Trees And Shrubs For Fall Colour

Close Out Your Season With A Bang!

From Your Friends At Schriemer's

September may herald the ending of another successful gardening season in Manitoba, but wouldn't you rather send it off with a grand finale performance than with a whimper? Have your landscape give one last big hurrah before you settle in for the long cold winter ahead by planting trees and shrubs with fantastic fall colours. It's a performance often overlooked by gardeners, but one with at least as much punch as the best spring flowering extravaganza. Your yard can literally come ablaze with brilliant hues from the fall palette that will be seen from miles away!

If your yard and gardens don't have a starring role in your neighbourhood's final fall fiesta, don't fret! Late summer and fall are among the best times to plant container-grown trees, shrubs and even perennials. Their roots love the warm soil and respond with vigorous growth right through into winter.

Thanks to exciting new developments in plant breeding, we now have a wide assortment of trees and shrubs that are hardy in Manitoba, which are available in a broad range of fall colours. You can complement the predominantly yellow fall shades of our native plants with trees and shrubs that turn rich gold, fiery red and royal purple. Some have rather unique fall colours such as orange or pink, while others display multiple colours at the same time for an unforgettable effect!

Every Manitoba yard deserves at least one tree and a handful of shrubs with excellent fall colour. Here are a few suggestions that you might want to try;

Trees:

Yellow/Gold

- paper birch
- basswood and little-leaf linden
- larch or tamarack
- silver maple
- certain ash varieties (e.g. 'Fallgold', 'Northern Treasure', 'Mancana')

Orange

- Ohio buckeye
- native pincherry

Red

- Amur and Tatarian maples (spectacular fiery reds and scarlets!)
- Freeman hybrid maples (e.g. 'Autumn Blaze', 'Sienna Glen')
- certain flowering crab varieties (e.g. 'Royalty', 'Red Splendor')
- northern pin oak

Pink

- European or Maack's euonymus
- 'Prairie Radiance' winterberry euonymus

Purple

- Ussurian pear (e.g. 'Mountain Frost', 'Prairie Gem')
- American ash
- 'Schubert' chokecherry
- pagoda dogwood

Multicolour

- mountain ash
- sugar maple
- most cherries and plums

Shrubs:

Yellow/Gold

- saskatoon
- certain spirea varieties (e.g. 'Goldmound', Limemound', 'Vanhoutte', 'Fairy Queen')
- 'Dart's Gold' ninebark
- summersweet

Red

- highbush cranberry
- winged burning bush
- sumac (regular and cutleaf varieties)
- black chokeberry
- Japanese barberry (e.g. 'Rose Glow', 'Emerald Carousel')

Purple

- nannyberry viburnum
- red-osier and Siberian dogwood
- 'Miss Kim' lilac
- arrowwood viburnum

Multicolour

- hedge cotoneaster
- certain spirea varieties (e.g. 'Magic Carpet', 'Flaming Mound', 'Goldflame')
- 'Tiger Eyes' sumac
- smokebush

For a look at all the varieties of trees, shrubs and even perennials we offer that have great fall colour, check out the Schriemer's Plant Search tool. Set the colour and the type of plant you're looking for, then click the "Search" button to see a list of options.