Earthy Autumn Tones and Textures
By Ava Green
Taking our cues from Mother Nature, this season's fall clothing leans into all the colours and textures we love to celebrate each autumn.
Brown Is Back!
Dare we say that brown is the new black?! Take a look at our newest shades, including gorgeous maroon undertones. Rich, deep and bold, brown is a colour that feels as cozy as the season itself.
If you’ve already built a capsule wardrobe, brown is one of the easiest colours to fold in for an instant, seasonally chic refresh.
The Autumn Palette
Our staff favourites this season are tops in a full palette of autumn shades. They’re the kind of pieces that make mixing and matching with what’s already in your closet effortless.
Sweater Weather
One of the best things about fall? Wearing a nice cozy sweater. As temperatures drop, a chunky knit wraps you up and keeps you warm, while looking fabulous, of course!
Fall Wardrobe Styling Tip
Do you love autumn shades but aren’t sure they suit your complexion? Wear them on the bottom instead of the top. You’ll still get the payoff of autumn colours while complementing your skin tone.
Not sure how to bring fall colours to your wardrobe? Come on in! Sassyfras is just inside the Eising Garden Centre entrance, on your right, and we’re always happy to help you find pieces that flatter and bring you joy.
Planting, Pruning, Pairing
By Ava Green
From its graceful, arching branches to the fragrant, lilac-shaped flower clusters that draw in a kaleidoscope of butterflies, bees and hummingbirds, Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii), also known as Summer Lilac, is a shrub worth including in your garden.
Landscape Value
Butterfly bushes bloom throughout the summer, with some varieties flowering into the fall, and offer a wide range of colours and intensities.
They look best planted en masse or as part of a tiered garden, paired with smaller perennials or shrubs in front of them. Evergreens make a great backdrop for perennials, and this is a plant that would be perfect punctuation in front of a cedar or yew. Since butterfly bushes are slow to get going in spring, tucking shorter, early-blooming plants in front of them helps hide that lag while everything else fills in.
As a bonus, Buddleia are deer and rabbit-resistant, making them a solid choice if critters are an ongoing issue in your garden.
Caring for Your Butterfly Bushes
Plant your Buddleia in full sun and well-drained soil. These shrubs want 8 hours of sun a day and don’t tolerate “wet feet”.
Here in Southern Ontario (hardiness Zone 6), the butterfly bush is a deciduous shrub that’s best treated like an herbaceous perennial: cut it back each spring, never in the fall, to keep it happy and blooming well.
Be patient in the spring, and wait for buds to start forming before you prune, then cut each stem back just above a big, healthy leaf bud. Since butterfly bushes flower on new growth, this yearly cutback is what drives a full season of blooms. In fall, deadhead spent blooms to remove seed heads (on varieties that produce them) and help keep the plant from spreading.
Plant in the spring or summer rather than fall, so your butterfly bush has as much time as possible to get established before cold weather arrives.
Great Variety!
Butterfly Bushes come in a range of heights and colours, so there’s likely a fit for almost any spot in your garden. A few examples:
Dwarf: "Pugster" Series
A shorter, stalkier variety that still produces full-sized flowers in rich, saturated tones on new wood. Long-blooming plants; summer into fall.
Best for: Grouping behind spring-blooming ground covers and shorter perennials | Sun: Full sun | Mature size: 24 in. tall × 24 in. wide
Medium Height: “Miss” Series
The “Miss” series offers medium-height varieties with a graceful habit and intensely coloured, fragrant, heat-tolerant blooms on new wood.
Best for: The middle of beds and borders, planted in groupings | Sun: Full sun | Mature size: 48-60 in. tall × 48-60 in. wide
Tall Varieties
Vase-shaped and vigorous, with large, fragrant blooms, taller varieties of Buddleja davidii, such as ‘Black Knight’ or ‘Grand Cascade’, are absolute showstoppers in any garden.
Best for: Foundation plantings or the back of borders and beds | Sun: Full sun | Mature size: 6- 8 ft. tall × 4-8 ft. wide, depending on the variety
Hosts With The Most
Butterfly bushes will draw in bees, butterflies and hummingbirds; but every pollinator ultimately needs more than nectar. They also need places to lay eggs and support their young.
That's where host plants come in. Pairing your butterfly bush with plants like cherries, spicebush, Coneflower, Joe Pye Weed, Black-Eyed Susan, and New Jersey Tea provides pollinators with nectar diversity and places to reproduce. Some butterflies and moths will lay their eggs on a wide range of plants while others are far more particular. The Monarch butterfly is the best example: milkweed is the only plant that supports a Monarch caterpillar’s life cycle, so planting milkweed near your butterfly bush is essential if you want to support Monarchs specifically.
Figuring out which host plants suit which butterflies and moths takes a bit of research, but as with most things in the garden, diversity wins.
Come on in to Eising Garden Centre and look at the butterfly bushes in person; we’re here to help you find the right ones for your garden!
Other resources:
How to Keep Your Butterfly Bush Blooming: https://eising.ca/how-to-keep-your-butterfly-bush-blooming
5 Ontario native host plants for butterflies and moths:
Plants that support a butterfly lifecycle:
Host plants for butterflies:
By Dave Zeldon and Ely Schweyer
In late June and early July we will be witnessing the annual invasion of the Japanese Beetle on many of our favourite landscape plantings including Hollyhocks, Dahlias, Hibiscus, Roses, Grapes, and Raspberries.
Adult beetles skeletonize foliage.
Many of us have tried the various means available to curb this yearly destruction like pheromone traps, Nematode lawn inoculation, hand picking, and concoctive sprays. But still, we get substantive damage.
Interestingly enough, some plants such as Geranium, Castor Bean, and the flowers of Bottlebrush Buckeye, will cause paralysis and death of these beetles when eaten.
Maybe it’s Time We Look at Whole New Approach
Why not slowly invest in a landscape makeover? One with Japanese Beetle resistant plants!
Trees such as Red Maple, Red Oak, Hickory, and Redbud could replace the susceptible Japanese Maple, Norway Maple, Pin Oak, Linden, and Mountain Ash.
Why not consider growing more Evergreens such as Holly, Yew, Boxwood, and Aborvitae instead of the prone Virginia Creeper, Apple and Plum family of trees, and Birches.
You also may want to contemplate planting perennials such as Coral-Bells, Hostas, Pachysandra, Sedum and Foxglove as opposed to the Japanese Beetle standard menu fare of Evening Primrose, Hydrangea, Clematis, Potentilla, and Zinnia.
Yes, we do have some preventative measures at our disposal to battle the Japanese Beetle (find how to use beneficial nematodes in our fall chore blog) but due to the nature of this pest, it will inevitably win the war. If we continue to grow the some 400+ preferred host plants in our landscape, providing an adequate food source for this invasive pest rather than replacing them with resistant species, surely this pest will make gardening a chore instead of the pleasure it should be.
We hope this article will aid in the prevention of Japanese Beetles in your garden space! For more information – and Japanese Beetle resistant plants – visit Eising Greenhouse and Garden Centre! 🪲
A well-chosen hedge can do a lot more than just look great—it can give you privacy, act as a windbreak, define garden spaces, reduce noise, or add year-round greenery. Whether you're looking to block out a view, frame your garden, or just create a lush backdrop, hedges are incredibly versatile.
One of the most underappreciated roles of a hedge? It makes everything in front of it—flowers, trees, garden art—look even better. Think of it as a green stage curtain that lets your garden stars shine.
Pretty much any shrub planted in a row can create a hedge, but the right plant depends on what you want it to do. Here are some of our top picks.
Evergreen Hedges - The Classic Green Wall
Botanical Name: Thuja occidentalis 'Smaragd'
Cedar is a favourite for a reason. With its dense, year-round green foliage and low-maintenance nature, it's ideal for privacy. Depending on the type, cedars can grow between 9–14 feet tall, forming a living wall that blocks wind, noise, and prying eyes. It also makes a lovely backdrop for all your other plants.
Botanical Name: Ilex glabra
Looking for a Boxwood alternative? Inkberry Holly is a great choice—especially if you're concerned about Boxwood Blight. This broadleaf evergreen keeps its dark, glossy green leaves all year and can grow up to 8 feet tall if left unpruned. It loves full sun, wet soil, and even acidic conditions. You can trim it to keep it neat or let it grow naturally—either way, it makes a fantastic border or garden divider.
Botanical Name: Taxus cuspidata
With dense, dark green foliage that stays lush all year-round, Yews make excellent hedges for privacy, property lines, and garden backdrops. They’re incredibly versatile—leave them to grow naturally for a softer look or trim regularly for a crisp, formal shape. Yews respond beautifully to pruning, creating a smooth, tailored finish. Just be sure to wear gloves when handling them, and plant them away from children, pets and livestock, as all parts of this striking plant are toxic.
Deciduous Hedges with Drama and Colour
Botanical Name: Spiraea x vanhouttei
Graceful, arching branches that are completely covered in double-white blooms in the Spring make Bridalwreath Spirea a truly stunning hedge plant in the spring. After its spring show, small, glossy green leaves cover this plant until the fall, when its leaves take on beautiful autumn colours.
Bridalwreath Spirea grows to a mature height of 4-9 feet, can tolerate light shade as well as a variety of soil conditions and can be lightly pruned to shape. They are also deer-resistant.
Botanical Name: Cotoneaster lucidus
Peking Cotoneaster may not be flashy, but there are lots of reasons to love this shrub. Its smooth, dark green leaves create a clean, structured look that works beautifully behind flowering plants or along fences. In fall, the leaves turn a fiery red, and black berries appear, which birds snack on through the winter. Growing 5–7 feet tall, this shrub is also a great choice for wind protection and bird habitat.
Still not sure which plants to choose for your hedge? Stop in to see us at Eising Garden Centre and talk to one of our tree and shrub specialists - Zach, Sandy and Donna, or contact one of our landscape design specialists, Emily or Lucas. We’re here to help!