Fall Plants for Outdoor Decorating

It’s relatively easy to figure out the type of plants you want to plant in the spring to brighten up the outside area around your home. But which plants are the best for fall decorating?
Obviously, pumpkins, gourds, hay and colorful corn can have a stunning visual effect but when you throw in the right flowers, you’ve created something special.
One of the most popular fall flowers is, of course, the chrysanthemum, or mum as it is better known. These flowers come in an array of colors and bloom shapes, making the mum the standout among all fall flowers. They’re also quite hardy as their blooms last for weeks and they’re perfect for mass plantings.
The best mum colors for fall, which would fit right in with pumpkins and gourds, are orange, yellow, creamy white and bronze. However, the purple, bright pink, red and white mums are just as beautiful.
Now for a longer lasting bit of color for fall is the use of cool season annuals such as Pansies, & Violas, as well as an assortment of cool season ornamentals such as Ornamental Kale & Cabbage, Swiss Chards, Red Mustard, Red foliaged Beets, and other fall ornamental that perform well during the cool season.
The most popular among this group are the Pansies & Violas which actually will provide you color from October thru the winter and into the early spring till they are replaced with warm season annuals in mid May. Though these cool season beauties will likely tone down their color and performance during the coldest parts of the winter season, they bounce back with vigor in early spring as soon as light warming trends come to the area.
The remaining fall cool annuals such as Ornamental Kale & Cabbage, Swiss Chards, Red Mustard, and others, will provide a unique blend of foliage and color to those fall to early winter color displays but will usually be eventually killed out by mid winter freezes.
Focusing on an even longer lasting group of fall color perennials for year to year enjoyment, one can choose one of several perennials for great fall garden color. The sedum is a great fall flower that boasts amazing color. The “Autumn Joy” sedum starts out producing a dark pink bloom before it turns a deep red. Hint: if you plant sedum, make sure it gets some sun throughout the day and don’t water it too much.
Perennial Asters can also add plenty of long-lasting color to your fall garden. These flowers, which can grow to three feet high, are at their best in mid-September. Blue petals with a yellow center make for a stunning addition to your garden that will last for about a month.
You can also never go wrong with goldenrod, helenium, Japanese anemone, fall crocuses and many others. There’s no reason your landscaping can’t be as beautiful in the fall as it is in he spring – even moreso!