The Vampire's Garden: Red and Near-Black Foliage Plants for Fall

Red foliage plants carry red or purple pigment in their leaves for most of the growing season, not just for a few weeks in autumn, and several of them turn deeper as fall nights cool. Red Baron Japanese Blood Grass, Double Play Candy Corn Spirea, Black Lace Elderberry, and Little Devil Ninebark are four we grow that together cover zones 3 through 9 and take a bed from crimson to near black by Halloween. Here is what each one does, how big it gets, and how to plant them together for a gothic garden.

Why do some plants have red or black leaves?

Red, purple, and near-black leaves get their color from anthocyanins, the same pigments that color red cabbage and blackberries. In these plants the pigment sits in the leaf alongside the green chlorophyll and masks it, so the leaf reads burgundy or black while it keeps making food for the plant.

For most of these plants, sun drives the color. Most dark-leaved plants make more anthocyanin in bright light, so the same shrub can look deep purple in full sun and muddy green in heavy shade. Sunny days and cool nights push many of them darker still, which is why a red foliage bed often looks its most dramatic in October. Purple ninebarks are the exception: they can fade in long, hot afternoon sun.

Which red foliage plants hold their color into fall?

Red Baron Japanese Blood Grass: Blood-Soaked Blades

Red Baron Japanese Blood Grass (Imperata cylindrica 'Red Baron') is a slow-spreading ornamental grass whose upright blades start green at the base with red tips, then turn more red as the season goes on and reach deep burgundy by fall. It grows 12 to 18 inches tall in zones 5 through 9.

Plant it where low sun shines through the blades, along a path or at the front of a bed, because backlighting is what makes the red glow. It takes full sun to part shade, with the richest color in sun, and tolerates dry soil once established. Read the section on invasiveness below before you plant it. For taller grasses to back it up, browse our ornamental grasses.

Double Play Candy Corn Spirea: Trick-or-Treat Foliage

Double Play® Candy Corn® Spirea (Spiraea japonica 'NCSX1') is a compact Proven Winners® shrub whose new leaves emerge bright red and mature to yellow, so the plant carries red tips over a yellow mound for much of the season, like a bowl of candy corn. It grows 1.5 to 2 feet tall in zones 4 through 7.

Deep red-purple flower clusters open in late spring and early summer and draw butterflies. After the first frost the leaves turn shades of red, orange, and purple, which is when it earns the trick-or-treat name. Give it full sun for the brightest color. Deer tend to avoid it, and it tolerates clay soil. It is one of several small shrubs in our spirea collection.

Which dark foliage shrubs anchor a vampire garden?

Black Lace Elderberry: Gothic Lace

Black Lace® Elderberry (Sambucus nigra 'Eva') is a Proven Winners shrub with deeply cut, dark purple leaves that look like black lace from a few feet away, and it holds that color through most of the growing season. It reaches 6 to 8 feet tall and wide in zones 4 through 7.

Lemon-scented pink flowers open in early summer, followed by dark berries. It grows best in full sun, which also keeps the leaves darkest, and it handles part shade and clay soil. At its size, one Black Lace is enough to anchor a bed. For more dark shrubs to pair with it, see our guide to shrubs with dark foliage, or compare it with the other elderberry bushes we grow.

Little Devil Ninebark: Devil's Crimson

Little Devil™ Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius 'Donna May') is a First Editions® dwarf ninebark with small, dark maroon-purple leaves that it keeps through the growing season. It stays 3 to 4 feet tall and wide in zones 3 through 7, which makes it the dark shrub that fits in front of a foundation or along a walk.

Pale pink flower clusters appear in late spring and early summer. It tolerates drought, clay, and rocky soil, and its peeling bark adds texture after the leaves drop. It holds its color in full sun to part shade; where summers are hot and humid, afternoon shade helps. It is a selection of a shrub native to central and eastern North America. For taller dark-leaved options, see more ninebark varieties.

How do you combine red and black foliage plants?

Dark leaves disappear against dark mulch and other dark shrubs, so a vampire garden needs contrast in two ways: leaf texture and light. Start with one large dark shrub, such as Black Lace, as the anchor, and set Little Devil in front of it, where its small leaves read against the lacy ones. Put Red Baron in groups of three or five along the front edge, where low sun catches the blades, and tuck Candy Corn between them for the yellow and orange that keeps the bed from reading as one dark mass.

Then add a pale plant for the eye to land on. Silver and chartreuse leaves make dark foliage look darker, and a silver artemisia or a lime-leaved elderberry in front of Black Lace does more for the bed than another dark shrub. Plant everything in full sun if you can, since shade is what turns a red foliage bed muddy.

For decorating ideas beyond the plants, see our Halloween garden ideas.

Is Red Baron Japanese blood grass invasive?

The wild form of this grass is. Imperata cylindrica, known as cogongrass, is listed as a federal noxious weed and is a serious invasive across the Southeast. Red Baron is a red selection that spreads far more slowly and rarely flowers, which is why it is grown as an ornamental.

The catch is reversion. Red Baron can occasionally send up an all-green shoot that has reverted toward the wild form, and a green shoot spreads with the vigor of the species. Check the clump a few times a season and dig out any all-green shoots at the base, roots included, as soon as you see them. Keep it out of beds that border woods, fields, or wetlands.

Red Baron cannot ship to every state. If checkout will not accept your address for it, Little Devil Ninebark and Candy Corn spirea give you the same red-to-burgundy range in a shrub.

All four plants are in one place: Shop Halloween plants.