Favorites For The Fall Garden

With summer now officially behind us it's time to turn our—or your—attention to an often neglected garden, the fall garden. With a summer like the one we’ve just been through, working on yet another garden project may be the last thing on your mind, but the fall garden can soothe many of the summer pains.

And unlike the ravaging rodents and spreading weeds of summer, the fall garden is forgiving and much less demanding of our time and efforts.Yes, like any good garden, this one requires planning and attention to design, and much of the work has to be done months to a year in advance. But with a little bit of effort, the fall garden requires little of us after late September other than its need to be seen and enjoyed. There are even some facets of the fall garden that can last into November and well through the winter. Consider also that if your second home is in the Hamptons and you spend most of your time here in the summer, it’s nice to return “home” to a place that’s planted and continuing to provide the visual and aromatic joys of the season.

My purpose here is not to instruct you on the design elements of the fall garden. Others have written much better than I possibly can on that topic. Rather, I’d like to propose and present some plants that are often overlooked for this time of the year and yet add wonderful color, form and texture.

Beginning with some annuals, or plants that need to be treated as annuals, there is one that is an old-time favorite that’s rarely used these days. It goes by the name of Mexican fire bush or burning bush, but it’s actually kochia scoparia. It’s considered an annual shrub that has an upright cylindrical shape about 2 to 3 feet tall by the end of the summer. As it matures it has a fine-leaved, dense habit, but in the fall the foliage takes on a brilliant fiery red color that is incredibly striking.

I’ve seen the plants grown in masses, as an annual short hedgerow or as annual specimen plants, and while they can be quite handsome through the summer, they are magnificently striking in the fall. It’s extremely drought-tolerant once it’s established, and while it’s rarely found at garden centers, you can easily grow it from seed that can be sown outdoors in the spring when the soil temperature stays above 50 degrees. It has no endemic disease problems and the only insect that is known to feed on it are grasshoppers.

Pansies and violas are now easy to find in garden centers in the fall, but this has not always been the case. The pansies tend to have larger, floppy flowers, while the violas have smaller, tight flowers, and colors range from blues to purples, yellows, white and even some reds, oranges and bicolors. These plants are great for mass plantings or containers and will continue to flower until they are frozen or covered with snow. Deer and rabbits adore the flowers and foliage so repellents are a must. These plants will often begin blooming again in early spring, but they get leggy early on and shouldn’t be relied upon for spring color.

Ornamental cabbages and kales are also easy to find in garden centers at this time of the year and breeding programs have given us plants that are tolerant of just about any weather thrown at them—and as it gets cooler into October and November, the colors become more vibrant. Individual plants are at garden centers in pots and seem to range from $3 and up, depending on the size and variety. Again, these look best in mass plantings and thoughout designs, and they will often last well into early winter.

Marigolds are also overlooked as a great fall annual. When the seeds are sown in mid-July, the plants begin to flower in September and will continue into October. Many consider marigolds common and won’t use them in the garden, but they are colorful, come in heights ranging from a few inches to 3 feet tall, and at this time of the year just give them a little water and they’ll bloom their heads off.

In the area of perennials I’ll skip the usual mums, asters and goldenrods because there are plenty of other plants to add and choose from. I’ve seen some wonderful scabiosas in full bloom, but the shorter varieties are much more attractive in the fall than the taller types that get too stretched. Most will bloom if they’ve been well tended during the summer and deadheaded.

The perennial ageratum is a really nice plant that’s tall and easy to grow. Also known as the mist flower, there is a purplish variety that flowers into early fall, but the white type eupatorium coelestinum alba" flowers into October, is about 30 inches tall, and is incredibly striking when done in mass plantings or drifts. It will take a good deal of shade, and I’ve seen it naturalize under maple trees and at the edge of forests.

If you know your woodland wildflowers, you know that cimicifuga, or bugbane, is a white-flowering, woodland perennial that spikes out at about 4 feet in midsummer. But there are also several striking varieties that have very dark foliage and flower in late summer to early fall.

One that I particularly like is cimicifuga simplex "Brunette,"or black bugbane. The tall foliage requires it to be planted alone or set back in the border, but when it blooms with its arching spires of white it makes quite a statement in the garden. If it’s yellow flowers that you’re after and still looking for a plant that will take a good deal of shade, kirengeshoma palmate would be a great candidate. With wide foliage on a plant that can grow to 3 feet, the 1- to 2-inch flowers in late September and early October are a bright surprise for shady woodland spots that are rarely blessed with yellow.

Another recent favorite of mine is an astilbe. However, this one isn’t grown for its flowers as much as for its foliage. Astilbe "Flash" is a small and unassuming plant until October. Once it cools down this astilbe reacts by putting on a foliage display like a miniature sugar maple forest. With hues of yellow, orange, burgundy and green, this plant that grows in light shade and is only about 6 to 8 inches tall is a real fall winner. But if you’re looking for something taller and later, there’s aconitum carmichaelii "Arendsii," which has blue flowers atop 3- to 4-foot stems in early to mid-October and even later in cooler spots. It’s a remarkable plant, putting on a great display of color at a time of the year that make me wonder what Mother Nature was thinking … but she did a great job.

And of course there’s chrysanthemum nipponicum, more commonly known as the Montauk Daisy. This is another plant that looks just incredible in mass plantings and when properly grown (cut back in mid-spring to make it tight and dense instead of open and sloppy). I know one seaside garden in Southampton where all the sand walkways on the inside of the dunes are planted with MDs, and they are just breathtaking when the paths are in flower and a late favorite to honeybees.

The last perennial is a vine, the autumn clematis or clematis terniflora. This richly sweet-smelling clematis blooms in late September into October and is a great climber that can cover walls, trellises or fences—another plant that’s virtually carefree and with a minimum of tending puts on an incredible show and will delight your nostrils.

Other plants overlooked are many roses that will bloom all through October as well as some of the new ever-blooming hydrangeas. Gardeners have been reporting mixed results with Endless Summer hydrangea, but don’t overlook the oakleaf (quercifolia), whose foliage is turning to red, plum and burgundy just about now. The paniculata types form substantial shrubs up to 10 feet tall that flower late into the season, and even the fading white flowers continue to change color well into the fall in blushing shades of pink that can slowly fade to brown and hold on until the dead of winter.

And then there are the ornamental grasses and roses. But another time. Keep growing.

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