The Best Time To Plant Fall Flowers For A Colorful Landscape

As summer meanders to a close, you might begin to regret the loss of the beautiful and bountiful flowers in your garden. But it doesn't have to be the end just yet. Many colorful and delightful flowers can be planted to create a pretty autumn landscape. The main thing to keep in mind is to get the timing just right. For the best results, the best time to plant most fall flowers, either annual or perennial, is late summer to early fall. You want to ensure enough time for your autumn-blooming flowers to grow strong and bloom for a good portion of the season. However, you do not want to wait so long that the ground freezes or becomes too hard to work in. 

Pay special attention to your area's frost dates. If you want to have flowers that will bloom in your garden in late fall, you cannot plant too late, resulting in their roots not becoming properly established. Even hardy flower species can become damaged by the cold once it dips below a certain temperature. Plant late enough in the summer that they will not wilt in the heat, but not too late where you cannot enjoy the flowers before the frost sets in. For example, horned violets (Viola cornuta) do not bloom well in summer heat, but make good fall flowers if planted as days get cooler.

The best flowers for the cooler temperatures typical of fall are cool-season annuals. When choosing varieties, seek out ones with frost-tolerance, like snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus) or pot marigold (Calendula officinalis). Depending on your location in the U.S., you might plant these annuals in your yard at different times. For example, in a more northerly-situated state like Iowa, cool-season plants for fall should be in the ground by mid-to-late September. Typically, if sowing seeds directly outside, plant annuals 6 to 8 weeks before the first fall frost. If planting seedlings, you can put them in the ground later. Opt for the hardiest annuals for your hardiness zone to be certain of successful fall blooms. For example, pansies (Viola sp.) are an annual you should plant for a colorful autumn garden, which withstand light frost.

For most parts of the country, a good time to plant all perennials is from late summer to early fall. While you can plant many perennial species other times of the year, including spring and early summer, fall planting sets them up for successful growth in the spring. But get your fall bloomers in the ground if you want to inject some vibrant color into your garden. For beautiful flowers to plant in late summer for gorgeous fall blooms, consider classic flowers like black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) or frilly-petalled aromatic asters (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium), which butterflies enjoy.