The Best Fall Garden Flowers
Looking for ways to add curb appeal to your home for fall? Plant these fall garden flowers for prettiest front yard on the block!
With autumn in full swing, fall garden flowers are bold and bright while the foliage changes and falls.
It is such a beautiful time of year and the best time to garden.
Typically, New Jersey has erratic weather in September and October.
One week it can be really warm, then the next, it’s really cold.
We usually get our first frost in October but it can range, depending on the year.
This season, October has been incredibly mild. So my garden is still thriving!
Looking ahead to next week, there is still no frost in sight!
Which is almost unheard of in all of my years of gardening here.
Since everything still looks pretty amazing, my fall garden flowers are at their peak.
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I’m thrilled to be joining my good friends in the Fabulous Fall Garden Tour today!
If you stopped by from Cecilia’s over at the My Thrift Store Addiction welcome to my garden.
She is such a great friend and has the most beautiful home and garden!
The Best Fall Garden Flowers
While not a complete list, these fall garden flowers are doing wonderfully in the garden right now.
Dahlias
I mean, how spectacular are these dahlias?
I am pretty new to the dahlia scene because they require a little more work than native plants, but wow are they something!
Because I have so many blooms right now, I cut a few to see if the flowers would dry well.
And I’m happy to report they look amazing while they are drying!
So I am planning to cut all the blooms just before the first frost and dry the flowers to use in my decor.
In the meantime though, I’m going to cut a few to enjoy indoors while they are still blooming.
These are my cafe au lait dahlias and I NEED to grow these again next year.
They started blooming in early August and still look amazing now!
Hydrangeas
Speaking of drying flowers, I’ve been drying my hydrangea blooms too!
Last year, my ever-blooming hydrangeas struggled to flower.
But this year, they are doing fabulous and still going strong!
I’ve been cutting the flowers to enjoy inside and drying them to tuck in some vintage crates.
Do you like to do that too?
But you’ve got to see the limelight hydrangeas that I planted last fall!
They did really well this year and are putting on quite a show in my cutting garden.
Don’t they look gorgeous with the plumes of zebra grass and sedum autumn joy?
These hydrangea blooms are perfect for drying right now too!
Beautyberry
And while we are on the subject of the cutting garden, my favorite shrub is this callicarpa, aka beautyberry.
Although it doesn’t flower in fall, it produces these amazing purple berries that are just stunning in the fall garden.
I first fell in love with beautyberry when I was walking Freylinghuysen Arboretum many years ago.
When I first saw it, I knew I had to have it.
So I planted it here and love how this limelight hydrangea pairs with it.
Isn’t that a gorgeous fall plant combination?
Sedum Autumn Joy
One of my favorite fall garden flowers is sedum autumn joy.
Do you have any in your garden?
They are one of the best plants for the fall garden because they are super easy to care for, propagate easily and do so much in the garden.
To me, they are a four season plant. Here’s why:
- When it breaks ground in spring it adds lushness to the growing garden.
- In summer, it produces chartreuse flower heads that brighten up summer borders, adding color, texture and dimension.
- As summer transitions to fall, sedum autumn joy flower heads slowly open to a light pink and deepen in color as the fall season progresses.
- After the blooms dry out in fall, the flower heads can be used in planters for winter. And if left in the garden, look amazing with snow sitting on them.
Because sedum autumn joy is so easy to divide, I started the shed garden with several plant divisions and have it in every garden.
As an aside, I am really glad I gave this garden shed a makeover in spring.
Wait until you see what it looked like before.
This garden loos so much better now.
Asters
Another one of my favorite fall garden flowers is asters.
Don’t you just love that shade of purple?
I need to divide these asters this year so I can tuck a few more around the gardens.
Garden Tip for Growing Asters: Keep the plant cut back halfway until July 4 to encourage a bushy habit.
Without cutting it back, asters get very leggy.
Pansies
Pansies are annuals that look so pretty in spring and fall.
They come in lots of fun colors and bring vibrant color to gardens while the temps are a bit cooler.
Did you know that when you plant them in the fall they will bounce back and bloom again in spring?
YES!
If you’ve never tried it before, give it a shot and see if it works in your hardiness zone.
I am in Zone 6a and they return every spring.
It is one of my best tips for saving money in the garden.
I very rarely buy pansies in spring anymore.
Chrysanthemums
I’m not the biggest fan of garden mums, but they do have their place in the fall garden and other living spaces.
Don’t get me wrong, they are gorgeous!
But they are so short-lived and fussy that I use them for a very limited purpose.
I know they are considered perennial and can return the following year.
But I’ve probably had a 50% success rate with that.
So to me, it’s not worth wasting my garden space or the energy to dig them in.
That said though, they bring the fall feels to any garden or living space.
I LOVE how they looked this year on my front porch.
And I also tucked them in here and there in small doses just to add pops of autumn with my outside fall decor.
In addition to my gardens, I added a few garden mums with some pansies and pumpkins to my outdoor living spaces too.
And I even tucked a few on my potting bench.
My husband built this bench for me for Mother’s Day using wood scraps from the yard.
I can’t tell you how much I love this potting bench as well as how much it has helped me this gardening season. If you don’t have one, believe me – you need one!
Best Fall Garden Flowers for Pots
This year, I designed a gorgeous container garden for fall with some of the coolest fall garden flowers.
You can check out the fall planter recipe here.
But here’s a quick list of plants I love to use in container gardens for fall.
- millet
- ornamental grass
- garden mums
- pansies
- ornamental kale and cabbage
- salvia
- celosia
- creeping jenny
- ivy
- ornamental peppers
- rudbekia
- sedums
Thanks so much for stopping by the garden today!
I hope you got some good planting ideas for your fall garden.
Be sure and stop by my good friend Kim’s at Shiplap and Shells who is the next stop on the Fabulous Fall Garden Tour!
Wait until you see these gorgeous fall garden tips, tricks, home decor and DIY inspiration!
Click on the names below to check out these amazing garden ideas and inspiration!
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