Perennials for Fall Color
Spring is the time of year when we get to enjoy watching everything go green as it comes back to life. We plan our gardens and landscaping to have summers full of vibrant colors. Do you have a plan for managing how your outdoor areas will look as they transition through autumn and into winter? If you choose perennials that do their best work late in the year, the fall can be a second act rather than a slide into winter.
Perennial plants ranging from ground cover and blossoming ornamentals to shrubs can help keep your landscaping beautiful and interesting right up to the point where it gets covered over with snow. In many parts of the country, fall is the best time to enjoy the outdoor areas of your property. The plants you offer a home to should do their part to keep the scenery interesting during those months.
When you think of fall you probably think of scenery that is a mix of red, yellow, and orange. If you want your landscaping to blend in with the surroundings there are plenty of good options. But if you would rather hold on to the whites, blues, and violets of summer’s peak bloom there are perennials that can make that happen too. You get to decide whether your yard will go with the flow or be a lingering oasis of bold color.
9 Perennials for Beautiful Fall Landscaping
- Asters: Asters will provide splashes of white, pink, lavender, or blue well into fall in growing zones 4 to 8. People love the beautiful contrast between the colorful petals and the large yellow centers of their flowers.
- Hardy Mums: If you’re only familiar with the florist variety of mums, you’re missing out on an opportunity to get year-after-year color in your landscaping. Hardy mums are a perennial that can offer blossoms in yellow, bronze, white, burgundy, red, and pink. They do well anywhere from zone 5 to zone 9. To get the best results in the fall, give them a final trim around the Fourth of July.
- Sedum: There are a lot of different varieties of this hardy, low-maintenance perennial. That gives gardeners plenty of options in terms of the size, shape, and color of the fall foliage that they’ll get from drought-tolerant plants that are a favorite of pollinators.
- Coral Bells: Most people grow Coral Bells for the foliage although they do offer blossoms in the summer. What makes them a great addition for fall variety is the tendency for the coloration of their leaves to transform to deeper and brighter hues as the temperatures get cooler.
- Hibiscus: Hibiscus are late bloomers that don’t get started until mid-summer but keep the show rolling well into the fall. Their blossoms can be red, pink, white, lavender, or bi-colored. They come in compact varieties that average 3-4 feet in height and common varieties that will approach 5 feet in height.
- Blanket Flower: Blanket flowers have plenty of staying power so you can count on the beautiful reds, oranges, and yellows of their distinctive, serrated-edged blossoms to carry your landscaping into the fall.
- Coneflower: If you’re already familiar with the purple coneflower, you might be surprised to learn that you can get varieties that range from red to orange to white in addition to the more common pink-purple hues. All coneflowers linger well into the fall and they all have the recognizable protruding center that is a good food source for birds in the fall when the flowers go to seed.
- Ironweed: Your family and visitors aren’t the only ones who will love the splashes of pink and purple that come from the clusters of blossoms on the ironweed plant. Those same blossoms are a favorite of butterflies and hummingbirds so your garden will be popular with visitors that lend their own natural beauty.
- Red Valerian: Another favorite of butterflies and bees that will add vertical variety and diversity of color to your fall landscaping is the red valerian. You’ll enjoy the striking red star clustered blossoms that grow at the top of slender 2-3’ tall stalks.
Want Your Garden and Landscaping to Make the Most of Fall in Kennewick, Pasco or Richland?
The team at Birch’s Lawn Care is ready to help you find the perfect mix of shapes, colors, and heights to make your garden and landscaping eye-catching and enjoyable well into the autumn months. Give us a call or email us at BirchsLC@gmail.com to find out how we can help you pick perennials that keep your outdoor spaces looking their best longer.
