Cool Plants for Fall
For fall color, mums are the old standbys. Plentiful at the garden center as they near their peak of bloom, they're the plant most often reached for when the gardener needs a hit of color in landscaping beds. They're always a good option, but here are some other great plants that also deserve a place in the fall garden:
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Rudbeckia 'Autumn Colors'
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Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) are reliable and often quite spectacular perennials that start flowering in midsummer and keep going long into fall. 'Autumn Colors' bears 5-inch flowers on a two-foot bushy plant.
Are hummingbirds coming through your area? Provide a way station they'll truly fight over: the cigar plant (Cuphea micropetala). The two-inch-long tubular flowers—multi-toned in shades of red-orange, yellow and green—begin appearing in midsummer and the plant will be in full bloom late summer to fall. Give this plant a sunny location and well-drained soil. Hardy to Zone 8; the top dies back at about 25 degrees F, but the roots are reportedly hardy to 15 degrees. Elsewhere, treat as an annual.
Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha) start coming into their own in late summer and bloom until frost. The species comes in a fairly statuesque plant whose long flower spikes can easily make the plant a six-footer when in bloom. The dwarf version stays around two feet and makes a great edging for a walk.
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Touch of Red Buff (photo courtesy of Park Seed)
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Calendula, or pot marigold, is a cool-season annual that tolerates light frost. An extremely easy plant to grow, it's low-maintenance and also self-sows. Touch of Red Buff isn't a hybrid, so new seedlings will likely be similar to the original crop.
Variegated sedum (Sedum sieboldii 'Mediovariegatum') offers a cool pastel, sometimes a rarity in the early fall garden. Pale sage-green leaves have a bloomy look and are mottled with cream and rimmed in pink or red. In fall, tiny pink flowers appear in flat clusters. Zones 6 to 9.
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