Grand Finale

Enjoy the show as autumn puts on its final spectacular performance. Carol Klein revels in the colours of the season and explains why every garden should be part of the action

Everyone, even non-gardeners, knows about autumn colour − it is everywhere. In the heart of the city, the colours of chestnuts, planes, sycamores and cherries wash the cityscape with the tones of their glowing foliage. Those who look to the ground are just as aware of it as those with their sights set higher, as leaves tumble down to create carpets of colour on the pavement. Elsewhere, even on normally silent train journeys, travellers can’t help but mention the autumn show, especially on beautiful golden days. It seems to make ever y body happy. Even motorway embankments are ablaze with the flames of brilliant crimson of our native dogwood, Cornus sanguinea, in its autumn guise. And yes, all the talk in the garden is about autumn colour, too.

Autumn colour is all a result of our deciduous trees settling down into their winter routine and abandoning their leaves – it’s a sign of imminent expiry, which makes it all the more poignant. During spring and summer, the chloroplasts within the leaves constantly combine sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to produce sugars to feed the plants and release the oxygen that enables life on earth. As temperatures fall and daylight length shortens, the benefit from the leaves diminishes until it becomes a losing equation and the leaves are relinquished. Before this happens, the chlorophyll within the leaves, which has given them their green colour, is reabsorbed by the tree. The other colours within the leaves, which though present throughout the life of the leaf were disguised by the chlorophyll, can now be seen clearly.

Metamorphosis