Fall blooming Bluebeard Shrub by a decorative crane....

So, how’s your garden looking today? A little tired maybe, as mine is? Most of the fall plants are not in bloom yet, and a lot of the summer plants are getting faded, going to seed, drooping, or just plain done. This, of course, makes it a great time to pick up a few plants to spruce the place up for fall.

I was at my daughter’s in Pittsburgh this last weekend. It was her wedding, actually, and the groom’s mom and I decided to do some planting around their house to make it look better for guests, and also to give it some curb appeal in case they need to move – in case one of them lands a job! (They’re grad students, on the very last lap of their PhD programs.)

So we went to two of the big box stores, because we knew how to get there and we didn’t know where any garden centers are. This got me thinking that there must be lots of you all who don’t have a good garden center nearby or who want to shop at the big boxes to save money or take advantage of sales. We were able to get some good stuff, I thought, to brighten it up right away: we got three double red knockout roses, two yellow Smokebush shrubs – small but cute – and some Black Eyed Susans (I don’t like having them in my yard because they self-seed so aggressively, but they do give instant pop).

This morning I went to my local big box just to see what’s on offer so I could write about it. There were a fair number of perennials (and a few shrubs) on sale, most of which are more summer than fall bloomers. Here’s the list:

Cheddar Pinks (Dianthus), Phlox paniculata, lavender ,peony, Bellflower (Campanula, but I didn’t make a note of what species), Coreopsis, Willow Blue Star (Amsonia tabernaemontana), Coneflowers (Echinacea), Sedum ‘Autumn Joy, Yarrow (Achillea), Black Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia fulgida), Pincushion Flower (Scabiosia caucasica), and Knockout Roses. Most of these are hardy in zones 3-9 or 4-8. It’s not quite the right season for any except the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy,’ but you can put them in the ground now and you’ll get blooms next year. Be sure to pick through the supply carefully, since not all the plants are in good shape. If you’re looking for partners, the Yarrow and Lavender work well together in that both can take quite dry soil; Pinks can take fairly dry soil too. The rest can take average soil and although in the north they like sun, in the south you can probably let them have some shade. Make sure the phlox get plenty of air circulation, because (as you probably know) they can get mighty funky with mildew.

The Knockout Roses we’ve had some discussion on here before. They were a new introduction fairly recently, and I think they’re terrific – nice deep green to almost maroon foliage, good disease resistance, hardy, and long-blooming. They come in red and pink, single and double. You can prune back any dead branches in the spring and prune to keep it in shape, but otherwise they don’t really need much care. I always think roses should be deadheaded both for aesthetics and for bloom production, but at this point, you can leave some flowerhead on to get the rose hips that color up nicely in the fall.

In addition to the sale items, they had some nice looking evergreens – shrubby and low-growing junipers and some white spruces – and some not-so-nice-looking other trees and shrubs. Personally, I wouldn’t buy trees or important shrubs at a big box store: it’s too much of an investment, and I want to know where the plants got their start in life. If they were grown in soil very different from my soil, they may have a compromised ability to thrive.

If you’re looking for fall color in perennials and shrubs, these most likely won’t be discounted at this point, but here are some interesting choices:

Bluebeard (Caryopteris clandonensis): this is a low-growing shrub with blue flowers (it’s the picture at the top) that starts to bloom right around now. It likes full sun, and you can cut it to the ground in the spring, since it flowers on new growth. It’s short – about 30” tall – and works well in the middle of a border. It looks really nice in masses, so if you have a large enough spread, a group of 3 or 5 or more will give you a lot of autumn pop.

There’s not much else that I know of that comes into bloom in September, but you can count on some of the late-summer Hydrangeas looking really nice well into fall. I love ‘Tardiva’ and ‘Limelight’, but those of you with more acidic soil have a much wider choice of Hydrangeas.

Incidentally, I have been using the ‘Endless Summer’ Hydrangea in a pot on my deck this year, and it’s been a terrific producer. I expect to treat it as an annual; in the ground some of them do well enough and some of them are endless bummers. I may plant it out at the end of the fall, but I have low expectations.

Fall blooming perennials, however, are more numerous. I like the Anemones. These are Japanese hybrids: Anemone ‘September Charm’ has pink blooms and gets about 3’ tall; Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’ has white blooms and is a little shorter. Anemone hupenhensis is the parent species to these and others.

New England Asters can’t be beat for intense purple color. At least here, in the upper Midwest, they are extremely robust, forming bushy stands that make late September just fabulous. I have planted them in the parkways up and down my block, and even when they don’t get watered regularly, they really come through. You do have to prune them back early in the summer or they get very leggy, although the ‘Purple Dome’ cultivar is a little better behaved. But if you only get one fall-blooming plant, make it this one. It’s hardy in zones 3-8.

New York Asters are nice too, but they don’t look as great year after year, to my eye, as their New England cousins.

Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ (and ‘Autumn Fire’ and other cultivars) is a nice plant too. It comes in light green earlier in the summer and then gradually colors up to a lovely bronze.

Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana) has magenta flowers (also available in white) on 3’ stalks. It’s ‘obedient’ because if you twist the flower heads around, they’ll stay in place. Sorry to say, it’s not obedient in the sense of staying where you planted it, so if you don’t want it all over, cut off the flowerheads once they’ve bloomed.

If you’ve got shade, three good fall bloomers are Bugbane (Cimicifuga racemosa), Toad Lily (Tricyrtis formosana) and Turtlehead (Chelone lyonii). These will all need moist soil, but the Turtlehead especially: in the wild you find it beside streams and waterfalls, so it really likes water. If you have a water garden, it may be just what you need!

OK, that’s it for today. I’d love it if you’d let us know what fall plants you like best!