By now, you’ve probably noticed that the garden centres and corner stores are starting to fill up with potted mums. Now, mums are a classic – and almost care-free – choice for colouring in bare spots left by spent annuals and for adding instant life to a garden that’s starting to wind down. But personally I find them a little unadventurous.
Fortunately, mums are by no means your only choice for zinging up the fall garden. Here’s a by-no-means-comprehensive list of some other plants you might consider, and all of them are easy as pie to grow. And when the first frost finally does arrive, you can pull them out and compost them; some are even perennials, so with luck, they’ll return next year.
Flowering kale or cabbage – Another very popular fall plant in these parts, these richly coloured foliage plants (and yes, they are edible, though I’ve never eaten one!), look great next to hot-coloured September bloomers like black-eyed Susans, coneflowers and annuals like marigolds and salvia.
Oriental cabbages actually like cool temperatures and will handle a light frost without turning a leaf, so they’ll see you right through to fall cleanup in late October. You can buy them in a variety of sizes, in blends of light and medium green, green and white or – my personal favourite – an exuberant mix of green, white and pink.
Purple fountain grass – You can actually buy fountain grass all through the growing season, but it comes into its own in the fall, when its deep-purple stems and fluffy, straw-coloured seedheads are brilliant for fall colour schemes in both planters and beds. Plant it where it will get plenty of sun for best stem colour, and don’t skimp on the watering.
Caladium – Always a favourite for its big, colourful leaves and ease of growing habit, “elephant ear” is equally at home as a houseplant or in a lightly shaded part of your garden. In both cases, though, it’s strictly a part-timer, since the leaves grow from corms (similar to bulbs, but smaller and flatter). When the plant dies down, you can dig up the corms and store them in a cool dry place for replanting in the spring. Or simply treat it as an annual, let the corms add their compost-y goodness to the soil, and buy new ones next year.
Coleus – The coleus family is so huge, you can pretty much pick your own colour scheme at the garden centre. A vast variety of spotted, blotched and plain colours are available in shades of white, bright or dark red, lime to mid-green, and all colours in between. It’s a pretty trouble-free annual, but it likes sun and regular watering.
Aster – My mother called this pretty perennial Michaelmas daisy, because it blooms on Michaelmas, which is in September. Like black-eyed Susan and ox-eye daisy, it’s a wildflower that has been tamed and domesticated, but also like black-eyed Susan, it can spread and become a weed in your garden if you’re not careful! Aster’s small, bright-blue daisy-like blossoms make a beautiful contrast with warm-coloured autumn foliage and flowering plants, and it’s also available with lavender, and even white blooms.
Copperleaf Louisiana – You may have to search a little further for this gorgeous tropical-born shrub, but its flaming red leaves add a Technicolor boost to your garden or planters right through to first frost. In the American South it’s grown as a shrub or small tree. For best colour, plant it in full sun or light shade.
Any of the plants mentioned here are equally suitable for containers or planters. You can do like the pros do and combine plants using the “thriller, filler, spiller” rule (tall/massing/cascading), or fill your urns with one gorgeous specimen. I like overstuffed and exuberant, but you might prefer a neater or more formal look. Happy fall!
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