The Best Fall Perennials for your Garden
A perennial is a plant that generally grows and blooms in spring and summer, but die down in fall and winter, to return again in the spring. However, this doesn’t apply to all perennials. There are perennial plants that bloom in the fall to make gorgeous beds and fill the already colorful landscape with more hues.
If you are looking for perennials that can keep your flower garden looking bright and pretty even through the cooler fall months, check out these favourite fall perennials.
Asters
Zones- 4-9
Issues to watch out for: they creep in flower beds so they need trimming often.
If you want a plant that reminds you of the daisies that bloom on spring and summer, check out the Aster. It comes in shades of pink, blue, white, and purple and they usually start popping up in August. They will last until the first frost of the year.
Chelone (Turtlehead)
Zones: 2-9
Issues: do not do well in dry heat.
Chelone is shapes like a turtle’s head, hence the nickname, and has colors of dark green in the foliage and blooms in white, pink, or red.
Chrysanthemum
Zones: 3-9
Issues: needs lots of watering and must be well-covered when it frosts.
Chrysanthemums are probably one of the most widely known fall perennials because there are so many varieties of the plant. Hardy Mums are the best version to plant for the fall.
Helenium (Sneezeweed)
Zones: 3-9
Issues: Needs to be staked because they grow tall.
Helenium is a small cone-shaped flower in a russet hue, which makes it wonderful for fall. They are a wonderful choice for poorly drained spaces as they like lots of water.
Helenium (Sneezeweed)
Zones: 3-9
Issues: Need to be divided by hand because they don’t pollinate, which means they’re “sterile” for a plant.
Helianthus is known as a perennial sunflower, and is perfect for fall because of its resemblance to the sunflower. It attracts bees and butterflies, but they can’t help pollinate the flowers since they are sterile.
Helenium (Sneezeweed)
Zones: 3-9
Issues: attracts deer
Autumn Joy is just about as perfect a plant as you could hope for. It doesn’t need much attention, looks great any time of the year, doesn’t have many issues (bugs, disease, etc) and can make a wonderful fall perennial.
What is your favourite Fall Perennial?
Thanks for the ideas, I was thinking about adding some fall perennials to my garden. I will have to check these ones out further!
Thanks for the wonderful list! My aunt was just telling me this morning how it feels like fall and she wants to get her garden redone lol .. thanks again i’ll have to share this with her.
I would love to have a fall garden but here in the Rockies we pretty well go right from summer to snow!
I need to add some of these I don’t have a fall garden but hopefully nest year!
I’m looking forward to fall flowers because the colors are always so vibrant!
I love Asters….also love foliage like garden Kale. Gotta love fall, and all the stunning colors. We do lots of biking, and driving specifically to see the color changes!
I love Chrysanthemums but haven’t had much luck keeping them over winter. I plan to try them again though.
We just bought our first home and will need to figure out what to do with all the raised garden beds – I’m not much of a gardener, but this guide was really helpful! (I’ve only heard of 2 of these plants lol)
We don’t have much of a fall here either, like spring it’s short and sweet. 🙂
Thanks for the list! I love planting flowers in the fall to fill the garden after all the veggies are done.
I don’t have a favourite fall perennial — since I didn’t know there were any! I just looked up our gardening zone, and we’re a 4, so I could plant any of these!