From classic fall shades of red, orange, and yellow to vibrant purple and pink blooms you might associate with warmer temperatures, there's an endless supply of options for colorful fall plants. And with all the entertaining the fall season has to offer, lively cut-flower blooms are sure to come in handy.
Autumn is a great season for annuals, perennials and evergreen shrubs to shine. In fact, some of the most popular flowers, like colorful mums, roses, dahlias, purple pansies and yes, even bright yellow sunflowers all bloom around September and October.
We've discussed fall perennials before, Asters and Goldenrods being my favorites, but one that is overlooked and is spectacular is Threadleaf Bluestar, or Amsonia hubrichtii. It has lovely lavender blue flowers in spring, and delicate foliage in the summer which turns a beautiful yellow in fall.
Asters (Aster Spp.)
One very popular variety is Aster 'Celeste', which forms a clump covered with dense purple daisy-like flowers in late summer and early fall.
Color changes can occur from any of the following; an accumulation or loss of anthocyanins, accumulation or loss of carotenoids, or an accumulation of betalains. Floral color change may also be caused by an increase or decrease in pH causing a reddening/blueing of anthocyanins and co-pigments.
Sunflowers are the quintessential late-season flower, with disk-shaped blooms in cheerful shades of yellow, red, orange, bronze or white. Add height to borders, kitchen gardens and natural landscapes. Suncredible® Saturn™ blooms for several weeks longer than other varieties, providing color well into fall.
The National Chrysanthemum Society calls mums the “Queen of the Fall Flowers.”
"Montauk or Nippon daisies are very late blooming, as early as August, and as late as September and October in many areas, and this makes them a star of the fall garden." Your Montauk daisies will make great cut flowers throughout the fall and will regularly bloom until a killing frost.
What are fall colors? The colors most associated with fall are orange, red, yellow and brown, inspired by the seasonal changing of leaves' colors as temperatures drop and daylight shrinks. (Learn more about the science behind the dazzling colors of fall.)
There's more to fall color than just red: it's the blend of red, yellow, orange, tan, green, and purple that thrills us.
The seven flowers of autumn are bush clover (hagi), miscanthus (obana, Miscanthus sinensis), kudzu, large pink (nadeshiko, Dianthus superbus), yellow-flowered valerian (ominaeshi, Patrinia scabiosifolia), boneset (fujibakama, Eupatorium fortunei), and Chinese bellflower (kikyō, Platycodon gradiflorus).
October has two birth flowers: the Marigold and Cosmos. Both stems prosper during the summer and fall and have rich legacies in history, gardening, and folk medicine. The first October birth flower is the cosmo.
Colorful Fall Floral Arrangement
Dahlias, zinnias, and marigolds are our favorite flowers that peak in late summer and early fall. To make their colors stand out even more, arrange them in a white container and add greenery as a backdrop.
Phlox (Phlox paniculata)
Averaging 2 to 3 feet tall, with round globes of blooms, phlox perform best in areas with full sun. Though the deer are quite fond of them, these purple perennial flowers are in bloom from mid summer through fall.
'Autumn' is an upright, large-flowered Hybrid Tea rose which produces flowers in a mixture of apricot and gold with flushes of red at the tips of the petals. In general, roses are a large group of flowering shrubs, most with showy flowers that are single-petalled to fully double-petalled.
The Middlemist Red is the rarest flower in the world. What is the most unique flower in the world? There are many unique flowers in the world such as Juliet Rose, Ghost Orchid, Middlemist Red and Youtan Poluo.
Rudbeckia, also known as Black-Eyed Susans, are cold-hardy flowers that offer long-lasting blooms spring through fall. They're easy-to-grow, survive as perennials in zones 4-10, or can be grown as annuals. Cut back the stems and faded foliage when they naturally fade in winter, and they should return next spring.
Marigolds and cosmos are both easy to grow and provide color in the garden until the first frost of the fall. Their rich history and long-held symbolism make marigolds and cosmos plants that are meaningful in so many ways. Learn more about these two popular flowers!
Pansies and violas bloom for most of the winter in mild climates, and some types will rebound in the spring in cold climates.
A succession of warm, sunny days and cool, crisp but not freezing nights seems to bring about the most spectacular color displays. During these days, lots of sugars are produced in the leaf but the cool nights and the gradual closing of veins going into the leaf prevent these sugars from moving out.
Color we see in flowers is the result of reflected light from various plant pigments. These pigments can be anthocyanins, compounds that make autumn leaves red, or blueberries blue. Flavonol pigments make yellow and chlorophyll pigments make green.
As the season changes, temperatures drop and days get shorter. Trees get less direct sunlight, and the chlorophyll in the leaves breaks down. The lack of chlorophyll reveals yellow and orange pigments that were already in the leaves but masked during the warmer months.