Specialty Gardening: Plants that show good Fall foliage color , 0 by sempervirens

sempervirens wrote:
Lovely plants and designs DonnaMack.
I especially like the combination of the white rose backed by the pine with the grasses. That is a very elegant design with textures and flowers combined. The paperbark maple is also well placed and looks good with the grasses. Actually grasses are wonderful most seasons.

I would love to have the room to grow Pinus strobus, the big white pine with long needles, as a backdrop in my yard. And your photo of the pine with the rose and grasses has given me an idea. Although I prefer the straight species I just might be able to fit one of the dwarf or narrow cultivars. A lovely pine behind the fall blooming Witch Hazel would really set the blooms off. I wonder if I can get away with a line of 3 or 4 weeping (pendula) pinus strobus at the fence line. I see them more as an accent plant in gardens. Any opinions on this?

Pagancat, I think Fall and Spring are my favorite seasons in the garden. In the spring the native ephemerals like blood root, trilliums, trout lily,and rue anemone are eagerly awaited in the back shade garden. But I also really appreciate how plants change during the growing season. It always amazes me how the garden changes dramatically from season to season and I enjoy having the front garden start out as a mind mannered bulb garden that ends as a grass native plant garden.

Right now I still have winter pansies blooming. They are always good for 2 seasons, fall and spring. Lavender is almost a 4 season plant. Thyme and tricolor sage still look good even after a week of nighttime freezes.
The rosemary in pots didn't freeze yet and some of the strawberry leaves have colored up with red.