Fall for Pink

By Ms Sherry

Published: October 7, 2009

crinum lily

encore azalea

one confederate rose plant with all these colors

Pink ribbons are everywhere lately as our communities observe Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. Pink abounds in our fall garden too. In a month usually known for falling leaves of red, bronze, yellow, and orange there is a plethora of pink in the garden. Take a look at the lovelies blooming right now in and near my garden in East Central Alabama. The crinum lily, encore azalea, and the confederate rose are all glorious now. Also in spectacular bloom are Leslie Ann sasanqua camellias and Japanese anemones (my last blog featured one with a white flower but soon after that one a pink one began blooming).

The crinum lily is the epitome of the pass - a - long plant, providing it is not too well established in the owners garden. Friend and gardening expert Hayes Jackson told me that once these jewels are well established it is tough to move them as the bulbs can become huge. Crinum lilies can be difficult to find in garden shops but are available readily online; our local Master Gardener group propagates them and sells them at our yearly spring plant sale. Crinums, like many other plants in the south, like lots of sun but relish some shade from the sun in the hottest part of the day. I have found that mine need regular water to flourish. Crinums also love well-drained soil that has lots of good stuff added. This particular crinum ( I apologize because I no longer remember its name) has bright green sword-like foliage which disappears in the winter. Mulch them really well over the coldest months. The flowers have an exquisite fragrance; and as you can see the bloom is just beautiful. If you find a friend who has them, ask for a piece of this tough - as - nails plant; if not, do a little searching on the net to locate one to add to your garden. A word of caution; put it in the right place and just let it be because, after several years, a crinum is almost impossible to move.

I am also posting a photo of the encore azaleas blooming their hearts out for their second time this year. Encores, unlike the traditional azalea, which blooms only one time a year, bloom in the spring, sometimes sporadically during the summer, and then also put on a great fall show. The one pictured has flowers has solid and variegated flowers and is a joy in the garden. Encore azaleas can take more sun than our spring blooming azaleas; other than that, their culture is like the typical azalea we southerners adore. They do just fine here in our zone 7B/8A winters. Check with your nursery if you plant outside the Lower South climate range to make sure they will be cold hardy as encore azaleas hail from Mobile, Alabama.

The next plant in the triumvirate of pink beauties is the confederate rose (Hibiscus mutabilis), an old-fashioned plant if there ever was one. Easy to propagate from cuttings taken before the first frost, this woody perennial may reach 12 or more feet and can form a small tree. This plant needs lots of room in a sunny place, although it also will welcome a little relief from the hottest sun.  The plant opens from a pink bud and then can vary from pink to white and then get darker as the day wears on; in this case blooms of both colors are on the same bush. This particular one has a double flower but there also is also a plant with a single flowered bloom and plants that have red single blooms. The red ones actually bloom all summer whereas the pink and white ones bloom only in very, very late summer through early fall to the first heavy frost. If you see someone with confederate roses, ask nicely for a cutting. They root so easily before long you can have a row of them in your yard. Confederate roses seem to do fine without a lot of watering provided there is some rainfall during the summer. This rose is in my neighbor’s yard and they don’t baby it at all except for cutting down the dead stalks during the winter.
Now we know why we can think pink in the fall –  so when you consider adding plants for fall color think in or outside the box and say pink is my favorite fall color.