Colorful trees add beauty to fall landscapes

As I teach landscape design, I always emphasize correct plant selection. There is no substitute for having the right plant in the right place.

So what is the right plant for a specific place?

While there might be many plants that fill a certain area, it is essential to ask what any plant is going to do in a given spot. Good landscapes are dynamic, and seasonal changes are important considerations.

Fall and winter color are often neglected parts of landscape. Most plants are purchased in the spring, so landscapes tend to be composed of plants that look their best during that season. While that is not wrong, it excludes many plants that make exciting late-season landscapes.

Over the next few months, we will focus on the plants that make landscapes in the later half of the year colorful and dynamic. We will consider trees, shrubs, grasses and other plants.

Like many, I love the fall colors in our mountains, so tree selection is a logical place to start.

Two native maples have spectacular fall color. The Bigtooth maple (Acer grandidentatum) is the more common of the two maples and has varying shades of red, orange and yellow.

The tree grows into a large multistem shrub or small tree with a spreading, round crown. It usually grows about 35 feet tall with slightly less spread. It is intolerant of prolonged flooding, so keep it out of lawns and avoid saline or alkaline soils. It is somewhat shade tolerant.

Rocky Mountain maple (Acer glabrum) is a small, delicate tree with a narrow crown that can grow 25 feet high, but it usually grows as a multistemmed shrub 5 to 6.5 feet tall. In the fall it turns from light green to reddish-orange before dropping its leaves. It likes good drainage and slightly basic soil.

There are many other colorful maples that have been introduced into Utah landscapes. Hedge maple (Acer campestre) is a slow growing maple with a yellow fall color. Amur maple (Acer ginnala) is a large shrub or small tree with a striking maroon to red fall color. The familiar Norway maple (Acer platanoides) is a common street tree with excellent bright yellow fall color.

Sugar maple (Acer saccharum), the New England maple, has spectacular red, orange and yellow fall color. Red maple (Acer rubrum) also has colorful scarlet, orange and yellow leaves. Both of these are less tolerant of Utah conditions and need less alkaline soil to grow and color well.