Gardener picks plants that will explode with fall color

While other gardens are starting to look drab and dull with the arrival of fall, one Martinez home is bright with blooms of many colors.

//

Sharyn Altman said that summer isn't her best time of year.

"Summer is my least favorite time of year, so it is a joy to concentrate on spring and fall bloomers," said Altman, past president of the Georgia Master Gardeners Association. "If I don't have success with a plant, there is always a different one waiting to be put in.

"As long as plants have been fertilized and watered during the summer, they will reward you in the fall."

Among the plants filling her yard with bright color this year are the Swamp Sunflower, anemones and the butterfly and hyacinth vines.

For a fall display, Altman recommends planting gingers, bottlebrush, angel trumpets, asters and dahlias.

"We live in such a wonderful climate that we can have blooms in our garden year-round," said Altman. "I first heard this thought in a lecture from Ted Stephens of Nurseries Caroliniana in North Augusta, where he lamented about (how) all most homeowners wanted was something that blooms during Masters."

While Altman likes her spring garden to be a gorgeous display, she really anticipates her fall favorites.

Her garden includes a perennial Gloxinia that is iridescent beside a hardy cactus, and a Chinese lantern bush.

And although a few of her fall plants have bloomed a little early this year, she said the display of color is still as gorgeous as ever.

"The fall color of my hardwoods rivals any mountain view, but my husband hates raking up the leaves," she said.

In addition to the garden, Altman enjoys watching the butterfly chrysalis hatch and the butterflies migrate. She has a butterfly chrysalis (cocoon) on her front porch and enjoys monitoring its daily progress.