Mill Pond Garden to flaunt fall colors Nov. 7

Mill Pond Garden celebrates spectacular fall garden color choices at the local peak.

An open garden day is set for 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 7.

Situated on Red Mill Pond, Mill Pond Garden is a holistic, public botanic garden with a mission to provide both inspiration and ideas for best choices for gardening in the Cape Region.

For tickets and directions, go to millpondgarden.com.

The secret to good fall color display is not just lots of color, but colors that set each other off to great advantage - orange, yellow, maroon, red, purple, tan, brown, gold and blue. Selecting plants that provide these contrasts is a good step.

The second step is to plan for an extended autumnal display of color, one that is not over in a few days, but that lasts a few weeks. For example, a ginkgo tree colors brilliant yellow but drops its leaves in three days, whereas a native red maple provides color of red, gold and orange for up to two weeks, a better choice.

Another consideration to extend season is timing of the color change of different plants. For example, dogwoods are one of the first to color, awash in a deep burgundy from roughly Oct. 20 to Nov. 5. To extend that red color season, the native black gum, or nyssa sylvatica, turns a similar burgundy from about Oct. 28 to Nov. 15, extending the season.

Ideal fall foliage trees for the Cape area include many natives: Red maple, sugar maple, sweet gum, oxydendron, black gum, sassafras and serviceberry autumn brilliance, sumac, and devil’s club. Some non-native ornamentals also can provide great foliage color including some cultivars of crape myrtle, and some cultivars of Japanese maple, especially viridis, are spectacular with color lasting from early November into early December.

Some fruit trees produce great fall color, too, like the Fuyu persimmon, native American persimmon, and some pear and apple trees. Mill Pond Garden recommends caretakers not put all the same leaf color plants together but rather intersperse them with different colors so they can provide stunning contrasts, a greater richness. Displayed together, abundant evergreens set off fall leaf color handsomely.

Fall is not just about leaf color. Besides leaves, for flower color in fall there are the glorious fall-blooming camellias, sasanqua and hybrids, which bloom very abundantly with flowers a bit smaller than the spring-blooming varieties, from late October into January. Shrubs that provide great berry color include the native deciduous hollies, and also crabapple and hawthorn. Some perennial plants provide great foliage color like the native amsonia, a brilliant orange gold. Then there are the winter annuals which if planted in the third week of October to replace the fading summer annuals, provide color both for fall, and winter, and well into spring.

Camellias have been in Cape gardens for a long time but are underused. No shrub adds more to a landscape than a camellia. Preferring part shade, camellias are perfect for the Cape Region. Camellias grow about a foot per year. They like good drainage and compost-enriched soils, with an annual late-winter fertilization with an organic fertilizer, especially horse manure. Camellias in this country are known to live more than 200 years. They help sustain hummingbirds and bumblebees in winter.

Mill Pond garden grows many camellias with flowers from October to June, recommending the following cultivar names: Kanjiro, winter star, Kramer’s supreme, black tie, Londontowne blush, April tryst, debutante, yuletide, setsugekka, Tom Knudsen, Kramer’s beauty, Mrs. Lyman Clarke, in the pink, Camellia sinensis, and Christmas beauty. Tea can be made from fresh Camellia leaves.