Fall Flower Power

Fall Gardening Tips

Fall is the perfect time to plant trees, shrubs, lawns, ground covers, and bulbs to give them a jump on spring. Here are some seasonal tasks to keep your garden healthy and vibrant:

• Keep apples picked up from under trees to help control the spread of coddling moths, which cause wormy apples.
• Trim foliage on grape vines to allow more sunlight to reach the fruit and ripen the grapes.
• Prepare houseplants for their return indoors by scouting for insects, thoroughly rinsing leaves, and cleaning containers.
• Fertilize lawns now to build strong, healthy root systems.

Colorful Flowers for Fall

The end of summer doesn’t mean the end of a colorful garden. Extend your garden’s beauty with these fall-blooming flowers:

• Chrysanthemums (Mums): Hardy perennials available in an array of lively colors, bringing a fresh look to the fall season and returning year after year.
• Asters: These 2-3-foot plants bloom with dozens of flowers over a long fall season, available in shades of purple and pink, making a fine addition to perennial borders.
• Japanese Anemone: Tall, upright stems that don’t require staking, featuring pink, white, or rose-colored semi-double flowers. Graceful in light breezes, they thrive in light, airy shade.
• Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’: An upright sedum growing 2 feet tall with thick grey-green leaves and large domes of bright pink flowers in September, softening to a coppery color through fall. Drought-tolerant and attractive to honeybees.
• Ornamental Grasses: Begin sending up dramatic plumed seedheads around Labor Day, starting as silky tassels and expanding into fluffy flags that last well into winter.
• Pansies: Hardy plants that bloom through fall and will be among the first to flower again in spring. Available in a wide range of colors, from soft pastels to bright gold, orange, purple, violet, and blue. Versatile for gardens, window boxes, or pots.
• Snapdragons: Available in low border varieties or tall “Rockets,” these colorful flowers brighten gardens and containers in fall and return in spring. They come in a rainbow of colors.