Native trees and shrubs for fantastic *Red fall foliage

by Mackenzie Younger

Red is a vibrant, commanding color associated with passion, love, and power. It's a color that's commonly used for branding, in art, and in clothing. It's a color that heightens communication, draws attention, and stimulates emotions. While red is an integral part of human culture, it can be rare to find in nature and for that reason, when it does occur, it is extraordinary. Here are our top 10 native plants for red fall foliage.

Sourwood tree | Oxydendrum arboreum | Longwood Gardens, PA | photo: Mackenzie Younger

Red Maple

Apart from its relative, the Japanese maple, very few trees are able to rival the red fall foliage of the North American native. In fact, the red maple (Acer rubrum) was one of the first native trees exported to Europe as a landscape ornamental because of its red foliage.

It's not just the red maple leaves that are red, but its flowers and leaf stems as well. Compared to the sugar maple, the red maple is far more adaptable to different growing conditions and extreme habitats — ranging from wet swamps or dry mountainsides from Florida to Maine. This hardiness and availability at most nurseries make the red maple an excellent choice for any garden or landscape project.

We recommend the cultivars ‘October Glory’ and ‘Autumn Blaze’ for the best fall displays.

'Autumn Blaze' Red maple | Acer rubrum | Gardiner, NY | photo: Mackenzie Younger

2. Tupelo

The tupelo tree (Nyssa sylvatica), also commonly known as black gum, explodes with red foliage in the fall. This fireball of a tree has a prolonged fall foliage period, starting earlier than most trees and lasting longer.

Tupelo is closely related to the dogwood family (Cornaceae) and like dogwoods, tupelos flower and produce fruit. For this reason, this tree is a favorite for honey bees and the fruit that the female trees produce attract songbirds. Often these fruits, purple and blue in color, will persist into the fall, as the trees turn shades of red adding more ornamental value and ecological importance to this special North American tree.

We suggest the cultivars, ‘Northern Splendor’ and ‘Wild Fire’.

‘Northern Splendor’ is a female tree that will produce loads of fruit for wildlife while having awesome red fall foliage. Cross-pollination is needed for fruit to occur, so if you don’t have wild tupelos nearby, we suggest planting a male with this cultivar.

‘Wild Fire’ is one of our favorite native trees for its ornamental qualities. In the spring new leaves flush a multicolored array of red, orange, green and yellow, and then in the fall this tree explodes with color again. Plant ‘Wild Fire’ in full sun for the most enchanting display of hot hues.

‘Wildfire’ Tupelo | Nyssa sylvatica | The New York Flower Farm, Ellenville, NY | photo: Mackenzie Younger

3. Sourwood

The sourwood tree (Oxydendrum arboreum) is an absolute must for red fall foliage. It can be planted in small gardens or large landscapes, making any location more beautiful with its presence.

After flowering in July and august (later than most trees) sourwoods flower structures remain white and drape from its branches adding a wonderful color contrast to its explosive red fall foliage.

Down south and along the Appalachian mountains sourwood makes some of the best honey in North America. Pollinators adore this tree and you will too!

The sourwood is a unique landscape ornamental, rarely available at nurseries despite its incredible ornamental qualities. If you're lucky and find one we recommend planting it as you would with a blueberry, with amended soil, complete with a mix of compost, mulch (pine or bark) and acidifier.

When it comes to deciding on a location, note that it does well in hotter western exposures. The more sun it gets, the more flowers and the more brilliant its red fall foliage will be!

Sourwood tree | Oxydendrum arboreum | Ulster County, NY | photo: Mackenzie Younger

Sourwood tree | Oxydendrum arboreum | Ulster County, NY | photo: Mackenzie Younger

4. Blueberries

Have you ever walked through a forested swamp in the northeast and seen brilliant red shrubs? If you have, there's a good chance that what you were looking at was the highbush blueberry — a native shrub famous for its fruit but also a great plant for an ornamental garden because of this awesome fall foliage. You can’t go wrong with having this native shrub in your yard.

Like sourwood, blueberries are in the heath family (Ericaceae) and require acidic soil, rich in organic matter. For this, we recommend mixing in compost, mulch (pine or bark), and acidifier. The more sun you give these guys the more fruit they'll give you, and the brighter red fall folaige they will have.

Other great native plants in the heath family are lowbush blueberry and huckleberry. These are much shorter than highbush blueberry and tend to spread.

Fun fact: lowbush blueberry has higher amounts antioxidants than highbush blueberry because the blue skin takes up more surface area vs the fleshy fruit inside which lacks the rich color. Both are incredibly healthy and worth including in a daily diet.

Black huckleberry | Gaylussacia baccata | Sam's Point Preserve, NY | photo: Mackenzie Younger

Black huckleberry | Gaylussacia baccata | Sam's Point Preserve, NY | photo: Mackenzie Younger

Lowbush Blueberry | Vaccinium angustifolium | Acadia National Park, ME | photo: Mackenzie Younger

5. Flowering Dogwood

It is hard to find a more perfect small tree for the garden than a flowering dogwood (Cornus florida). Flowering dogwood should be a national treasure for its ecological, cultural and ornamental value. It's one of the most beautiful trees in the world, not just the United States because of its graceful form, spectacular spring flowers and red berries which appear along side the trees red fall foliage.

Flowering dogwood has a graceful branch structure that is delicate yet strong. It can be planted in small spaces such a yards or along buildings or it can be planted in large landscapes under trees or in full sun as a specimen. Flowering dogwood will display hues of burgundy much earlier in the fall than other tree species. So if you want red fall foliage but have limited space, this is the tree for you!

Flowering dogwood goes hand and hand with eastern redbud. These two small flowering native trees can be found growing alongside each other in the wild and make great garden companions. Not only do their spring flowers contrast each other (dogwoods being white and redbuds pink) but the fall foliage does as well (dogwoods foliage red and redbuds yellow).

We recommend using the dogwood cultivar ‘Appalachian Spring’ for the best results. If you want a pink flowering dogwood we suggest ‘Cherokee chief’.

Another truly magnificent dogwood tree is Alternate-leaf dogwood (Cornus alternifolia). Alternate-leaf dogwood has most of the same ecological and ornamental qualities as flowering dogwood, although the branch structure and flowers differ. Alternate-leaf dogwood is ideal for those colder climates where flowering dogwood have issues or a great choice for gardens with some shade and cool soil.

Other native dogwoods include shrubs such as:

Red Osier dogwood (cornus sericea)
Grey dogwood (Cornus racemosa)
Silky dogwood (Cornus amomum)
Round-leafed dogwood (Cornus rugosa)
All of these shrubs have wonderful red and burgundy foliage. If you have the space in your garden or landscape we highly suggest planting as many of these as possible!

Fun fact: Species in the dogwood family are the host plants of spring and summer azure butterflies.

Flowering Dogwood | Cornus florida | Bootbay, ME | photo: Mackenzie Younger

Gray dogwood | Cornus racemosa | The New York Flower Farm, Ellenville, NY | photo: Mackenzie Younger

6. Viburnums

Our native viburnums are a fairly large family of shrubs and like the dogwoods, they almost all turn shades of red. We have found that blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium) and nannyberry (Viburnum lentago) and Witherod Viburnum (Viburnum nudum) are very consistent with their red fall foliage, although arrowwood viburnum (Viburnum dentatum) and highbush cranberry (Viburnum trilobum) can also turn vivid shades of red as-well as orange, purple and yellow.

Viburnums are simply fantastic. They flower in the spring, produce berries in summer, and explode with color in the fall. They are frequented by pollinators and provide both shelter and food for songbirds. We suggest planting them alongside dogwood shrubs, highbush blueberries, and chokeberries to attract wildlife and create a brilliant red display in the fall.

Nannyberry | Viburnum lentago |The New York Flower Farm, Ellenville, NY | photo: Mackenzie Younger

7. Chokeberries

Chokeberries, also known as Aronia, are made up of three primary groups —red chokeberry, black chokeberry and purple chokeberry. All three transform into fireballs in the autumn. These plants are in the rose family (rosease) and have flowers similar to those of apples, plums and cherries. For this reason it's a beautiful shrub in the spring and the fall.

Black chokeberry, although chalky in taste is very rich in antioxidants, reportedly having five times more antioxidants than blueberries —making this native plant a true ‘super fruit’ that everyone should have in their garden.

We recommend planting both black and red chokeberries because they flower at slightly different times and produce different berries. Red chokeberry can almost resemble winterberry with its red fruit that persists deep into winter making this shrub an awesome winter ornamental.

Red chokeberry | Aronia arbutifolia | Boothbay, ME | photo: Mackenzie Younger

8. Sumac

Although common in the landscape along roads and in open areas, our native sumacs can still be a wonderful addition to any garden. There are several reasons why you should consider using sumacs. For one, they have a rather unique form (almost tropical). They also flower and are very attractive to pollinators, and produce berries that birds enjoy! With all that said, the sumac's most pronounced feature is its vivid red and orange fall foliage.

It is important to note before planting that these plants can spread and spread aggressively over time. So if you have an area where you want a mass planting to occur, the sumac is a great choice. If you have a smaller area that you may want to plant, consider planting these in large containers.

Winged sumac (Rhus copallinum) produces consistent hues of red and Burgundy foliage while Stag-horn sumac can be fire-like in its appearance ranging from yellow, orange and red all within one plant. Another great sumac for red foliage is smooth sumac (Rhus glabra).

We’ve planted all three of these sumacs in a large landscape because they flower at different times. (Stag-horn sumac mid-spring, smooth sumac mid-summer and winged sumac in late-summer)

If you're a beekeeper or simply want to help pollinators this is a great method for providing forage throughout the growing season at different times.

Winged sumac | Rhus copallinum | Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, NY | photo: Mackenzie Younger

9. Sweet Gum

Sweet gum is a very common tree in the mid-Atlantic and into the deep South but it is also cold hardy and can be grown in many northern states. In the wild sweet gum can have a medley of fall leaf colors ranging from orange, yellow, purple and red — sometimes all within the same leaf! While wild specimens can be extremely variable in fall color there are some cultivars that, in our opinion, should win awards for the pure red fall foliage.

We've planted the cultivar ‘Worplesdon’ at The New York Flower Farm in upstate New York (zone 5) and it is consistently stunning with its red fall foliage rivaling the tupelos, red maples and sourwoods in its vividness.

Sweet gum makes a great lawn tree and or street tree because of its ability to handle pollution and compacted soil. That said, it may be advisable to use verities that do not produce gum-balls in these situations given the ‘mess’ they create on the ground below the tree. But if the area around the trees roots isn’t ‘pedestrian’ — we urge people to use sweet gums with gum-balls because of their benefit to wildlife, especially songbirds.

Sweetgum 'Worplesdon' | Liquidambar styraciflua | The New York Flower Farm, Ellenville, NY | photo: Mackenzie Younger

10. Scarlet oak

Oaks aren’t known for great fall color, in fact, most oaks really fail in this department but scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea) is a different story. This native tree goes red, bright red in late fall and then retains its dried brown leaves for a long period into the winter. These leaves then create a rustling sound in the wind that can be very enchanting.

Scarlet oak can easily be confused with Pin oak for its many common attributes. Sometimes pin oaks can flush red too but are far less consistent than the scarlet oak. In the wild scarlet oak is found on dry upland sites and pin oak in the wet bottomlands.

If you are looking for a fast-growing oak that has an awesome fall color the scarlet oak is the tree for you!

Red Oak (Quercus rubra) a relative of the scarlet oak, is often assumed to have great red fall foliage but it really doesn’t. Red oak is a poor choice for this application and often turns a dull yellow rather than red. The only true red color red oak produces is in its wood and for that reason red oak wood is fantastic for interior applications such as flooring. Nonetheless red oak is a wonderful tree just not for fall foliage.

If your looking for one more oak to put on a colorful display (ideally red) — we suggest the mighty white oak!