Will You Be Planting for Fall Color?

Fall is in the air—and that brings back happy memories of s’mores around a campfire, carving out pumpkins, and snuggling under the blankets while taking a hayride.

Fall is also a great time to add bright, bold colors to your flowerbeds, plant spring bulbs, and add trees for fall charm.

Make Your Landscape Pop with Fall Color

If you’ve been to your favorite garden center or a big box retailer, you’ve probably seen chrysanthemums, blue aster, and pumpkins for sale. As the crisp days return, you want to put some color back in your flowerbeds.

Here are 10 annuals that will brighten your landscape this fall. Also, these annuals will continue blooming if you deadhead them. However, some of these annuals may not be available in your growing zone:

1.  Violas and pansies – These cute face flowers aren’t just for early spring. Indeed, violas and pansies thrive in cooler temperatures. They’ll bloom until the first freeze and may come back the following spring.

2.  Ornamental cauliflower, cabbage, and kale – They look like their edible cousins. However, these ornamentals have colors that deepen as the temperatures get cooler. They make great focal points in your landscape.

3.  Chrysanthemums – Many varieties of these fall standard-bearers, including pin cushion, spider, and garden mums, are available. You can plant perennial varieties in your landscape, while other mums last only for the fall season.

4.  Dahlias – These showy florals are related to sunflowers and chrysanthemums. They show off their color with impressive flower heads in the fall. However, if you live in a colder region of the U.S., you’ll need to dig them up before the first freeze to overwinter.


5.  Marigolds – Marigolds come in many varieties and colors, including deep orange, red, and yellow. Marigolds revive themselves in the fall when the temperatures start to cool again.

6.  Scarlet sage – This fall favorite is a perennial in zones 10-11. For everyone else, scarlet sage is an annual. It starts blooming in June and doesn’t quit until frost kills it.

7.   Alyssum – You’ll enjoy this groundcover’s gentle scent and tiny white blooms from spring through fall. You can cut the groundcover back during the hot summer months so it can burst forth again in the fall.

8.  Nasturtium – These floral species come in a wide variety of growing types, and they can be annual or perennial. Still, nasturtiums have bright fall blossoms in colors of red, orange, and yellow.

9.  Snapdragons – These annuals come in a wide array of colors, including red, peach, yellow, and orange, to brighten your fall front yard. Upright and softly spikey, snapdragons give your flowerbeds a burst of colors.

10.  Goldenrod – For many years, goldenrod has been blamed for hay fever and other fall allergies. However, goldenrod doesn’t produce the pollen that leads to hay fever. Instead, it adds a mustard-like color to fall landscapes.

Don’t Forget to Plant Fall Perennials, Spring Bulbs, Trees, and Shrubs

If you want a show of glorious color after a gray winter, then you need to get tulips, daffodils, snowdrops, and crocuses in the ground before it freezes.

Your local independent garden center and other garden retailers may be putting out bulbs in August or September. You can buy these early birds and put them in your refrigerator’s crisper until it’s time to plant them.

Keep the bulbs in their original bags and put them in a brown paper sack. Then, store the bulbs in your refrigerator’s crisper until you’re ready to put them in the ground.

It’s better to plant your spring-flowering bulbs in late October or early November before the ground freezes. Autumn gives the bulbs ample darkness to get settled underground before the spring thaw.

Learn More: Why Your Lawn Sprinkler Needs to Be Winterized

Autumn is also a great time to split overgrown perennials. When you want to separate coneflowers, for example, you dig out the extra plants, including the roots. You then move these divided plants to another bed or give them away.

Make sure you water your transplanted perennials well so that roots can get settled before the ground freezes. Plus, you want to add mulch around these plants to protect the roots from spring freeze-thaw cycles.

Now’s the time to add shrubs or trees to your landscape. Again, these woody plants put their roots down deep before the ground freezes and well before the hot summer days return.

Dig a hole wide enough to allow the roots to spread as the tree or shrub grows. You’ll need to water it regularly until the ground freezes. And your newly planted trees or shrubs will also need mulching to protect the roots from frost-heaving.

K-Rain Helps with Your Fall Planting

K-Rain’s tree bubblers and drip irrigation kits help your perennials, trees, and shrubs get the moisture needed to develop deep root systems. Yet, your irrigation system, including your bubblers and drip irrigation kit, needs to be blown out before night-time temperatures fall to 32ºF.

You can find manuals for K-Rain sprinkler systems on our website. If you’re new to outdoor sprinkler systems, you can find a contractor for designing and installing your K-Rain irrigation system.

You can also buy your K-Rain sprinkler system parts at our online store or your favorite big-box retailer. If you have any questions about your K-Rain outdoor lawn sprinkler, call our customer service at 800-735-7246 or fill out our contact form.

Sources:

GardenDesign.com, What to Plant in Your Fall Garden.

HGTV.com, Planting Spring Bulbs in Fall.

SouthernLiving.com, 27 Fall Plants for Brilliant Seasonal Color.

TheSpruce.com, 20 Best Fall Flowers to Plant for Autumnal Color.