Make Your Garden Glow: Autumn Color Strategies from the Northwest and Southwest

Autumn’s golds, reds, and plums can turn a garden into a luminous retreat. Two design teams—one in Gig Harbor, Washington, the other in Santa Fe, New Mexico—show how to orchestrate foliage, bark, and late blooms for maximum seasonal impact.

Northwest: Frost Meets Fire

Landscape designer Scott Junge transformed a backyard lawn adjacent to an unfenced cliff into a safe, colorful play space for a young family. His palette started with bluish stone from Lynch Creek Quarry for pavers and boulders, paired with weeping blue spruce (Picea pungens glauca ‘Pendula’), blue star creeper (Pratia pedunculata), and woolly thyme (Thymus pseudolanuginosus) as groundcovers. “Blue settles into the landscape and makes greens stand out,” Junge says.

He then layered a “frost meets fire” contrast: a screen of Leyland cypress (× Cupressocyparis leylandii) behind coral bark maples (Acer palmatum ‘Sango Kaku’) and existing vine maples. “The Leylands’ green makes the maples pop,” he notes. Near plants that turn gold and red, he added more weeping blue spruce and licorice plant (Helichrysum petiolare) as foils.

Seasonal Accents at Focal Points

“Your eye goes to color first,” Junge says. Along the winding stone path, he planted twinspur, vine maples, and coral bark maples that cloak themselves in yellow, gold, and apricot. Rusty orange mums catch the late‑afternoon sun. The journey down the path leads to a beach staircase with sweeping Puget Sound views—now a safe, magical corridor for the family’s son.

Southwest: Burnished Golds and Plums

Designers Monika Hellwegen and Azul Cobb created an autumnal garden for a Santa Fe hillside property. Their secret: showcase plants that celebrate the season’s burnished palette.

Contrast Gold and Wine Hues

Ornamental grasses provide tawny tones that glow like lanterns in low fall light. Deciduous trees like catalpa contribute golden browns, and wisteria vines shimmer like gold. For contrast against the gold, they used purple‑leaf plum, ‘Royal Purple’ smoke tree (Cotinus coggygria), and ‘Gulf Stream’ heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica).

Late‑Blooming Beauties

Many shrubs and perennials bloom into fall: ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum, chaste tree (Vitex agnus‑castus), coreopsis, hummingbird mint (Agastache aurantiaca), ‘Moonbeam’ yarrow, Russian sage, Salvia nemerosa, sunset hyssop (A. rupestris), and veronica. Decorative seedpods—catalpa’s long brown capsules, goldenrain tree’s (Koelreuteria paniculata) papery lanterns—add texture and sound.

Grasses Turn Up the Volume

When dry, ornamental grasses rustle in the breeze. “The colors may not blaze like New England,” Cobb says, “but with plum leaves, blond grasses, blue‑violet perennials, and splashes of apricot and pink, the garden comes to life. It’s a subtler palette, equally irresistible.”

Design: Scott Junge, Rosedale Gardens, Gig Harbor, WA (253/851‑7333). Pruning: James Moore, Heron Landscape and Design, Gig Harbor (253/225‑8785).
Design: Monika Hellwegen and Azul Cobb, Carlotta from Paradise, Santa Fe (505/983‑1109).