Gardener’s notebook: from ruby red ivy to soft yellow ferns — spot the best of autumn’s colours on London streets now

Keep an eye out for these showy plants to enjoy autumn’s finest colours in London’s streets and parks.
Boston Ivy Vine (parthenocissus tricuspidata) in Autumn colours around road sign. England, UK
Boston Ivy leaves turn from green to ruby red at this time of year
Alamy Stock Photo
George Hudson7 November 2022

Speaking in strictly meteorological (rather than political or economic) terms, autumn 2022 has been kind to us with warm, sunny days and cooler evenings — ideal conditions for a brilliant autumn show.

There isn’t a park or street without some autumn colour creeping in.

You don’t need to look far — there are as many trees as there are people in London.

Here’s my autumn colour bingo card for London’s most spectacular trees and plants.

Boston Ivy/Virginia Creeper

Parthenocissus tricuspidata / Parthenocissus quinquefolia

Not a tree but a climber. The two species are similar but Boston Ivy has three leaf lobes whereas Virginia Creeper has five. Both sprawl to smother whatever they can; sometimes a headache but it’s more welcome at this time of year as the leaves magically transform from green to ruby red.

Ginkgo biloba in autumn
Maidenhair Fern leaves turn from soft green to a bright, buttery yellow
Alamy Stock Photo

Maidenhair Fern Tree

Ginkgo biloba

A tree that has fared very well in our hot, dry city summer, apparently unfazed. This comes as no surprise; the tree is a living fossil. According to Kew, it has outlived the dinosaurs. This time of year the leaves turn from a soft green to bright, buttery yellow.

American sweetgum

Liquidambar styraciflua

Sweetgum trees have similar leaves to maple trees, with a more silvery bark. At this time of year they perform quite a transformation, going through green, yellow, purple, red and finally orange before falling from the tree.

A lot of the time, and bizarrely, you’ll see parts of the tree change colour before others.

Cherries

Prunus avium, Prunus serrulata

If you couldn’t resist taking photos of the spring blossom, scroll back to work out where you were when you took all those beautiful pictures in the spring. Head back there now to see all the colours of a sunset in the trees’ autumn leaves. Many of London’s terraced streets are lined with cherry trees.

Claret Ash

Fraxinius angustifolius ‘Raywood’

Ash trees are having a hard time. Ash dieback, a fungus, is causing many ash trees to look sickly and in many cases die. It might be too soon to make an observation, but the Claret ash trees I’ve seen in London appear unaffected by the fungus. As the name suggests, the leaves are transformed to an amazing purple in autumn.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT