I’m not really ready to let go of summer, but like a lot of folks, I have to admit that fall may be my favorite season of all. The rich, warm colors are so inviting. Beautiful chrysanthemums loaded with blossoms. Tall, elegant ornamental grasses in their prime. There’s a lot to love about this time of year.
One way to celebrate the approach of autumn is to replant your flower pots with a combination of annuals and perennials that can take a bit of cold and still look terrific.
Getting double duty out of late-season perennials
Perhaps no flowering plant is more associated with fall than chrysanthemums. This is the purr-fect time to put them to work in your garden twice.
Linda is one of Tagawa’s Perennials experts. She’s a big fan of replanting her large flower pots with a beautiful chrysanthemum centerpiece. She surrounds the mum with some cold-resistant annuals like pansies and stocks.
Be sure to pick a mum that has plenty of unopened buds just waiting to put on a show. Prune off the flowers as they fade to keep more blossoms coming.
Mums that you plant in a container now can thrive for the next several weeks. Then, in October, while the ground is still warm, move the mum to a sunny garden bed and let it establish itself in your landscape.
With regular winter watering (once a month when we don’t have a good, soaking snow), your chrysanthemum will be putting on plenty of new growth next summer. Prune it back in July to encourage dense bushy growth. Then wait for it to perform all over again next fall!
Asters are in their glory now, too!
With their pretty little daisy-like flowers, asters are another fall workhorse in the garden. And boy-oh-boy, do my honey bees welcome this late-summer pollen and nectar feast!
This happy little bee is loaded down with pollen after just a short time on the asters.
You can use asters in your fall-flavored flower pots the same way you might use a chrysanthemum. Plant it as a nice centerpiece in the middle of the pot. Surround it with complementary annuals. Then replant the aster in the ground while the weather is still mild.
Ornamental cabbages and kale love the cold!
The ruffles and frills of these tough cabbages and kale get more colorful as the weather turns colder. They make a great addition to a fall container.
When their more tender companions in the pot surrender to the cold, cabbage and kale can soldier on as companions to autumn decorations like small pumpkins, gourds and Indian corn. Add a few cornstalks as a backdrop, and you’re ready with a beautiful arrangement for fall visitors. Tagawa’s always has an excellent assortment of these fall decorating accents once fall arrives.
Never forget the pansies!
Have you ever seen a plant that seems happier to be alive than a sweet, smiling pansy? They come in every color you could possibly want. Some with ruffles. Some with whiskers. You don’t have to be a child to love them!
Pansies make great “spillers” for large containers that you’re reworking for fall. They routinely come back next spring when they’re growing in the ground, but they might surprise you and survive the winter even above ground in a large pot.
Come to visit with our Annuals and Perennials staff to get ideas for giving your flower containers a facelift for fall. It’s easy! It’s fun! And it’s a great way to keep on gardening in Colorado!
