Several times a week I have inquiries in the nursery something along the lines of, “What's that red shrub that is on the corner of such and such down the street?” This time of year it is pretty easy to answer.
Most people from out of town are asking after the burning bush (Euonymus alatus), which can grow to eight feet tall and as wide, or its smaller cousin, the dwarf winged burning bush (Euonymus alatus “Compacta”), which can grow to five feet tall and perhaps six feet wide left on it's own. In fact, Euonymus is a large family and there are small trees quite closely related as well such as Euonymus europaeus (sometimes referred to as a spindle tree), which grows to 12 feet, and some not so closely related like the green and white wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei) and the green and gold wintercreeper.
These low growing shrubs also have great fall colour and I would classify them as semi-evergreen, holding most of their leaves through the dormant season. They are hardy to just zone 5.
Another plant that is a little less common is (Euonymus nanus var Turkestanicus) the Turkestan burning bush, which grows something along the lines of the wintercreeper’s size, 18 inches tall and with a spread of several feet, but is cold hardy to zone 2 or just about the Arctic Circle.
What’s really neat about all these plants is their profusion of fall colour. Due in large part to the dry growing conditions here at the end of summer, burning bushes tend to get a lot of great fall colour early enough for us to enjoy and before the frost takes all of their leaves off. In colder climates, (Alberta), the wintercreeper isn’t hardy enough to grow while the Burning bushes may struggle in poorer sites as they are rated as zone 3 (prairie hardy).
Anyway, I hope that you are all enjoying the great fall colour we are having this year!
Evan and Wendy Davies own Beltane Nursery at 2915 Highway 3 in Erickson.