AROUND HERE, FALL WEARS ORANGE

We don’t need much of an excuse to celebrate orange, but come October, even Mother Nature seems to get in on the Vol spirit. Across East Tennessee, our hillsides trade summer green for brilliant shades of orange, gold, crimson, and red—putting on a show that can rival a Saturday in Neyland.

And there’s a reason our fall color is so spectacular. East Tennessee is home to an incredible diversity of trees and plants, each changing in its own way as temperatures cool and daylight fades. The result is layer upon layer of color—and it’s something you can recreate on a smaller scale right in your own yard.

When planning a landscape, it’s easy to focus on what looks beautiful in spring and summer. But choosing plants for fall foliage, late-season blooms, berries, and texture can give your landscape another entire season to shine.

Here are five plants we love for bringing a little extra color to the home field this fall

1. Sugar Maple
If you want classic fall color, it’s hard to beat a sugar maple. Its leaves can turn brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red, often all on the same tree. Give it room to mature and it can become a spectacular shade tree and focal point.

2. Oakleaf Hydrangea
We love a plant that earns its keep for more than one season. Oakleaf hydrangeas bring beautiful summer flowers, but their large leaves are the real surprise in fall, shifting into rich shades of burgundy, red, and purple. Their peeling bark also adds winter interest.

3. Fothergilla
Small shrub, big fall performance. Fothergilla is a great choice when you don’t have room for another tree. Its blue-green foliage transforms into a mix of yellow, orange, red, and burgundy in autumn, while fragrant white blooms give you another show in spring.

4. Virginia Sweetspire
This versatile native shrub works beautifully in borders, mass plantings, and areas with a little more moisture. After producing fragrant white flowers in early summer, its foliage takes on deep red and burgundy tones in fall—and the color can linger well into the season.

5. Serviceberry
Serviceberry gives you something to enjoy through much of the year: delicate white flowers in spring, berries that attract birds in early summer, and beautiful yellow-to-orange-red foliage in fall. It’s a great example of why we think beyond a single season when selecting plants.

BONUS: Autumn Embers® Encore® Azalea
Who says fall color has to come from leaves? Autumn Embers brings another kind of October color with vibrant red blooms and the potential to rebloom throughout the growing season. We like this one so much, we’re giving it the spotlight this month. Keep reading to learn why Autumn Embers is our October Plant of the Month.

The takeaway? Don’t design your landscape for May alone. Think about what you want to see from your windows in October, too. A thoughtful mix of trees, shrubs, and perennials can create a landscape that changes with the seasons—and gives you a new reason to enjoy your yard all year long.