As we say farewell to summer now is a great time to discover the best small trees and shrubs that will create a kaleidoscope of colour in your garden. For inspiration head for a stroll through your local garden centre and open gardens to see the range of colour and drama that’s available to bring home. Trees and shrubs are the focus with their cloaks of colouring foliage and glistening berries, and there are choices for all size gardens or even in containers. When adding trees to your garden select ones that are a suitable size at maturity and will work well with your garden’s conditions. It is the picturesque charm of the colouring foliage, one of nature’s most stunning evolutionary tricks, that creates the vision of beauty with deciduous choices. Consider placement so that perhaps the low level sunlight illuminates the range of hues or combinations of colours contrast with surrounding plants. Look for trees and shrubs with something to particularly enjoy in different seasons as well, such as stunning bark through winter and spring or summer flowers.

Callicarpa make attractive container vignettes. Callicarpa make attractive container vignettes. (Image: Leigh Clapp) As gardeners we aim for successional interest in the garden and with the ideal time to add some trees and shrubs being from November, as planting before Christmas gives better establishment while the soil is warmer, now is an ideal opportunity to explore the possibilities for some autumnal zing by looking locally. Visiting local gardens this month with autumn interest at its peak will give you ideas for both specimens but also combinations that work well together. You can buy potted trees and shrubs or also order bare root ones, which is an economical option. Many deciduous trees, shrubs, hedging, roses, fruit trees and even some perennials are available as bare root plants, which simply means that there is no soil around the roots when delivered. They are generally one-to-three-year-old nursery stock, lifted, dug up by the grower from the fields, in their dormant stage, leafless, the soil is removed from the roots, and they are packaged ready to be replanted when you receive them. Bare root plants are available from November to March, and are commonly found through mail order and online stockists.

Interwoven colour at High Beeches.  (Image: Leigh Clapp) Here are two of my favourite gardens for trees and shrubs with foliage colour, jewel berries and late season herbaceous that create delightful tapestries to inspire. At High Beeches, in Handcross, you can admire mature trees and shrubs set out over a 25-acre woodland garden. Yes, this is on scale beyond most of us but it is a wonderful way to really understand the majesty of trees, some of which can work in small gardens, such as acers or fothergillas, the colour options of foliage and berries, and how to underplant with hydrangeas and other shrubs, or carpets of cyclamen, to make the most of the layered canopies. From plants gathered from around the world in the early 20th century a vast collection has continued to be nurtured by Sarah and Jeremy Bray, embracing the naturalistic woodland style and spirit of this enchanting place. Look out for the golden nyssas, including Nyssa sylvatica ‘High Beeches’, multi-toned liquidambars, fiery red acers, tactile betulas, and bright blue berries of Symplocus paniculata.

Acers are a wonderful and colourful choice.Acers are a wonderful and colourful choice. (Image: Leigh Clapp) On a more intimate scale, take a wander through the densely planted beauty at Bates Green Garden in Polegate. Renowned for the spring freshness of the garden and carpets of bluebells in their adjacent wood, autumn is delightfully mellow with muted tones mingling together from a meld of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants. A plantswoman’s paradise created by the late Carolyn McCutchan, the legacy is continued under the care of her husband John and a small team led by Emma Reece, with this private haven open through the garden season for visitors to share in Carolyn’s vision. There is great diversity in the textural palette to create a delicate ecosystem. From carpets of autumn bulbs to fine shrubs and trees, including shimmering prunus and vibrant cornus, this is a master class in gardening on all levels. Seating, paths and sculptural focal points are placed with thought to allow time to soak up the atmosphere and take in the combinations.

Whether you’d like to add a specimen tree on your lawn, create a mini copse or plant up a mini-woodland in a container, there are so many wonderful possibilities you will be spoilt for choice. Getting out and about in this season of kaleidoscope colours is a sheer joy to savour.

Crab apple, malus are hard to beat for autumn interest. Crab apple, malus are hard to beat for autumn interest. (Image: Leigh Clapp) To know

• High Beeches, Handcross, RH17 6HQ
Open daily until 31st October, closed Wednesdays, (1-5)
Adm £10, chd £4
Web: highbeeches.com

• Bates Green, Arlington, BN26 6SH
Open every Wednesday until 23 Oct
Adm £7, chd £3.50
Web: batesgreengarden.co.uk

A tree seat under a specimen tree is a classic idea. A tree seat under a specimen tree is a classic idea. (Image: Leigh Clapp) Get the look

• Trees have positive environmental benefits – shade, protection from wind, filtering water and air to reduce soil erosion, controlling run-off

• One mature tree can clean around 330lbs of carbon dioxide from the air each year

• When buying plants specifically for autumn interest visit nurseries in the autumn months so that you can see the foliage and berries of your selected plant choice

• Bare-root plants are only available from mid November to mid April, as at this time they are dormant and can be safely transplanted, and need to be pre-ordered

• Value the beauty of deciduous trees in the garden, taking care that the mature size is appropriate to your space

• Plan the placement of foliage colour to create vignettes

• Plant trees and shrubs in natural-looking copses and drifts and underplant in layers

• 15 top small trees and shrubs for autumn interest – acer, amelanchier, nyssa, sorbus, prunus, malus, cercis, viburnum, pyracantha, berberis, cornus, euonymus, fothergilla, hamamelis, hydrangea

• Place benches under trees and where you can look out over a scene

• For contrast to the informality include clipped shrubs and formal structure

• Add some linear structures and elements that attract and then direct the eye, such as allées, avenues, borders and pathways

• Focal points aren’t only for grand landscapes with long vistas. They belong equally in the prettiest cottage gardens, the smallest plots or tiniest courtyard, where having something beautiful to look at will increase rather than diminish the sense of space

• No space for adding trees and shrubs? You can still enjoy some autumnal beauty even on a tiny scale by creating seasonal containers, by the door, on the patio or as window boxes, to admire before popping into the warmth.

Euonymus with foliage and seed capsules is a great choice for a small garden. Euonymus with foliage and seed capsules is a great choice for a small garden. (Image: Leigh Clapp) Further Gardens to visit

• The Old Vicarage, Washington, RH20 4AS
Fine trees and borders
Visits by arrangement Feb-10 Oct for groups 10 – 30
Adm £7, chd free, light refreshments and picnics welcome
Web: ngs.org.uk

• Sheffield Park Garden, Haywards Heath, TN22 3QX
Glorious autmnal reflections
Open daily
Web: nationaltrust.org.uk

• Borde Hill, Haywards Heath, RH16 1XP
Garden rooms of different styles with mature trees and shrubs
Open to 22 Dec
Adm £12, chd £8
Web: bordehill.co.uk

• Wakehurst – Kew gardens, Haywards Heath, RH17 6TN
Spectacular autumn colour
Open daily
Web: kew.org

• West Dean Gardens, West Dean, PO18 0RX
Autumnal foliage is augmented with gorgeous herbaceous planting
Daily, summer – to October 31 (10.30-5)
winter Nov- Feb (10.30-4) £5, £2.50
Adm £12/£13.20 GA summer
Web: westdean.org.uk