Fall adds a certain sense of urgency to the air, especially for gardeners. I just managed to get all of my houseplants indoors before they began to droop and sulk. I snipped off the last of the basil, pulled up the pepper plants and put the last green tomatoes under newspapers to ripen under cover. Here at the Garden we are busy moving the exuberant tropical plants - bananas, hibiscus, elephant ears, palms and more, into winter storage. Coming soon: leaf raking, lawn fertilizing, trimming, composting and of course, massive bulb-plantings!

The urgency is heightened by the fleeting magnificence of fall foliage and thrilling, blue skies. Some of the most brilliantly-colored leaves last only moments on the tree, or so it seems. It’s nice to stop in the midst of all the flurry to let the beauty of a perfect combination soak into your soul. Enkianthus (Enkianthus campanulata)  and fall-blooming Anemones (Anemone japonica) are one such combination. The perfect scarlet of the Enkianthus and the clean, gold-crowned white of the petals don’t coincide every year. Sometimes a frost will clip the flowers before the Enkianthus has completely turned to red. In some years, the Enkianthus doesn’t really reach full color. Anticipation is part of the pleasure.

Posted by Ann McCulloh

A single 4-6 foot  plant of purple angelica (Angelica gigas) provides a striking garden accent. Drifts of three or more can really dominate a space. The deep wine-purple color fits into a lot of color schemes, harmonizing with other reds, purples and pinks while complementing yellows and golds, and creating a pleasing dissonance with greens and blues. The plant provides late-season interest in the C.K. Patrick Perennial border.

This plant is a biennial or sometimes a short-lived perennial. The usual life cycle it follows is to sprout from seed in the early spring and spend the first summer producing foliage. It dies to the ground after the first frost or two, re-emerges the second spring and produces flowers in late summer. After flowering and scattering seed, the plant usually dies. I say usually, because it can sometimes perform counter to type and seems to occasionally survive to flower another year or two. It also re-seeds readily, so it’s hard to tell whether it’s the same plant or a new seedling. Native to Korea, Angelica gigas is hardy in zones 4-9 and thrives in rich, moist, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade.

Purple angelica is a source of nectar for all sorts of flying creatures. Honeybees (which need all the help they can get – under attack by chemical, environmental and disease stresses) frequent angelica blossoms. The botanical family that angelica belongs to, the Apiaceae, is named with the Latin name for bee: Apis. Butterflies, too, can land and sip from the rounded domes of florets without damaging their wings.

Members of the same botanical family as parsley, celery and dill, plants in the genus Angelica, have been used around the world in various medicinal traditions. Chinese medicine, the Ayurvedic medicine of India, and the European herbal practitioners have all found uses for Angelicas of different species. The roots, stems and seeds of Angelica archangelica are also used in flavoring liqueurs and confections and other culinary applications.

Posted by Ann McCulloh