose shrub would be the blueberry; blossom in spring, lovely fresh berries in summer and fiery reds and yellows in the autumn. 

They belong to the genus Vaccinium, acid-loving berried bushes in the heather family, which all colour up well in the autumn. Knowing a native variety, known colloquially as ‘blaeberry’, grows well in the Highlands I asked Caroline to try and photograph a wild vaccinium a couple of years ago, and was slightly disappointed with her answer of ‘wot’s that then?’

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Well a ‘vaccinium’ sounded like a flu jab to me 🤷‍♀️. Being the little sister of a horticultural/intellectual snob is very like being related to a Latin dictionary (BTW what does she mean by ‘tree taxa?’)

9. Here in the Highlands we might have small disappointments … midgies, short winter days (and don’t get me started on pylons and wind farms) but our acid soil does mean we have a profusion of fab-u-lous rowan trees both domesticated and wild, lighting up the landscape with red, yellow or pink berries and gorgeous leaves. Just look at this Sorbus ‘Joseph Rock’ up the lane from me.

Rowans are also reputed to ward off witches – something to consider at this time of year.

10. And E & L won’t mention them, I think they feel they’re passé, but acers – particularly small ones planted alongside ornamental grasses and hesperanthus or rudbekia, are ‘cover girl’ gorgeous in the autumn (see our feature pic). The flaming reds and golds of these Japanese maples are bringing Hollywood-level drama to just about every (sheltered) UK garden right now. Lovely little trees.

11. You can’t exclude deciduous azaleas from this topic. If the medley of their different varieties planted together gives you a migraine in spring (I’m talking directly to old grumps Laura here), opt for A. Luteum. There is a bit of ‘old money’ about this one with its earthy spring scent and knock-out autumn colour. Much loved by the aristocracy and that should include you.

12. And finally, if you also live in Scotland/have an acid soil you really should have an Aronia in your garden. Like callicarpa and azaleas they are more shrub-like than tree-like, but to round off their white flowers; shining black berries (loved by birds and a super-food for humans) their autumn colour is, without doubt, an Oscar nomination in its own right. 

Would all of these be on your list? Are there any we’ve missed in your opinion? We’d really love to know. We are all too willing to press that irresponsible ‘buy now’ button.

You can buy pretty much all the trees and shrubs in this post here. (Remember to check what growing conditions each would need – some of the autumn beauties are a little fussy!) :

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How far is too far to travel to buy a plant you really want? For Louise it was quite a long way to snaffle this very special autumn beauty, which is why it’s her Great Plant of the Month:

Laura and Louise are both off to the Great Dixter Autumn Plant Fair tomorrow, to read about a previous outing to this colourful event, click on the picture below;

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