How to make your garden shine in autumn

Autumn is an interesting time of year in the garden, there’s a final flush of energy before the stillness of most plants for the winter.

With a bit of planning it’s easy to have interesting plants in your garden in autumn, most people are familiar with the beautiful autumn tints of Acers (Japanese maples), like this one below.

But there are lots of other plants that can provide interest at this time of year in other ways, so why not give them a go too?

Seed-heads are a bonus, they supply food for birds, but they can also add an extra dimension to the outline of the plant.

Plants like this Viburnum plicatum tomentosum Pink Beauty have red tints to the leaves as the pink tinged flowers fade and translucent red berries are produced.

Roses like this Rosa scharlachglut, have gorgeous orange hips in the autumn so it’s an interesting way of extending the interest of roses for a longer period of time. The perfect rose is one that has perfume, lovely flowers followed by hips.