Cool, crisp air is slowly drifting into our mornings and evenings, teasing us with the promise of autumn. Our lush container gardens are now giving way to the heat of late summer, providing us with the much anticipated opportunity to refresh and indulge in our fall foliage fix.
It’s easy and fun to up your curb appeal and become the envy of the neighborhood by adding bold, fall-inspired hues into your planters. Plus your fall container gardens will pair perfectly with an autumn display of pumpkins, gourds, straw bales and yard decor.
To create an impactful and stunning fall container garden that lasts months, combine plants that tolerate the chill of autumn’s nighttime temperatures.
While blooming Garden Mums are synonymous with autumn, the Mum is not the only plant worthy of greeting this change of seasons. When choosing your container plants, include cold-tolerant annuals like Ornamental Peppers or Pansies, as well as perennials or even add a shrub in the mix. By broadening your palette of plants, you welcome a wider spectrum of colors and textures to create a lavish fall planter.
Quick tip: Potted perennials will not overwinter.
With this in mind, potted perennials will not enjoy the cold, snowy Michigan winter. Instead of anticipating their return in the spring, consider them an annual if left potted. At the cusp of frigid winter temperatures, remove any perennials and plant them in the ground or gift them to a fellow gardener. By removing the plants before the falling leaves shift into fluffy snowflakes, you’ll have another opportunity for a planter refresh to welcome the next season – winter.
Extend your container gardens through fall with these foliage plants:
Barberry
Burning Bush
Creeping Jenny
Coral Bells
Gold Juniper
Ninebark
Ornamental Cabbage & Kale
Ornamental Grasses
Continue your floral show with these fall bloomers in your planter refresh:
Asters
Coneflower
Coreopsis
Garden Mums
Helenium
Heliopsis
Ornamental Peppers
Pansies
Rudbeckia
Sedum
