Garden Centre

Monday, October 19, 2009

Autumn features - bark

At this time of year, as the leaves fall there can be a lack of interest in the trees you’ve planted, but some have gorgeous bark that make it really worthwhile growing them just for their autumn effect.

Lots of people are familiar with the acer griseum, which is also known as the paper bark maple. It has an outer layer of bark that peels back in papery or onionskin layers to reveal a bright coppery inner bark. The leaves are also a copper or bronze colour in spring and turn red or flaming orange in autumn.

A particular favourite of mine, although it requires a bigger garden is the paper-bark birch which has a ghostly white bark that actually gleams in the dark and peels to reveal even more luminous layers of white beneath. It also has pretty golden autumn leaf colour.

Another lovely autumn-barked tree is the sorbus aucuparia which has the appearance of a traditional mountain ash apart from its gorgeous coppery autumn trunk colour.

All three can be underplanted with autumn crocus, excitingly known as naked ladies, which spring out through the autumn leaf litter, as long as there is enough light, to give a show of pink, white and bright magenta.

Acer bark courtesy of wlcutler at Flickr

Labels: acer, autumn colour, autumn crocus, paper bark acer, paper bark birch, sorbus

The All Seasons Gardener at 9:33 AM

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