So maybe you’re like me and you hate making decisions. After checking out all the incredibly rich tones of red, yellow, and orange in our Harvest Hues series, it was just too hard to decide which plants and colors to add to your ‘must have’ list. You lay awake at night tossing and turning over whether to plant a red ornamental grass, Red Indian, behind your yellow fall color hostas, or an orange ornamental grass, Little Blue Stem? There are simply too many options and not enough landscape real estate for you to plant them all!

But fear not! There are quite a few lovely little multicolored fall foliage selections to choose from. Multicolored fall plants transition from color to color through the fall season at different times in preparation for their winter sleep. Leaves may start a vibrant orange, then morph into a stunning red all within a few days; like an autumnal double feather, totally worth the price of admission. Some plants even stay on trend, sporting an ombre look; keeping both their harvest hues at the same time. Although there is no sure fire way to know exactly what color palate a multicolored fall plant holds, the surprise makes it that much more enjoyable. A plant’s chlorophyll, carotenoids, anthocyanins and overall chemical levels, as well as other micro climate conditions determine the seemingly random rainbow effect.

Some multicolored options to satisfy your entire fall color wheel are as follows:

• Fothergilla
• Birch leaf spirea
• Amur maple
• Service berry
• Chokeberry
• October glory maple
• Acer triflorumn
• Boston ivy
• Tupelo
• Autumn Blaze Maple

Fothergilla

Fothergilla

Serviceberry

Tupelo

Perennial geranium

Autumn Blaze Maple

Boston Ivy

Now there is no reason to fret about getting the entire fall medley into your yard. With the typical red, yellow, and orange in combination with a few multicolored wild cards, your landscape is sure to wow from September through November.