Cassia tree brightens the autumn

Fall color is usually reserved for foliage - sweetgums and swamp maples begin to shed their green and either color up or fade away. Red oaks make their splash next month.

After the golden raintrees' flowers turn into pink pods and the crape myrtles give their final floral gasp, most flower color seems to disappear, but there is some vibrant color in the landscape, namely, the cassias.

These medium-sized trees display brilliant yellow blossoms during late fall and early December, continuing through Christmas if the weather remains mild.

This is a sprawling shrub - evergreen farther south, deciduous here - that can grow to 12 feet tall and wide, if managed.

It is native to South America, but as other semi-tropical plants, has escaped cultivation in South Florida and the Bahamas.

While it has a reputation for "wandering," it is recommended as a plant for the butterfly garden. The showy flowers attract sulphur butterflies, who sometimes lay their eggs for their larvae to feed on the pinnately compound leaves.

Senna pendula or Cassia bicapsularis - it seems to go by either name - can be an invasive in Central and South Florida, where the seeds readily sprout in already-disturbed areas, rather than invading natural areas.

In North Florida, it is described as a '"rampant grower" - which really just means it gets leggy rather than shrubby. Chuck Carlson, who grows them in his Kenwood subdivision backyard, advises, "Just cut half of the new growth back every month from the end of May until the beginning of September so they will branch out and have a large, ball-like display of flowers starting in October."

As for the trees dying back after the first hard frost, "I think people get disgusted when the frost fells them, so they pull them out. However, if one will simply puts a bushel of leaves or pine straw around the base so that the base doesn't get frozen, they can cut them back and they will come back stronger than ever in the spring."

Cuttings root very easily; in fact, I've had several spring up out of the compost after I threw the trimmings there.

Other late-fall color

There are other perennials providing some color this time of year.

Justicia, also called jacobinia or Brazilian plume flower, continues to produce pink flowers in front of my house. The perennial - which dies down here in winter - also has flowers in various shades of red, yellow, orange or white flowers.

It grows in the shade, so it is perfect for those darker areas of the yard that yearn for some color. While they can and will grow to 6 feet, I prune mine after each flowering to keep it thick and shrubby. Cuttings root easily below the nodes. The shrub has low drought tolerance, so keep it in an area that has moist (not soggy) soil.

Some butterflies use this as a nectar plant.

Another plant just finishing its color season is the Clerodendrum, or pagoda flowers. These tall, unbranched perennials with large green leaves are topped with a "pyramid" of orange flowers that last for several weeks in the fall.

This is the tamer family member of the glory bower, which can quickly take over large spaces. Pagoda flowers will produce multiple stems and spreads, but not invasively. Cut back in the winter after it dies down. Grows in shade with moist soil.

Marina Blomberg can be reached at 374-5025 or blombem@gvillesun.com.