Fall Planting Ideas for Color

Fall is a great season to plant new plants and bulbs.  Additionally, there are many cool weather edible plants you can insert into veggie beds now.  It is also a great time to enjoy the fall blooming shrubs and perennials in your garden.  If you are lacking color in your garden now is the time to visit a nursery and see what is blooming or colorful.  Keep in mind it's listed dimensions when full grown before you decide to take it  home!

Here are some ideas:

For fall color now, you can plant many annuals available at the nurseries.  However, consider making room for permanent plants that will give you color each fall and into winter.  Sages are a great addition to the garden for that fall color.

This Cream Delight New Zealand Flax has color and texture year round.  The annual Coreopsis in front adds a bit of color and the Mystic Spires Sage behind with it's purple towers of color add a seasonal color with some added drama.  This sage may go dormant to the ground in areas with frost.

Mexican Bush Sage and Pinneapple Sage are great fall color additions and highly loved by hummingbirds.  They will have blooms until heavy winter frost and are evergreen plants.  To control size they can be cut back in spring after frost is done.  

Black and Blue Sage with Mexican Feather Grass have very interesting textures together.  Additionally, when the sage goes dormant to the ground in winter, the grass still fills in the area.

For Spring Color, you can plant many bulbs now for color in early spring until summer.   Anemones and Mondo Grass work well in an area where seasonal replanting occur.  Daffodils and Grape Hyacinths bloom in early spring and bring bright color to the end of a gloomy winter.  Plant bulbs in an area with ground cover for best affect.  Here, the ground cover is soft Lamb's Ear and the Hyacinths are planted along a sidewalk. For a more monochromatic style, plant bulbs of different shades of one color in groupings.  Here there are yellow Irises and a pale yellow Freesia. A New Zealand Flax in the background makes a good back drop for this grouping.  The bulbs are a pale yellow Freesia near the Flax, and the peachy Tulips in the foreground.  Other plants include the red Kangaroo Paw and soft Lamb's Ear ground cover.  The grassy leaves coming in from the right belong to yellow Irises not yet in bloom for the photo.  This warm vignette will be carried over by color in the Flax and bloom from Kangaroo Paw until summer.  The Freesia will come up every year once planted, however, Tulips require a high amount of chill we don't get here and rarely come back much less bloom.  They are often planted as an 'annual.'

Mirror PLant is a good choice for year round shrubs that add extra interest in winter when nothing else seems to bloom. They are often green with pale variegated colors or dark brown and when winter chill hits they warm up with an overall color change.  New growth will be the normal summer variegated color.Coprosma 'Rainbow Surprise'Coprosma 'Tequillia Sunrise'Coprosma 'Marble Queen'Variegated plants of New Zealand Flax, Euonymous, Geraniums and many other plant types available in nurseries year round are good additions any time of year to the garden.

Vegetables to plant now are cool weather plants such as:  lettuce, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, carrots, onions, beets, radishes, potatoes, celery, brussel sprouts, cabbage spinach, peas and some squash.