As summer disappears and the days grow short, your landscape can continue to shine with vibrant color. Fall is the perfect time to showcase a beautiful display of flowers and foliage that thrive in lower temperatures and shorter days. By carefully choosing annuals and perennials that peak in autumn, you can create a tapestry of brilliant reds, golds, purples, and oranges that extend the beauty of your landscape well past the first frost. Here’s a guide to the best annuals and perennials to plant for spectacular fall color.
Top Annuals for Fall Color
- Pansies and Violas: These cold-tolerant annuals come in a wide range of colors and can bloom from early fall until a hard freeze. Their cheerful faces add brightness to borders and containers.
- Ornamental Kale and Cabbage: With dramatic ruffled leaves in shades of purple, pink, and green, these plants are show-stoppers for fall beds and pots. They become even more vibrant as nights grow colder.
- Calendula: Also known as pot marigold, calendula produces daisy-like blooms in gold and orange tones. It tolerates cool weather and continues to flower into late fall.
- Snapdragons: While often planted in spring, snapdragons also flourish in the cool temperatures of autumn. Their spikes of flowers come in a spectrum of warm and cool shades.
- Chrysanthemums (Mums): The classic fall flower, mums offer dense, colorful blooms in yellow, bronze, red, and purple. Plant them early for the fullest display.
Best Perennials for Autumn Interest
- Asters: With star-shaped flowers in blue, purple, pink, and white, asters are a pollinator favorite that light up the garden from late summer into fall.
- Japanese Anemone: These graceful perennials produce delicate, cup-shaped flowers in white or pink atop tall, wiry stems. They thrive in partial shade and persist into late fall.
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- Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia): Their golden-yellow petals and dark centers make black-eyed Susans a quintessential autumn bloomer, providing color well into the season.
- Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’: This hardy succulent forms dense, upright clusters of pink flowers that gradually deepen to copper and russet as fall progresses.
- Russian Sage: Airy spikes of lavender-blue flowers and silvery foliage create a soft, ethereal effect in fall borders. Russian sage is drought-tolerant and easy to grow.
Foliage Plants for Exceptional Fall Color
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- Coral Bells (Heuchera): Available in a rainbow of leaf colors, from caramel to burgundy, coral bells add striking contrast and texture to the autumn garden.
- Ornamental Grasses: Varieties like ‘Switchgrass’ and ‘Little Bluestem’ turn brilliant shades of gold, red, and orange, adding movement and drama.
- Hostas: Many hostas’ leaves turn golden-yellow in fall, brightening shaded areas.
Tips for Maximazing Fall Color
- Plant in groups for visual impact and to help flowers stand out against fall foliage.
- Mix annuals and perennials to ensure continuous color as different plants reach their peak at various times.
- Include plants with colorful berries, such as beautyberry or winterberry, for added interest.
- Keep deadheading spent blooms on annuals to extend their flowering period.
- Water new plantings well, and mulch to protect roots from early frosts.
With thoughtful selection and a bit of planning, your garden can be a showplace of vibrant color deep into autumn. Whether you prefer the instant impact of annuals or the long-term investment of perennials, there are countless options to keep your outdoor space stunning at the temperatures drop. Happy planting!