5 Best Fall Flowers for Vibrant Autumn Color
These fall perennials entice us into the garden as the weather finally cools and most perennials are fading away. Fall perennials are often key sources of nectar for migrating pollinators or food as insects are either preparing to hibernate, overwinter, or migrate.
Asters (Symphyotrichums)
Every fall, I look forward to asters, with their lavender to violet blooms, contrasting with the many shades of gold, especially the goldenrods. The varied Aster genus includes a few of my favorites . . . Symphyotrichum laeve and S. novae-angliae. New England Aster is floppy and spreading, but when it’s covered in hundreds of the most beautiful lavender flowers with yellow centers, it’s easy to forgive its wily ways. S. laeve is found in dry-mesic and dry upland forests.
Replaces: mums, celosias
Native Sunflowers (Helianthus divaricatus and H. angustifolius)
Our native sunflowers, towering over their neighbors at six to eight or even ten feet, offer a focal point under utilized in modern garden designs. Most are delicate but prolific bloomers, budding in either in early summer or in September and blooming through October. Their fine, wispy nature and multitude of blooms work perfectly with grasses or in meadows. H. angustifolius prefers damp to wet soils, and is found in bogs, wet clearings, and ditches. And H. divaricatus prefers drier soils and is common in dry forests, woodlands, barrens, and clearings.
Muhly Grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris)
If you’ve seen fall blooming Muhly grass, you won’t quickly forget it. Its full, airy, pink to maroon florescences are stunning throughout the fall season. It grows in dry, rocky open woodlands, barrens and outcrops. Also, it grows well with Stiff goldenrod (Solidago rigida).
Replaces: Any non-native grass like pennisetum, fountain grass, miscanthus, etc.
Rudbeckia
Rudbeckia is one of my all-time favorites. It just refuses to give up—blooming through brutally hot days, in heavy clay or in poor soils, in full sun or in part shade, in sickness and in health (just kidding). I add it to my containers, then plant it in my garden too late in the year, and it shows up the next year as happy as can be.
The most native varieties to central Virginia are either Rudbeckia hirta, R. laciniata. or R. fulgida. (The taxonomy of Rudbeckias can get confusing and needs more study.) R. hirta grows easily in clay-loam or loamy soils in clearings and open fields. R. laciniata grows in floodplain forests, riverbanks, and wet meadows as well as in rich upland forests. Rudbeckia fulgida grows in dry to moist woodlands, barrens, clearings and meadows.
Replaces: mums, pansies, dianthus
Witch Hazel (Hamaelis virginiana)
There isn’t a thing not to love about witch hazel, Hamaelis virginiana. The buds are beginning to form now, and this winter, the show of tiny yellow buds will be a bright distraction from overcast January days.
Witch hazel grows in moist, rich soils and heavy clay, in a wide range of habitats including upland forests to woodlands to stream banks. It prefers full sun but grows well in part shade.
Replaces: burning bush