Ok , now for the fun part….PLANTS!!!

Today we will focus on only herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees will come later .

Most garden websites and magazines will throw at you the usual suspects fothe fall garden…..asters, mums, solidago, coneflower etc , and not that I do not like and grow these but let’s shake it up shall we?

Below is a list of some of my favorites, both old and new to try in your garden for late season interest. i can’t list them by favorites because i love them all. You may have to look harder to find these than your local nursery but they are all worth it. ( an aside …TELL your local nursery people the kinds of interesting plants you would like them to carry, maybe we can change the world!!)

Let’s start with a new favorite of the past few seasons….cardoon. Cardoon is techinically a vegeatable, and an annual but DO NOT LET THAT DISSUADE YOU FROM PLANTING MANY!!!!! You can start it very easily from seed  or some places sell little plants in the spring. The spiky fuzzy textured leaves with make a huge presence in the garden that is not to be missed. Here they never have flowered or made little artichoke like fruit, but they look fantastic until late December. yes, December. Beautiful foliage in December. Get it , plant it , love it.

Salvia is another  new great love of mine , (starting with the realization that the rabbits leave it alone )and after reading lots about it and having my eyes opened to the fact that so many more are hardy here than I thought, lots of them like shade ( are in fact woodland plants) and quite a few bloom very late in the year. Salvia glabrescens’Momobana’  is fantastic for a woodland setting, starts blooming here in October. Salvia nipponica has yellow varieagted foliage and yellow flowers, again in Fall(.Photos from Plant Delights Nursery, a must visit online ) You can score many great salvias from Flowers By The Sea . Their website is one of the best around for search-ability ( by zone, color, culture, etc) so you can find all the late blooming shade loving salvias that will grow in your zone in just a few clicks. The plants they ship are just FANTASTIC.

 

Lobelia cardinallis; I never was brave enough  to try this plant as it is so very dry here and this guy usually likes moist soil, but I gave it a go and it has  actually done quite well. Lovely red flowers fresh for you in Aug-Sept (photo from Bluestone Perennials)

Begonia grandis is a perfectly hardy begonia that will provide you many a compiment when it blooms in the fall ( photo from Pinterest with no source given)

Franz Hal is a bi-color daylily that is the last of it;s kind to get going here. Starts after all the others are finishing up. Perfect. Seen here with the non stop blooming potentilla

Joe Pye weed was eupatorium now it is  eutrochium or argeratina or some other thing I forget , either way it toleates a wide range of conditions from wet to dry , sun to shade, and  new introductions like’Chocolate’ bloom very late indeed. As a bonus: butterflies love it!

tricyrtis or toad lily make a nice addition to a planting under deciduos trees where maybe spring ephermals once prettied the place up before going dormant. They emerge late and show off their orchid like flowers mid summer to mid autumn.

allium ozawa is an ornamental onion that never fails to delight both me and every bee for miles around in the Fall.

Corydalis lutea , again for shade , gives a much needed sunny infusion of yellow flowers in the late summer

anemone x hybrida, or fall anemone, ‘Honorie Jobert’ is just a smile waiting to happen when so much else has gone by. Plant very very many …..be very very happy

 

a few  sedums: october daphne which has cool foliage and blooms very late ( profile here) and Purple Emporer and Jose Aubergine which add much  needed foliar drama to the garden are

must haves. Jose grows compactly and never flops.

Bradbury’s Monarda is a very early bloomer , but after you cut the seed heads off ( they look great through the better part of the summer) the foliage takes over as the star. It can take sun or shade and the color is just fantatic and NO MILDEW! ( it is a native btw) profile here

any persecaria amplexicaulis , although ‘Firetail’ and ‘Alba’ are senations

Bush clover or lespedeza thungbergii is a plant I have grown and painfully miss for it’s froth of purple in fall. It gets sheared to nothing in the sprintime and blooms on new wood  it makes during the season, except here, The rabbits find it completely irresistable. No cage or fence idea I tried could protect this lovely thing so i gave up. if you don’t have them as bad as i do get this plant pronto.

Montauk Daisy or nipponanthemum nipponicum ( no,I did not make that up)  is a large woody plant, almost shrub size, that is covered in pretty daisies  Aug-Oct . Super easy to grow too

Gentain andrewsii is a cool blue for Fall and I like it paired with anything orange that will make it really stand out.

kirengeshoma koreana and palmata( yellow wax bells) both have lovely foliage and yellow flowers in the autumn. These plants need space, but if you have a moist wooded or shady area to let them roam then do so.

Lycoris, or surprise lily has foliage that emerges early then dies back to the ground and then SURPRISE! the flowers pop out if the groun on naked stems in late September to October. Only a few species are hardy here but definitely worth growing.

Chelone or turtle head  species are very likeable plants that will do fine in sun with enough moisture or leaf mould worked into the soil, but also dig the shade . The most commonly grown c. lyonii “Hot Lips” is just fime, but you can search out other leeser known varieties to impress your gardening friends

Clematis ‘Mrs. Robert Brydon’ has the very unique and un-clematis like trait of lovely large green leaves that remain unbothered by disease or drought. Mrs Brydon, like my gram and her meticulous hair-do and red lipstick ,  never fails to look perfect and I always wonder how she pulls it off. Add in the fact that she blooms in very late Aug/early Septmeber and she is just the ticket to a great show

Aster latifolious ‘Lady in Black’ is one of very few asters growing here. It has dark foliage and small white flowers on archings stems, Very beautiful .

And I will add that I do love me a perennial mum , I have many, and they are all beauties . Favorites here include ‘Wil’s Wonderful’, ‘Copper penny’  ‘Pink Centerpiece’ and pacifica. You can read about them here and here.