Saugus Gardens in the Fall

Here’s what’s blooming in town this week to make your walks more enjoyable

By Laura Eisener

Impressive fall color has developed on some of our trees, although there is still plenty of green. Leaves have begun to accumulate on the ground after the stormy start to this week from winds and rain on the holiday weekend. Some of the brightest colors are on a few native maples: reds and yellows on red maple (Acer rubrum) and bright reds, yellows and oranges on sugar maple (Acer saccharum). Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) is also very striking now, with some bright yellows on trees near the entrances to Pirate’s Glen and Vinegar Hill trails, and some vivid orange tones on some along the paved paths at Breakheart Reservation.

Flowering maple (Abutilon hybridum) is a popular house plant that has maple-shaped foliage but is not related to our maple trees at all. Its flower shows it to be a relative of mallows, including hibiscus and hollyhocks. The large and showy blossoms are usually red but can also be orange. It can enjoy the summer outside but must be brought in for the winter, since it is only hardy to zone 9. The leaves certainly look very similar to maples (Acer spp.), especially red maple — when my houseplant flowering maple dropped a few leaves on my porch recently, they resembled the foliage of the red maple (Acer rubrum) growing on the corner of the street. It is easy to see how this houseplant got its common name.

Marigolds line the front walk and a very tall sunflower leans to greet you if you pass under the arbor at the home of Krishan Soni and his family on Central Street. There are several gardens around town with impressive sunflowers, but the single sunflower in this front garden is one of the tallest and has an unusually large head. As the weather is cooling, many flowers have finished blooming but are now beginning to ripen the seeds, which are among the favorite seeds for most birds. This sunflower head appears to be bending down from the weight of its ripening seeds, or perhaps it is to admire the marigolds blooming below! Bright orange French marigolds (Tagetes patula) bloom on both sides of the walk.

While marigolds have been blooming for a few months already, they seem to stand out in fall since they are among the annuals that can stand up to cooler temperatures, and their orange, yellow and reddish petal colors are iconic colors for the fall season. Despite the common name, these marigolds are native to Guatemala and Mexico, not France or even French speaking countries. They are popular for their long bloom time and have naturalized in some parts of the world considerably warmer than Massachusetts.

The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) is a wading bird that often visits places along the Saugus River to fish, especially when the tide is fairly low, making it easy to see and catch its prey in the shallow water. One of the favorite perches for herons is on a branch extending over the river near Hamilton Street, viewable from the sidewalk at the bridge. I have seen it on this spot several times in the past few weeks.

Fall planting is still in full swing, whether this means adding some fall color to your garden or planting some shrubs and trees to provide interest throughout the winter. While frost dates can vary from year to year, the ground does not usually freeze too hard to plant until mid-December.

Editor’s Note: Laura Eisener is a landscape design consultant who helps homeowners with landscape design, plant selection and placement of trees and shrubs, as well as perennials. She is a member of the Saugus Garden Club and offered to write a series of articles about “what’s blooming in town” shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was inspired after seeing so many people taking up walking.