Carol Verhake is sharing some photos of her favorite garden plants. I hope you’ll send in your favorites as well!

Here in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, in my Zone 6/7 garden, I enjoy the transition to autumn. The changing leaf color is evident in the vibrant yellow of my bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora, Zones 5–9) and hickory trees (Carya species, Zones 4–8), and I adore the red-orange color of my Stewartia (Zones 5–9). My variegated stellar pink dogwood (Cornus ‘Variegated Stellar Pink’, Zones 5–9) is beautiful all season long, but its leaves become tinged in pink as the fall progresses, an eye-catching look especially when backlit.

In the flower department, I love the orchid-like flowers of my Tricyrtis (toad lily, Zones 4–8); I only wish the deer didn’t love them too! The berries on my Callicarpa dichotoma ‘Early Amethyst’ (beautyberry, Zones 5–8) steal the show with their intense color, and I like watching the birds enjoy them even if it means fewer berries for me to admire. I like spending time in my garden for as long as I can. My firepit makes some relaxing moments possible even as the temperature falls and the days shorten.

I like using what’s available in the garden for transitioning containers. I used redtwig dogwood, Osmanthus, conifer greens, and dried hydrangea blooms to carry a fall container into the winter season.

Bottlebrush buckeyes get their name from their spikes of white flowers in the summer, but their fall color is pretty spectacular as well.

Callicarpa dichotoma ‘Early Amethyst’ is stunning in the fall, with brilliant purple berries that last until the birds finish eating them up.

Clippings from the garden transform a container into a beautiful arrangement for the winter.

The firepit helps take the edge off chilly autumn and winter days.

Tall hickory trees in their autumn glory catching the sun.

Stewartia have lovely flowers and bark, but it is hard to beat their fall color.

Many plants for the shade garden bloom in the spring, but Tricyrtis bucks the trend by putting out these intricate blooms in the fall.

The leaves of variegated stellar pink dogwood flush an incredible shade of pink as they begin to change color for the fall. This variety has a beautiful display of pink flowers in the spring, but it is hard to imagine they could be as beautiful as these leaves.

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

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