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Fall Outdoor Season: Color It Autumn

Updated 10-12-23

Many of us in the northeast retreat very reluctantly to the cold season being spent indoors. Instead, we make every effort to extend the outdoor season with the addition of fire pits, outdoor fireplaces, hot tubs, some even adding a four-season room. Most importantly, we want the outdoors to remain inviting.

Outdoor Decor/Displays

One way to make the outdoors inviting is by displaying some of fall’s bounty: gorgeous plants, fruits, vegetables and even berries — all perfect for decorating yards and front door entries.

“Annuals provide color when certain plants are no longer in bloom,” says Deck and Patio’s Dave Stockwell. “Great color producers for fall that last well into several frosts before dying back to the ground include kale, cabbage, decorative peppers, mums, cyclamen, etc.”

It’s also important to add compost to these plants so they get plenty of food while they are blooming, says Dave.

“Cold hardy mums, for example, require water every other day as they have copious flowers and use up a lot of energy and will require additional watering if there’s isn’t sufficient rainfall. But what a cheerful display these fruits and plants offer.”

Hot Tub Fall Weather: Color It Autumn

In your backyard, along with hardy mums in bright colors, fall-colored lounge chairs cushions will draw you outside — not to mention the steamy water of a hot tub. Note: We have hot tubs in stock ready to deliver and install.

Grouping Fall Plants:

For different texture and color, it’s a good idea to create a grouping of fall plants. This nice grouping includes cabbage, deep red mums, and winter pansies for a bright, bold statement. (Photo: Hicks Nurseries)

Ornamental Peppers

Aren’t these ornamental peppers beauties! Grown for their decorative value (although edible, they are rather lacking in flavor) as are the leaves and flowers of the deep red Celosia Cristata (aka cockscomb) behind them. (Photo: Hicks Nurseries)

Planning Ahead for Fall Color

Fall can be a great time to plant color for future autumn glory. Here’s two great ideas:

Rosehips:

Rosehips come from plants also known as Autumn Wild Rose. They can enhance any autumn landscape. Note: Since they can take three years to grow from seeds, you’ll probably want to transplant a grown bush. This is done during the dormant season — sometime between November through February.

This beautiful plant is a wildflower with bright red fruit hips that ripen in fall — and stay around through winter. The rose hips grow as the petals of the summer flowers drop off. These hips contain the seeds of the rose. Prune the bushes down to the ground in winter and then wait. When the temperature warms again in spring, they begin to regrow. By summer, you have wild roses, and in fall, you get the rose hips again.

Sumac:

When we recommend a great plant for fall color, we emphasize ones that are interesting throughout the year. With Sumac shrubs and trees, their displays begin with large flower clusters in spring, gorgeously colored fall foliage (as seen here) with berries that can last into winter.

Any well-drained soil works for this adaptable plant. It can take full sun or partial shade. Note: for the most dramatic fall colors, the flame leaf or prairie sumac have the best flowers and color when planted in full sun.

Keeping It Warm

Custom Outdoor Fireplace:

4-Season Room

Of course, there’s many ways to help keep areas warm. You can go all the way with a four-seasons enclosed room that is heated, or extend the outdoor season with a handsome custom fireplace.

By June Sullivan|2023-10-12T14:07:00-05:00October 4th, 2018|Creative Design, Fire Pits, Gardening, Landscaping, Outdoor Fireplaces, Outdoor Living, outdoor maintenance, Plantings/Pondscapes, Seasonal Landscapes, Uncategorized, Updating Landscape|0 Comments

Fall Planting Tips: Color Interest for All Seasons
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Fall Planting Tips: Color Interest for All Seasons

The color and the delicacy of flowers inspire us in every season. As winter fades, for example, even when leaves haven’t yet appeared on the trees, blasts of color from Crocuses, Daffodils, and Tulips lift our spirits.

The best time to plant the bulbs that will raise up such spring glory is just around the corner — late October to early November. However, you might want to first ensure there’s color and textural interest right now.

For tips on how to ensure color for all seasons, Deck and Patio’s own Marc Wiener, ASLA, Director of Sales and Construction, offers some key planting tips:

Why Fall is the Best Time of Year to Plant:

Foreground: Purple Allium Sphaerocephalon

Fall is the ideal time to plant trees, shrubs, and perennials when floras slowly begin their dormancy process. “They require less watering because the temperatures are cooler during the day and overnight,” says Marc.

“In addition, watering is typically less because they are using less energy to push foliage and roots; although the first two weeks are critical to ensure they get proper watering to ‘heal’ themselves in for the winter.”

Adding Fall Annual Color Interest Right Now

Hardy Mums outside The Deck and Patio Design Center

Decorative Peppers (Photo Hicks Nursery)

“Many of us use annuals to provide color when certain plants are no longer in bloom,” says Marc. “Kale, Cabbage, Decorative Peppers, Mums, Cyclamen, etc. are great color producers for fall and will last well into several frosts before dying back to the ground.”

Marc adds that it’s important to add compost to these plants so they get plenty of food while they are blooming. If you are planting cold hardy mums, they require water every other day as they have profuse flowers and use up a lot of energy and will require additional watering if there’s isn’t sufficient rainfall.

Housekeeping Your Plants

Photo: Berkshire Botanical Garden http://bit.ly/1KWYPW2

“Early fall is also a good time to prune your plants,” says Marc. “Be careful not to prune too late into the fall as frost can damage the stems that have been cut if they haven’t calloused over — inadvertently causing the tree and/or shrub to not bloom or have significant die back.”

Planting Bulbs in Fall for a Beautiful Spring

Parrot Tulips

Bulbs are a inexpensive solution in providing very early color in your garden beginning in early March through late mid-June.

“The best time for planting bulbs is late October, early November,” says Marc. “Bulbs, such as Daffodils, Tulips, Hyacinths, Allium, Crocus, Lilies, etc. all add their own unique color, texture, height, sun and shade tolerance; and some have fragrance (i.e. – Hyacinths),” says Marc.

He adds that how you install bulbs is probably the most important aspect of ensuring they flower in the following spring. “Each type of bulb has it’s own specified planting depth and spacing. It is extremely important that you follow this rule (see following depths) — if not, the bulbs will not flower or may not leaf out. In addition, the pointy tip of the bulb must be planted straight up; otherwise the bulb will definitely not perform as intended.

Planting Depths for Spring Bulbs

Alliums: 8 inches

Crocus: 3 inches

Daffodil: 6 inches

Hyacinth: 7 inches

Tulips: 6 inches

Hyacinths

Tulips

Thanks to Marc Wiener, Deck and Patio’s Director of Sales and Landscape Construction, for his tips today!

Marc Wiener, ASLA

(Note: All photos are by The Deck and Patio Company except where indicated.)

By June Sullivan|2017-01-21T16:34:36-05:00October 1st, 2015|Ask the Experts, Gardening, Landscaping, Outdoor Living, Plantings/Pondscapes|0 Comments

How Are You Using Fall’s Harvest For Outdoor Displays?
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How Are You Using Fall’s Harvest For Outdoor Displays?

When it comes to Fall’s bounty, Mother Nature’s harvest — rich with gorgeous plants, fruits, vegetables and even berries — is perfect for decorating yards and front door entries.

For ideas in what makes the best outdoor displays, we spoke with horticulture buyer Alison Caldwell at Hicks Nurseries (Westbury, Long Island).

“Come Fall, it’s all about hardy mums, winter pansies, and ornamental grasses such as Maiden Grass or Fountain Grass,” she says. “Also, switch grasses start to set their seed heads about now and get a great Fall color.”

Caldwell adds that grouping interesting plants together in combo planters present a bigger punch of color and interest: beauties like Montauk daisies, with their white petals and yellow centers, hardy mums (also ideal for mass plantings on their own), and ornamental peppers. Of course, cabbages and kale are great options, which she says can last all through winter, if the weather isn’t too bad.

“Changing out your petunias or other summer annuals with Fall colors offers a great welcome at your front door,” says Caldwell. “Mums are ideal for this. It’s also common for people to decorate their mail posts with corn stalks or add hay bales around.”

Other tips: wheat sheaves can look great on an entry door, pumpkins in different colors can be mounded together in a planter on the veranda, or, if you’re crafty, you can make a wreath of small gourds and autumn berries for your door.

Post (here or on Facebook) your own ideas for using Fall’s harvest to decorate outdoors.

Outdoor Decorating for Fall:

Believe it or not, the pumpkin is not a vegetable — it’s a fruit, and a berry at that! Along with hardy mums in bright yellow, at Deck and Patio’s design center in Huntington Station, we’ve added lots of these Fall “berries” for pops of bright orange.

Fall Decorating-Mums the Word: (Photo: Hicks Nurseries)

At Hicks Nurseries, mums are on great display. Because of their hearty color, they catch the eye at a distance as well as close up. Consider grouping them in only one or two colors for the most impact.

Grouping Fall Plants: For this nice grouping, cabbage, deep red mums, and winter pansies make a bright, bold statement. (Photo: Hicks Nurseries)

Decorating for Fall:

Outside our design center, we have waterfalls flowing from a stream. Deck and Patio added white, yellow and orange mums along its banks. The full bush of green leaves shown at the top of the yellow mums is a marginal aquatic plant — the clump-forming Iris Versicolor.

Ornamental Peppers (Photo: Hicks Nurseries)

Aren’t these ornamental peppers beauties! Grown for their decorative value, although edible, they are rather lacking in flavor, as are the leaves and flowers of the deep red Celosia Cristata (aka cockscomb) behind them.

Cabbage and Kale (Photo: Hicks Nurseries)

Believed to be one of the world’s healthiest foods, kale and its looser central leaves is really cabbage that doesn’t form a head. Ornamental kale is ideal for your Fall garden; with its sister cabbage, they reach their best color when it gets cold. Note: ornamental kale isn’t quite as tasty as the supermarket kind, so best leave it in the garden.