Two weeks ago, I wrote about being enamored with purple flowers and the feeling of calm their presence in the garden creates. I mentioned this was not by chance, since purple is an analogous color of green. On the color wheel, analogous colors are found at 90-degree angles to one another. Their combination has a soothing effect when we look at them together. Since the foliage of plants is invariably green, it makes sense that those with purple flowers would be easy on the eyes.
Pink and orange are also analogous colors. I mention them together since a number of species featuring orange or pink or both are thriving now in the fall garden. Let’s start with ornamental grasses that show off pink inflorescences at this time of year. In my own neighborhood, I recently witnessed a pyrotechnic eruption of pink muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris). Pink muhly forms grassy clumps three feet tall and six feet wide, whose flowers shoot up another three feet during the fall season. Then there is ruby grass (Melinis nerviglumis), whose thick flower heads show off every shade of pink with occasional outbursts of ruby red. In contrast to pink muhly, ruby grass is diminutive, with a height of around one foot. Both grasses are clumping and non-invasive in Southern California.
Karley Rose fountain grass (Pennisetum orientale) has those fuzzy foxtail flowers for which fountain grasses are famous; here they are pink. Unlike most fountain grasses, however, Karley Rose is sterile and so you don’t worry about it reseeding up and down the block. There is a final pink ornamental grass currently in bloom. It should be planted with caution since it self-sows. This is a shame since its pink plumes are without equal in the vegetable kingdom. I am talking about pink pampas grass (Cortaderia jubata). This is a majestic plant, growing as tall as ten feet with its burgeoning inflorescences extending an additional three feet up into the air. Glorious as the display of pink pampas grass may be, it is best planted on a slope where it can comfortably take over without concern that other ornamentals will be crowded out by its aggressive growth. Pink Snow Asian jasmine (Trachelospermum asiaticum) and Tricolor star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) have young leaves variegated in pink. This variegation is especially evident now during the fall growth spurt of these varieties as young leaves are more in evidence than at other times of the year. As leaves mature, they take on the sea green color of the ordinary, non-variegated versions of these species.
Moving on to orange fall bloomers, the most magnificent among them is red bird of paradise or pride of Barbados (Caesalpnia pulcherrima). This is a species that grows 10 feet tall and wide and asks nothing more than to be cut down to half its size or less each spring so it can reach its full flowering potential. Left to grow on its own, it becomes spindly and less floriferous.
Another plant with a blaze of orange that stops you in your tracks is red orchid bush (Bauhinia galpinii), a misnomer since its flowers are invariably orange. This is the perfect plant for covering a tall chain-link fence as it grows into a bushy vine to a height of 10 feet with a spread of 15 feet. Then, of course, there is orange lantana, blooming in the fall but in every other season too. Orange lantana is a wonder since once it takes over your parkway strip, as it has done for me, you never water it when it is sheared down to two feet or less, it instantly starts to regrow and flower again.
Two roses have flowers that emerge apricot orange before turning pink. One is butterfly rose (Rosa mutabilis). This species is nearly as drought-tolerant as lantana, needing nothing more than a monthly soak, if even that, in the hottest weather. Hot Tamale is a miniature rose whose flowers change from orange to pink. Miniature roses grow two to three feet tall and make excellent edging plants along driveways or walkways. As long as we’re on this subject, there are even smaller rose bushes, known as micro-miniatures, that grow only six inches to one foot tall with roses as small as an inch across. Although you do not see them too often in nurseries, miniature roses of every description are widely available through Internet vendors.
As leaves turn color during these shorter and cooler days, orange and pink are abundantly displayed. Sometimes we forget one of the assets of crape myrtle trees is their foliar color change. I cannot forget, however, each time I gaze at my own parkway crape myrtle, planted 30 years ago after the carrotwood growing there split in two during a storm. The luminescent pink, orange, and crimson in the leaves and the smooth bark that will soon be exposed when those leaves are gone, are two outstanding qualities of crape myrtles. I should mention that after three decades, my tree does not bloom as much as it once did. Southern California is not the most hospitable climate for these trees, which are actually tropical in origin (native to Southeast Asia and northern Australia). In the Southeast, due to heavier rainfall than we experience, their growth is far more lush than it is here and their life expectancy is double that of our crape myrtles..
Heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica) is an evergreen plant that does resemble bamboo although it belongs to the barberry family, which includes California native Mahonia species such as Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium). In the fall, the foliage of these barberries changes color too, as all manner of pinks, oranges, and reds are revealed.
California native of the week: Blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) is a blue-green grass that grows in tufts. It has distinctive white flower combs that are in bloom most of the year. This grass is grazed by animal herds throughout the Southwest. Once established, it can take lots of water or virtually none at all and serves well as a lawn substitute. When used as a lawn grass, you do not need to cut it more than once a month, preserving three inches of blue grama. Alternatively, you can just let it grow as a meadow or prairie plant, cutting it down once a year at springtime to remove dead growth.
Do you have any pink or orange flowering plants in your garden? Or any whose leaves change color in the fall?. Write your story and send it to joshua@perfectplants.com. Your gardening conundrums and successes are always welcome here.