Fall Garden Flowers: Adding Color To Your Autumn Landscape
Fall offers a final burst of color and beauty before the garden goes dormant for winter. While many people focus their efforts on spring plantings, fall gardens have unique advantages. The cooler temperatures of autumn are ideal for many flowering plants. Establishing plants in the fall gives them time to develop strong root systems before going dormant for winter. Then they are primed for vigorous growth and abundant blooms come spring.
This article will provide an overview of the best annuals, perennials, bulbs, and combinations for enlivening autumn landscapes. With proper planning and care, you can extend the flowering season and highlight the unique beauty of fall gardens. Vibrant colors and textures will bring visual interest until the first hard frost.
Fall plantings require less watering and care at planting time. And many plants deliver unique blooms and foliage colors only seen in autumn. Take advantage of autumn’s gifts by planning and designing a landscape for seasonal color and structure. With the right plants, combinations, and care, your garden can shine just as beautifully in fall as it does in spring and summer.
Top Annuals for Fall Color
Some of the best annuals for bringing vibrant colors to the fall garden include marigolds, zinnias, pansies, and snapdragons. Marigolds (Tagetes species) are a classic fall flower known for their bright yellow, orange, and red hues. They are easy to grow, bloom until frost, and pair well with other fall plants. Popular marigold varieties for fall include ‘Durango’ series with large, bold blooms and ‘Disco’ series in bicolor shades. According to Martha Stewart, marigolds add “warmth to your autumn garden” and look beautiful in combinations with flowering kale and violas.
Zinnias are beloved for their diversity of bloom colors like red, orange, pink, purple and more. Martha Stewart recommends dwarf varieties like ‘Zowie! Yellow Flame’ and ‘Magellan Orange’ as “profuse bloomers that work beautifully in containers.” As a cut flower, zinnias also brighten fall floral arrangements. Pansies offer a rainbow of color options too, from solid to two-toned blooms. Their cheery faces withstand light frost, often blooming up until the first heavy freeze. Stewart suggests pairing pansies with violas and ornamental kale for stunning fall displays. Snapdragons are a cool weather favorite, thriving in autumn’s shorter days and cooler nights. Tall varieties like the Rocket mix provide vibrant spikes of color. According to Better Homes and Gardens, snapdragons are an excellent choice for fall containers.
Sources:
https://www.marthastewart.com/fall-annuals-7967995
https://www.bhg.com/gardening/flowers/annuals/beautiful-annual-flowers-for-fall/
Top Perennials for Fall Blooms
Some of the best perennials for fall blooms include asters, mums, sedum, and rudbeckia.
Asters come in a wide range of colors including pink, purple, red, white, and blue. They are easy to grow, tolerating most soil types and light conditions. Asters bloom profusely in the fall and make great additions to borders and cutting gardens. Popular varieties include ‘Purple Dome’ and ‘Alma Potschke.’
Chrysanthemums, also known as mums, are iconic fall perennials withtheir rich hues of red, orange, yellow, and bronze. With proper pinching anddisbudding, they can produce an abundance of flowers. ‘Mei-Kyo’ and ‘Ruby Mound’ are two compact, prolific, late-blooming varieties. Mums thrive in full sun andwell-drained soil. (Source)
Sedums come in a wide range of forms from groundcovers to upright varieties. Most sedums bloom in late summer into fall with nectar-rich flowers that attract butterflies and bees. Some standout sedum varieties include ‘Autumn Joy,’ ‘Neon,’ and ‘Matrona.’ Sedums are tough, drought-resistant perennials.
Rudbeckia, also called Black-Eyed Susans, provide uplifting warmhues of yellow and gold in the fall garden. Sturdy varieties like ‘Goldsturm’and ‘Golden Glow’ brighten up borders and complement fall mums and asters.Rudbeckia grows best in full sun and medium to dry soil.
Create Spectacular Combinations
One of the keys to a stunning fall garden is to combine both annuals and perennials in complementary colors and textures. Mixing flowers with different bloom times extends the floral display. Try combining bushy purple asters with the airy seedheads of Russian sage (Southern Living). The rich purple and silver blue make an elegant pairing. Or mass golden marigolds with the fiery red blooms of chrysanthemums for a bold, beautiful look (Houzz). You can also play with height, mixing tall backdrops like black-eyed Susans with low growers like pansies up front. Planning combinations in advance allows you to plant for ongoing waves of color.
Extend the Season
Choose annual and perennial varieties that bloom later in the season to extend your enjoyment of fall flowers. Stagger planting some annuals over the course of late summer for continuous blooms. Popular annuals to plant late for fall color include pansies, mums, flowering kale and flowering cabbage [1]. Perennials you can count on for late season blooms include toad lilies, asters, ornamental grasses, Russian sage, and Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ [2]. By carefully selecting varieties and staggering planting dates, you can enjoy continuous blooms well into fall.
Fall Care Tips
Proper care in autumn is crucial for getting the most out of fall flowers and ensuring they return year after year. Here are some key tips for fall garden care:
Deadheading spent blooms will encourage new buds to form and lengthen the flowering period. Use pruning shears to snip off faded flowers just above a set of healthy leaves.1
Apply a balanced fertilizer, like a 10-10-10, in early fall to fuel growth. Always follow package directions and avoid over-fertilizing.2
Mulch flower beds with 2-4 inches of shredded bark, leaves, or straw. This insulates plant roots and prevents frost heave.1
Water thoroughly during dry spells so plants don’t desiccate. Morning watering allows leaves to dry out during the day.2
Fall Bulbs
Many classic spring blooming bulbs are actually planted in the fall for a beautiful spring display. Some of the most popular bulbs to plant in autumn include:
Daffodils (Narcissus) – These cheerful spring bloomers are hardy in zones 3-8 and come in a wide range of colors and sizes. Some varieties bloom very early in spring while others flower in mid to late season. Popular types include large-cupped daffodils, double daffodils, and fragrant varieties like ‘Ice Follies’. Daffodils grow well in full sun to part shade and prefer well-drained soil. Plant the bulbs 4-6″ deep in autumn for blooms next spring (Dutch Grown).
Tulips – These iconic spring bulbs come in almost every color except blue and thrive in zones 3-7. They offer a wide range of bloom times, heights, flower types, and fragrances. Darwin Hybrid tulips and Triumph tulips are great choices for mid-spring color. Plant tulips 6-8″ deep in a sunny spot with well-drained soil for best results (Holland Bulb Farms).
Crocus – One of the earliest bulbs to bloom in spring, crocus thrives in zones 3-8. The hardy flowers appear in early spring, sometimes while there’s still snow on the ground. Popular varieties include giant crocus and striped crocus. Plant 3-4″ deep in autumn for a cheery start to spring (Eden Brothers).
Alliums – Also called ornamental onions, allium bulbs include showy varieties like globe allium and drumstick allium. Their unique, spherical flower heads bloom in late spring to early summer and add sculptural interest to beds and borders. Some types reach 3-4 ft. tall! Plant bulbs 4-6″ deep in fall in full sun (Dutch Grown).
Container Gardens
Container gardens are a great way to add pops of fall color to small spaces like patios, porches, and balconies. For fall container gardening, mix eye-catching blooms with rustic grasses and foliage to create stunning displays. Consider using pots, window boxes, and hanging baskets to maximize your planting space.
Some top picks for fall containers include pansies, mums, ornamental kale and cabbage, asters, and flowering kale. Mix these with ornamental grasses like pennisetum for height and texture. Trailing plants like ivy geraniums and creeping jenny will cascade nicely over the edges of containers.
Choose containers in rich fall colors like terra cotta, cinnamon, bronze, and rust to complement the plants. Arrange containers in groupings on steps, railings, and tabletops for a cohesive look. Refresh tired summer containers by swapping in pansies, mums, and cool weather greens like kale and chard. With the right selection of plants, your fall containers will continue to provide garden beauty into late autumn.
For more fall container gardening inspiration, see:
https://www.southernliving.com/garden/fall-container-gardening
Cut Flowers
A fall cutting garden allows you to create beautiful floral arrangements even as the outdoor growing season winds down. Focus on long-stemmed annuals, perennials, and self-sowing plants that continue blooming well into autumn. Popular picks include dahlias, zinnias, delphiniums, cosmos, roses, and more. Dahlias come in a wide range of colors and sizes perfect for bouquets. Their large, showy blooms last up to 2 weeks as cut flowers. Zinnias are easy to grow from seed and produce abundant flowers ideal for both gardens and vases. Tall delphiniums add height and drama with their spiky towers of blue, pink, purple, and white blooms. Cosmos bloom continuously if spent flowers are promptly removed and add airy texture. Finally, garden roses continue producing fragrant blooms even in cooler weather. When designing a cutting garden, opt for a variety of flower shapes, colors, and sizes to create stunning arrangements. Also make sure to plant species with long, straight stems and prolific blooms.
Conclusion
In conclusion, fall gardens provide bountiful color and interest when properly planned and tended to. The key is choosing plants that shine in autumn—like mums, asters, sedums, ornamental grasses, and flowering kale and cabbage. Combine these with fall-blooming perennials like Russian sage and autumn joy sedum for eye-catching arrangements. Bulb flowers like colchicum, daffodils, and saffron crocus also light up fall gardens with vivid pops of color. With the right selections, you can have continuous color from early autumn frosts through the first hard freeze. Just be sure to prep beds, provide ample water and nutrients, give plants plenty of sun, and deadhead spent blooms. Then kick back and enjoy the vivid, late season display right in your own garden.
