There are so many perennial plants that show off incredible fall color, colorful autumn berries - and even late-season blooms - right up until a hard frost! Fall planting season is upon us now, so don’t let another year slip past you!
Plant these glorious fall herbaceous perennial plants and ornamental grasses in your garden now so that your garden can end the growing season with a bang!
Fall Color Perennial Plants For You!
Readily returning year after year, staying smaller than shrubs but putting on a heck of a show, and thriving in a dizzying array of climates and conditions, perennial plants are fantastic additions to your garden and have a world of versatile uses!
Not only lovely as cut flower gardens, for birds and pollinators, these plants also breathe life into your spring, summer, and fall growing seasons and everything in between! Many have seeds, berries, and dried botanical seedheads or stems for winter interest as well as incredibly colorful leaves to let winter know we’re not going out without a fight!
Best of all, most of these plants are low maintenance, return year after year with little fuss, and can be divided as they get older giving you more plants to spread throughout your landscape!
It’s a Win-Win!
Fall Blooming Perennial Plants
Blooms this time of year are a much-needed last burst of color before the dreary winter! Such a luxury to see that final Shrub Rose bloom, or a reblooming Hydrangea still showing color before turning tan for the winter! Here are some of our favorite late-season fall flowering perennials:
- Asters
- Rudbeckia
- Blanket Flowers - Aka: Gaillardia
- Coneflower - Like Cheyenne Spirit
- Sedum
- Hyssop - Try a Kudos Gold Hyssop
- Goldenrod
- Chrysanthemum
- Coreopsis - Also known as Tickseed
- Russian Sage
- Hebe
- Joe Pye Weed
- Aconites
- Japanese Anemone
- Ironweed
- Perennial Sage - Try a Pink Autumn Sage
- Cardinal Flower - Black Truffle has a unique color
Darling fringed and colorful Asters are late arrivals on the flowering scene and come in a wide range of white, pink, blues, purples, and reds! Bright yellow reblooming Black-Eyed Susans flower well into the first frosts. Similar blooms include Creeping Zinnia, and Coneflowers (Echinacea)!
Blanket Flowers are vibrant rebloomers in yellow, orange & red shades and similar-looking Sneezeweed (Helenium) creates pinwheels of vibrant color! Equally brilliant are Tickseed Coreopsis, and all provide seeds for hungry songbirds well into the winter.
Not only displaying unique foliage, but Sedum also offers long-lasting blooms and dried interest well into the end of the year! For late-season blooms and dried flowers that catch and sculpt the snows that arrive later in the year.
Plant among Bluebeard shrubs, Butterfly bush, and Hydrangea. Or annuals like Zinnias, Pansies, and Sweet Alyssum. These fill in the gaps and provide additional color and winter interest. In hot climates, use Oleander and Crape Myrtle!
Perennials With Colorful Foliage
The foliage is where it’s at with these perennials that hold their color clear into when the first frost-covered mornings! Plant these around your seating areas and fire pits for fall entertainment and the spring blooms and lovely summer foliage these plants provide!
- Coral Bells
- Autumn Fern - Like Brilliance, Ostrich Fern & Royal Ferns
- Barrenwort
- Bloody Cranesbill
- Amsonia - Also known as Bluestar
- Plumbago - Also known as Leadplant
- Sedum
- Rodgersia
Ornamental Grasses
Ornamental grasses are a must-have to include in a fall garden because their summer plumes remain and persist through fall and winter, and many even have colorful fall foliage! Mix among other perennial plants, shrubs and between showy Red or Yellow Twig Dogwoods and Contorted Filberts for lovely interest all year long!
- Many types of Switch Grass
- Little Blue Stem - Red October, Blaze, Cheyenne Sky & Twilight Zone
- Forest Grass - Like All Gold
- Pampas grass - Big plumes
- Many types of Flame Grass
- New Zealand Flax
- Pink Muhly Grass
- Northern Sea Oats
Perennials With Ornamental Berries or Seedpods
Not only do some perennial plants have unique textural seed pods for fall and winter interest, but birds adore picking the seeds out to fatten up for the winter, or for their winter migration. Plus these are lovely plants for dried botanical bouquets and indoor/outdoor décor!
- Milkweed and Coneflowers - A favorite for Goldfinches
- Clematis - Unique seed heads
- Sea Holly - Unique seed heads
- Fuller's Teasel - Hummingbirds in summer & songbirds in fall
- Perennial Hibiscus - Feeds songbirds like Goldfinch, Cardinals, Titmice & Wrens
- BeeBalm - Sparrow, Goldfinch and Redpolls
- Goldenrod - Goldfinch, Grouse, Sparrows, E. Towhees, Pine Siskins, and Juncos
- Liatris - Hummingbirds, Titmice and Goldfinch
- Alliums - Songbirds
- St. John’s Wort - Hummingbirds in summer & Finches in fall and winter
Plant among colorful Beautyberry shrubs and Viburnums for eye-catching displays the birds will love you for! For you and your family, including Oregon Grape, Cotoneaster, Sumac, Holly berries and Firethorn.
Sample Fall Color Perennial Garden
Suitable for a wide range of hardiness zones, these perennials have not only handsome foliage all spring and summer, but also produce lovely blooms either in spring, summer and/or fall, but also have that last breath of color in the autumn months! Best in full sun and most garden soils, these will give you lovely color all growing season long!
- Blue Ice Amsonia - blue blooms, fall color & low growth
- Blue False Indigo - larger background perennial, blue blooms & fall interest
- Cheyenne Spirit Coneflower - bright blooms summer through fall & seedheads
- Glitters Like Gold Black Eyed Susan - bright yellow blooms til frost & seedheads
- Sapphire Aster - lavender-blue blooms til frost!
- Autumn Fire Sedum - summer blooms & fall color plus winter interest
- Delta Dawn Coral Bells - colorful foliage til frost & spring blooms
- Arizona Apricot Blanket Flower - yellow blooms til frost & winter interest seedheads
- Twilight Zone Little Bluestem Grass - purple fall color & persistent plumes
Going Out With A Bang!
Forget thinking of the fall as your landscape's last gasp before winter, these perennials, when combined with fall-color shrubs, evergreens, and brilliant fall-color trees, step into the growing season with a bang! Your yard will look fantastic when you break out the fall decorations, pumpkins, and scarecrows!
Get ready for bonfires, hot cocoa, hoodies, and fall foliage with help from Nature Hills Nursery! Create a garden that offers color and interest all growing season and beyond! Love your yard spring, summer, fall, and even winter with quality plants from Nature Hills!
Happy Planting!
