Brian Minter: Hitting refresh for fall and winter

19.09.2023 - 16:45 / theprovince.com / Brian Minter

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After a very hot dry summer, with higher level water restrictions, many of our gardens could use a late summer refresh.

We’re still in late summer and hopefully we will get a few days of rain to help green things up, but it’s important to be thinking ahead about fall and winter colour. When we do get a weather change of shorter, consistently cooler days, hopefully with good moisture, colour makes a difference in raising our spirits.

Winter pansies and violas make a pleasant change, and with now cooler nights, it’s good to get them established early for the best fall and late winter displays. The smaller flowered pansy Matrix series is the most rain and cold tolerant. There is a shift taking place over to the smaller bloomed violas because of their excellent weather tolerance and ability to combine so effectively with other fall and winter plants.  The sooner they become established the more quickly they begin to make a showing in ground beds and containers.

Evergreen grasses are now becoming a staple winter colour because they look great even in the coldest days of winter. Blue fescue grasses, especially Beyond Blue, enliven the landscape and the many new varieties of carex grasses, like c. Everglow and c. Everest, add a new dimension to the fall and winter colour spectrum.

Late summer and fall blooming perennials always seem to add such an invigorating touch to the garden and my favourites are the beautiful Japanese anemones, which are just beginning to flower. Although they prefer morning sun and afternoon shade, they are so versatile they will