Gardening - Planning for fall garden color

Our remaining greens are brown and yellowing. Many of the annuals we planted back in early June are looking leggy and dry from our recent bout of blistering heat. It is now that many homeowners think of cutting back and preparing beds for the winter dormancy. I however love the fall as it offers a window to introduce different texture and color in the home landscape.

When many folks think of fall garden color their thoughts migrate to the tree and shrubbery foundations of the garden that provide various hues in foliage and berries of interest. Spring, not fall is considered the time for most homeowners to plant for garden color and interest. But fall offers you some unique opportunities to maintain your colorful landscape well into the first few frosts of the season. Fall flowers in the garden will enhance those changing shrubs and trees and complement your fall accents such as pumpkins and cornstalks. But you don’t wait until the calendar ushers in fall. You can start planning now for planting in September once our August heat has dissipated.

So what should you look for in fall planting options? Let’s take a look at some annuals first. Yes, I said annuals. You may be thinking this is such a waste of money. But a few hardy annuals that tolerate first frost are marigolds, Dusty Miller and pansies. The marigolds offer you the traditional gold and orange fall colors. The Dusty Miller adds a nice silver accent to lighten the gardens, while pansies offer a multitude of color. If you had pansies or violas in the spring, you may notice they have reseeded and already begun their growth in your fall garden.

Usually garden centers are blowing out their remaining flats, so you can often pick these annuals up for a song this time of year. The problem with these annuals is that they are root bound in their cell packs. So you want to give them a little time to become a bit healthier. Give then a few weeks growing in a container versus planting immediately in the ground. Score the roots with a knife before you put them in the container to facilitate healthy root growth. With a little time, they will be ready for transplanting in your garden.

Additional annual accents for the fall garden include the ornamental cabbage and kale. They too tolerate the initial frosty weather and provide great color and texture. I love the purple hues and silvery greens. The larger coarse leaves give you the difference in shape and texture that adds real interest to your landscape this time of year.

A great transition perennial plant from late summer to mid fall is the New England Aster or the Aster Novi-Belch, a New York variety. Both are Zone 4 plants that have daisy-like flowers. You will find the New England varieties in purple and salmon colors, while the Novi-Belch a clear blue color.

But the real mainstay of the fall garden is the chrysanthemum. Their color and small leaf texture really pack visual interest in the landscape, particularly when paired with the plants discussed above. We usually think of mums in the traditional fall colors of orange, red and gold. But with new plant breeding, you can enjoy great variety. Various shades of white and cream, along with lavender, maroon and coral are now available. Many come in two-tone colors. The leaf patterns also vary from the traditional mum leaf to a daisy-like bloom. The combinations with these new varieties are endless. You can actually keep your cool color shades of purple, white yellow and silver well into the fall just by combining the new color mums with the Dusty Millers and ornamental kales.

Mums are generally cold hardy to Zone 5. But I have had great success with returning mums over the past few years with careful mum selection and a few planting and care tips. My greatest success in returns has come from selection of plants grown locally from the Perennial Prophet Series. A local master gardener has been growing these in Saratoga County for the past five years. As opposed to the hothouse varieties you find in the local grocery stores, these mums are grown outdoors in our region. This constitutes a wise investment for the homeowner interested in having this plant return to their landscape next season. Always find out how the mums are grown if you are interested in having them return.

Treating the mum as a perennial during planting will also increase your chance of return next season. I always add compost to the planting hole if the garden is not up to standards. If I have great garden soil I merely add a bit of bone meal in the soil mix when planting to support root growth. Also keep the plant watered regularly. My success in mum returns has directly been attributed to homeowners who water regularly. And finally, when planting I add about three inches of mulch around the plant for winter protection. Doing this before the first frost will also provide the winter protection needed to see your mums in the garden next year. In the spring, once you see the greens reappear, cut off the dead stalks. Throughout the growing season, until first week in August, continue to trim back the greens into the lovely mounded shapes we all expect from mums. By the end of August you will begin to notice the buds forming. In September, you can begin to enjoy your mum for a second season. I have had returning mums for several consecutive seasons now. Many are the size of small shrubs!

The summer of 2007 may be closing, but gardeners still have options for color in their landscape. Taking a little care in planting and maintenance now will provide you with another fall season of color and interest in your garden. If you would like more information on the locally grown mums I use, you can contact me at our Web site. Happy fall planting!

Sue Ann DuBois is a Master Gardener and partner to the husband-wife team of Chips Landscaping. She designs, constructs and maintains outdoor landscape and water garden features in Saratoga County. For more information visit: www.chipslandscaping.net.