How to Plant a Fall Flower Garden

While spring and summer are the highlight of flower gardening with colorful displays of sunny blooms, there is no comparison to the richness of the fall flower garden in its hues of crimsons, yellows and oranges. The rewards of a carefully tended fall flower garden are the final bounty of beauty for a hardworking gardener. Read on to learn how to plant a fall flower garden.

Instructions

1. Plant a fall flower garden in the spring so the plants have sufficient time to grow and generate blooms for fall.

2. Find late-blooming varieties of traditional spring and summer blooming flowers like tulips to include in the fall flower garden.

3. Leave the spent plants of interesting varieties in the fall garden for texture and interest like the seed heads of red sedum or the colorful reds and greens of ornamental cabbage.

4. Add a few climbers in the fall flower garden that turn scarlet red and crimson during fall months like the Parthenocissus tricuspidata.

5. Include hostas in the design of a fall flower garden. Hostas are available in many sizes and include colors of blue, bright yellows and greens that last through September and October.

6. Plant a border of burning bush for a fiery red backdrop to the fall garden. Use shrubs with berries like elderberries and pin cherries as border plants that attract wildlife to the fall flower garden.

7. Place ivy in the fall flower garden along a rock wall or as ground cover since it remains green throughout the winter months as well.

8. Enjoy the full bloom of a sunflower garden in the fall with sunflowers that grow as tall as 13 feet requiring stakes or as short as 12 inches on bush-like plants. Sunflowers are available in shades of yellow as light as moonlight and as bright as the sun or in various shades of red and burgundy.

9. Plant a complete fall flower garden with the rich autumn colors of chrysanthemums in an array of flower head types: spoon, pompom, single, reflexed, intermediate and incurved.

10. Sow any one of the perennial flowers that bloom in fall for the late flower garden. Plant tall flowers like delphinium, butterfly bush and clematis in the back of the garden. Coreopsis, balloon flower, Shasta daisies, Echinacea, gaillardia and lobelia are mid-size flowers for the middle. Phlox, sedum, anemone and snowbark grow lower for the front or a border in a fall garden.

Tips & Warnings

• Plan for the fall flower garden when planting in spring by layering flowers in the garden based on when they bloom.

• Use different textures and changing colors of existing plants to enhance a fall flower garden.