September might be one of the most underrated months in the gardening calendar – almost as underrated as the flowers you've never heard of, quite frankly!

Yes, the worst of summer's heat is beginning to fade, but the soil can still be warm enough to encourage new roots, making early fall a particularly useful time to add hardy perennials to your yard.

And if you're tired of seeing the same coneflowers, daylilies and hydrangeas everywhere, there's another reason to plant now: there are plenty of unusual flowers that can give your garden a completely different look next year.

7 Stunning Flowers You've Never Heard Of

From fluffy blue blooms that attract butterflies to strange-looking spikes that resemble something from a woodland fairy garden, these are seven flowers you've never have heard of before (probably) but will definitely want to know about.

One caveat before we begin, though; September planting isn't suitable for every plant in every part of the US. Your ideal planting window depends on your USDA Hardiness Zone, local temperatures and whether you're planting an established potted perennial or starting from seed.

Now, then, let's dive on in...

1. Blue Mistflower

If you've never come across blue mistflower before, its fluffy blue-purple flowers (as seen at the top of this article) may make you wonder why it isn't more widely planted.

Also known as hardy ageratum, blue mistflower is a North American native perennial that produces clusters of tiny, fuzzy-looking flowers from late summer into fall

It's particularly useful if your garden is looking a little tired by September, because this is when blue mistflower really starts to earn its place. It can bloom from summer into fall, with flowers continuing until frost in suitable conditions... and butterflies, moths and other pollinators love it! More than enough reason to bag yourself a Blue Mistflower from Nature Hills, right?

2. 'Glowstick' Kniphofia

You've probably seen red-hot poker plants before, but 'Glowstick' kniphofia (available at Burpee) is a particularly striking version, and its electric-looking yellow flower spikes are almost impossible to miss.

Instead of blending quietly into a perennial border, this plant sends up tall, upright flower spikes that look almost like they're glowing in the sunshine. And that's exactly what makes it such a good choice for anyone looking for a flower that feels a little different!

3. Toad Lily

If you want a flower that genuinely makes people stop and ask "What is that?", plant a toad lily. These unusual perennials produce small, orchid-like flowers covered in spots, and they have a distinctly exotic appearance, despite being surprisingly useful in the late-season garden.

With flowering extending into the fall, toad lilies are a great option for a shadier part of the garden; just give them part shade and moist soil. They're particularly useful beneath trees or along woodland-style borders where many sun-loving perennials struggle.

Consider them proof that September doesn't have to mean planting yet another sun-loving flower, I guess!

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4. 'Rosy Jane' Gaura

I know, I know; at first glance, 'Rosy Jane' gaura (available at Burpee) looks almost too delicate to be a tough perennial. Its slender stems carry masses of small white flowers edged in pink, creating the impression of tiny butterflies hovering above the foliage.

It's a particularly good choice if you want something that feels romantic and informal though; just be sure to give it plenty of sunshine and well-drained soil, as it doesn't appreciate sitting in wet conditions, especially through winter.

And don't worry if it looks a little sparse at first. Gaura has a wonderfully airy habit and can become a surprisingly floriferous addition to a sunny border.

5. Rattlesnake Master

Rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) may have one of the strangest names in the perennial world, but the plant itself is even more unusual. Instead of traditional flower heads, this underrated prairie native produces rounded globes surrounded by spiky foliage.

Now, don't be put off by the name, because those strange little flower heads are packed with tiny blooms, providing pollen and nectar for an impressive range of pollinators, from bees to butterflies to birth month bugs.

What it does offer is unusual form, late-season interest and a native perennial that can bring a completely different texture to the garden. What more can you ask for, eh? Time to bag yourself a Rattlesnake Master from CZ Grain, maybe.

6. Thalictrum

When it comes to stunning flowers you've never heard of, thalictrum ‘nimbus’ definitely deserves a place on your list.

This unusual meadow rue produces clouds of fluffy flowers, giving it a wonderfully light and airy appearance, and September is a good time to get hardy perennials like this one into the ground (so long as your growing zone gives the plant enough time to establish before winter).

For showy cloudbursts of lavender-pink flowers float above masses of fern-like green leaves, bag yourself some Thalictrum (Meadow Rue) NIMBUS Pink Plant seeds from Burpee and plant them in partial shade. Just be sure not to let it dry out during warm spells, and give it a little shelter from strong winds if possible.

7. Culver's Root

If you prefer your flowers tall and elegant rather than bright and showy, Culver's root is a North American native that produces exactly that; think slender spikes of tiny flowers that look almost candelabra-like!

To help it work its magic, just give it full sun and soil that doesn't dry out too quickly. It can reach several feet tall, too, so be sure to place it toward the back of a border where its height can be appreciated.

It's particularly effective planted among other prairie-style perennials (like the rattlesnake master of earlier), and don't worry, because the flower spikes and seed heads can continue to provide interest after the blooms have faded.

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The best thing about these flowers isn't just that they're unusual (although that is always a fun flex!); blue mistflower can extend pollinator-friendly color into fall. Toad lily can bring flowers to shade. And... well, you get the picture; each is as useful as the last.

Honestly, that's exactly why September can be such a good time to experiment. So, instead of filling your garden with the same plants everyone else has, why not use the quieter planting season to add one or two underrated beauties?

Hey, anything that makes visitors ask, "I've never seen that before, what is it?"

There’s a much-overlooked flower that I always plant in September because it withstands winter and brings blooms through the darkest days of the year. It has rich, velvety petals and vibrant tones. It’s ridiculously easy to grow, and remarkably cheap. What is this wondrous fall flower, I hear you cry? The humble pansy.

There’s a little trick you need to know if you want this hard-working plant to produce abundant flowers in fall and carry on producing pretty petals all through winter and into spring, and that’s to plant it in September. While most folk wait until late fall before putting pansies in the ground to enjoy early spring blooms, by planting them earlier while the soil is still warm enough to encourage strong growth, plants will get busy flowering. They’ll also grow bigger root systems, making them better able to withstand harsh winter conditions. And hey presto, you have hard-working plants that last for months from fall through winter.

While sub-zero temperatures will cause even winter-flowering pansies to temporarily pause blooming, as soon as a milder period of winter weather arrives, they’ll produce plenty more petals, fast. They’ll keep on flowering into spring, too.

Part of the Weekend Wins series, planting pansies is a 10-minute job that brings a big reward, warding off winter blues with months of easy-breezy blooms. So, if you're wondering what to plant in September, start right here.

Which Pansies Survive Winter Best?

Pansies are shoulder-season plants, preferring cooler spring and fall temperatures to summer heat. If you want pansies that will flower on and off all through winter, too, you need to look for varieties that are particularly cold-hardy.

Cool Wave Pansies

Cool Wave pansies have been bred specifically for cold weather, and Morpho's contrasting yellow and purple tones shift as the temperature falls. The purple tones become more intense in the cold, shifting to a lighter blue in warmer periods when the yellow parts of its bicolor blooms become more prominent. Exceptionally hardy in zones 5-9, Cool Wave plants grow fast, reaching a height of 8 inches high and 14 inches wide, so they make a colorful groundcover or will cascade over the sides of windowboxes and hanging baskets.

Plentifall Pansies

Blooming from October to May in zones 5 to 9, Pentifall pansies also grow to 8 inches tall but spread further, making their trailing stems perfect for spilling over the rims of hanging baskets and patio containers. Plentiful Frost brings the longest stems, spreading to 2 feet, with flowers in shades of white and pale purple with striking central markers, known as whiskers to many gardeners.

This tough-cookie series is also available in darker purple Plentifall Lavender Blue from Burpee, and elegant Plentifall White, also from Burpee, with stems trailing to 18 inches.

Delta Pro Pansies

Hardy in zones 4-9, the Delta Pro series was bred for commercial use with bigger, more uniform flowers, strong stems and reliable performance through fall and winter. While plants are a little more expensive, you won’t be disappointed as the colors are intense, in particular the Delta Pro Red with Blotch (it does what it says on the tin!). Though they only grow to 4-6 inches high and spread to 6-8 inches wide, the well-branched stems produce abundant flowers so use these to color-drench porch planters and patio pots.

Delta Pro True Blue pansies, available from Trees (formerly Fast Growing Trees) is indeed a brilliant blue, while Delta Pro Clear Yellow pansies, also available from Trees, are a vivid yellow.

Ocean Breeze Pansies

The series has extra large flowers in a serene palette of lavender, white, soft blues and rich purples, so a mix produces a harmonious drift of cool colors that are a vivid contrast to fiery fall tones and blend for a beautiful winter border.

Ocean Breeze copes in zones 3-8, and is naturally compact, growing in a neat mound, growing to 8 inches high and 10 inches wide. This series handles wild and windy weather particularly well, despite its bigger-than-usual pansy flowers, so its resilient nature alongside its mounding habit make it a great choice for windowboxes and border edges.

How to Plant Pansies in September

Wondering when to plant pansies? The answer is straight away! The sooner you get their roots into soil, the stronger plants will be before the weather turns – so add planting pansies to your list of September gardening jobs, pronto. At this time of year, you'll need to buy young plants, not seeds.

Pansy plants need fertile, well draining soil so use an enriched potting mix for containers such as Miracle-Gro Potting Mix, available from Walmart. In the ground, mix a couple of handfuls of homemade or prepared compost such as Back to the Roots Organic Compost, available from The Home Depot, into the soil before planting.

Give this winter flowering plant full sun or part shade, and remove fading flowers to keep them blooming. Don’t worry if they stop flowering when the temperature dips below zero, they’ll soon bounce back. To keep pots and hanging baskets flowering, it helps to move them to a sheltered spot in prolonged cold snaps.

Creative Ideas with Pansies

These cheery blooms are so easy-going and eager to grow, you can get creative and use them to make all sorts of fun cool-season decor. For a start, trailing pansies make fall hanging baskets full of color and charm. From planting upcycled gardening equipment to creating a cascading flower tower, there are all sorts of other clever ideas to turn cheap plants into unique garden centerpieces. I like to make pansy kokedama, and they survive remarkably well in my exposed garden.

If you’re filling up planters with beautiful bulbs to plant in fall then add a top layer of pansies so they look good straight away. The bulbs will grow right up between the plants in spring, and the pansies will help stop hungry squirrels from digging up the bulbs. And honestly, whatever quick and clever container gardening ideas you dream up, pansies will fit the bill perfectly.

More Weekend Wins

This feature is part of the Weekend Wins series, packed with quick and easy 10-minute gardening tasks that bring a big reward.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. A rose in September, though? That's when even experienced gardeners start second-guessing themselves.

Your plants may still be flowering beautifully, so it's tempting to keep deadheading, feeding and tidying them exactly as you have all summer. As fall settles in, though, you'll quickly discover that roses have surprisingly different needs to those they displayed even just a few weeks ago.

This means that there is one simple job to do this month that might just have a much bigger impact on next year's flowers than anything you do in spring. And, on the flipside, there's also one common mistake that can leave roses more vulnerable over winter and set them back before the new growing season has even begun. Eek.

The September Rose Job That Pays Off Next Spring

Whether you have a garden full of your birth month rose, have been growing Pamela Anderson's favorite rose, or have a rose garden inspired by something entirely different, be sure to show them some love this fall.

Think about it: after a long summer of blooming like mad, many roses have a tendency to pick up common fungal diseases such as black spot. And, even if the leaves have already fallen, they're best not left lying beneath your plants.

Yes, those infected leaves can harbor fungal spores over winter, ready to reinfect fresh growth when temperatures warm up in spring, which is why your September job should be to gather and dispose of any diseased leaves from both the plant and the ground beneath it.

It takes five minutes, and it works wonders. While you're down there, too, remember that cleaning up old petals, weeds and other garden debris around the base of the plant can also improve air circulation and reduce places where pests and diseases may linger.

If you spot badly infected stems, though, fair warning: be sure to only remove small and obviously diseased sections if needed, and take care to save any major pruning for later in the dormant season.

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As tempting as it is to tidy everything up before fall, don't give your roses a hard prune in September.

Heavy pruning encourages fresh growth at exactly the wrong time of year. As temperatures begin to cool, those new and very tender shoots likely won't have time to harden off before the first frosts arrive, leaving them vulnerable to cold damage.

Instead, limit yourself to the Three Ds, and focus on removing dead, damaged or clearly diseased growth (and only then if it's really necessary). Save the major pruning jobs for late winter or early spring, when your roses are still dormant and ready to produce vigorous new growth.

Of course, if your roses are continuing to bloom, you can still deadhead spent flowers to keep plants looking tidy and encourage repeat-flowering varieties to produce more blooms this fall.

However, as the season draws to a close, many gardeners choose to stop deadheading and allow rose hips to form instead, as this can a) help signal to the plant that it's time to slow down naturally ahead of winter, and b) prove a boon for local wildlife.

Whether you continue deadheading or not, take care to stop applying high-nitrogen fertilizers as this can, again, stimulate soft new growth that's more susceptible to cold damage. Instead, focus your energy on those few minutes it takes to clear diseased leaves from the base of your plants.

It might not seem like it's doing much, but it really can spell healthier foliage, less disease pressure and, ultimately, a better display of blooms when spring arrives. Hey, sometimes the smallest jobs really do make the biggest difference, right?

Geraniums (Pelargonium spp.) are one of the most popular summer flowers, and though they’re technically perennials, most people grow them as annuals. But if you take a few simple steps this month, you can overwinter your geraniums and grow them again next summer.

Overwintering geraniums is a great option if you’re looking to save money. Instead of having to buy new plants at the nursery every year, you can keep on growing the same plants year after year. As autumn approaches, now is the ideal time to start prepping your geraniums for the cold season.

Here’s what you need to do with geraniums in September to help them survive and thrive in your garden again next summer.

1. Remove Dead Flowers & Foliage

The first step in preparing your geraniums for winter is cleaning up any dead foliage or faded flowers. Use a pair of sharp, clean pruners – Editor-in-Chief Melanie loves her Felco pruners from Amazon – to cut off any dead flower heads or brown leaves and stems.

You can also deadhead faded geranium flowers by hand. The spent blooms are easy to snap off with your fingers. Just find where the stem holding up the flower meets the main stem of the plant and gently snap it off. You can put the dead flowers and foliage into your compost bin as long as it doesn’t show any signs of disease or pests.

2. Take Cuttings to Propagate

September is a great time to take cuttings to propagate geranium plants and expand your collection next summer. Even if you overwinter your existing plants, it’s nice to have backup plants that you can either share with friends and neighbors or fill bare spots in your garden next year.

To propagate geraniums, use a sharp, clean pair of pruners to cut a 4-5 inch (10-12 cm) section from a non-flowering stem. Be sure to cut just below a leaf node to encourage new root growth. You can also encourage roots by using a rooting hormone powder like this one from Walmart.

Stick the cuttings into potting mix or perlite in a container with drainage holes. Keep the potting mix moist and place the container in a frost-free location over winter – a greenhouse is an ideal spot. In spring, after the last chance of frost, plant your new geraniums in individual containers or in the garden.

3. Move Plants Indoors

Before the first frost arrives in fall, move your geraniums indoors or into a greenhouse. Before taking plants inside, though, check for any signs of pests or diseases to prevent spreading them to your other indoor plants. If you find pests on your geraniums, use a neem oil or insecticidal soap spray – both of which are available on Amazon – to kill them before bringing plants indoors.

Choose a location indoors that has bright indirect sunlight and is away from heating vents. Hot, dry air from indoor heating can cause geraniums to crisp up and turn brown over winter. Clustering multiple potted plants together can help raise the relative humidity in the area and prevent geraniums from drying out too much.

4. Reduce Watering & Fertilizing

As the season draws to a close and geraniums move towards winter dormancy, it’s time to reduce watering and fertilizing. Feeding geraniums at this point in the year can stimulate new growth when plants should instead begin hunkering down and saving energy for next spring and summer.

Watering geraniums too much in September can also spur on new growth, but it can cause root rot as well. Potted geranium plants need less water during fall and winter than they did during the heat of summer. The temperatures are more mild, which means moisture remains in the soil longer.

Only water plants once soil has completely dried out. If you’re in doubt about whether or not your plant needs more water, a soil moisture meter like this one from Amazon, gets rid of the guesswork.

Fall borders can be ablaze with late-season blooms. That said, they can also devolve into a tangled mess of tired-looking foliage and spent flowers collapsing on heavy stems. Something needs to be done, for sure. But the solution is neither to ignore the mess, nor to give borders a uniform cut.

Most gardeners are familiar with the Chelsea chop: a late-spring prune that produces more vibrant growth. But late-season beds face a different challenge. After months of rapid growth, heavy-headed perennials like dahlias, Japanese anemones, asters, and heleniums will be leaning into walkways and flopping onto neighboring plants. Taking a heavy hand with your pruning now could strip your yard of its full fall glory. Conversely, doing nothing leaves borders vulnerable to wind damage and disease.

What your fall displays need now is the September stagger. This easy chop helps you to create a border that continues to bloom. It involves selectively trimming and deadheading across varying heights. Rather than bulk shearing, this approach relieves weight on top-heavy stems and encourages latent side buds to push out fresh flowers. With just a few minutes of smart pruning this week, you’ll be rewarded with hearty blooms that extend the flowering season for weeks.

How This Cut Helps Fall Borders

Making the September stagger work for you isn’t tricky at all – it just requires a fair assessment of your current border. Applying this set of cuts will depend on key flowers in your display. It comes down to evaluating plant shape and height in relation to those nearest it. You are looking to selectively relieve weight, improve air circulation through interior foliage, and create a layered border that holds its form in heavy rain, for the longest flowering fall plants. We’ve broken this down into simple steps so you can approach these cuts with confidence and refresh late borders fast.

Before you start, check your pruning tools. For these cuts, you need precise snips for clean cuts on delicate stems, and bypass pruning shears for slightly thicker perennial bases. If you’re looking for a new set of bypass pruners, the Corona Dual Link Bypass Pruners with Comfort Gel Grips, available from Amazon, are brilliant value, gentle on wrists, and genuinely powerful without requiring lots of effort. For precise cuts in dense tangles, you can’t go wrong with Fiskars Titanium Micro-Tip Blade Pruning Shears with Softgrip Handles from The Home Depot: perfect for selective cuts in fiddly or crowded plantings.

Beyond just making your beds and borders look a lot tidier and more dynamic, this targeted pruning routine is a great health check for late-season plants. Thinning out choked center stems allows low fall sunlight to penetrate into the bases of longer stemmed dahlias and Japanese anemones. It also helps prevent stagnant moisture that can invite fungal spores if left unchecked. Be sure to clean blades with some isopropyl alcohol or diluted neem, such as Captain Jack’s Neem Max Concentrate from Walmart. Rubbing some of this into blades between plants prevents the spread of mildew or thrips. That way, these cuts will give you the very best fall displays.

1. Target Vulnerable and Top-Heavy Plants

Look for plants characterized by heavy, multi-petaled blooms on tall, flexible stems. Dahlia hybrids, New England asters (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae), sneezeweed (helenium), and Japanese anemones (Anemone x hybrida) are classic culprits. As late-summer rain hits heavy flower heads, these plants frequently splay outward, smothering low-growing groundcovers and blocking lawn paths.

Walk the length of your border to investigate all your plants before deciding where to cut. Using your bypass pruners, focus on cutting back stems that are leaning into walkways, tipping into neighboring plants, or flopping due to becoming top-heavy. These cuts should be limited, as you don’t want to trim back entire plants unless they are really looking rough. Resist the urge to cut back stems just because they’re tall and look like they might flop over soon. Give those stems more time to bloom.

This is about making relief cuts where stems are already causing problems. Cut these sprawling stems back by a half to two-thirds, making each incision a quarter of an inch (60mm) above an outward-facing leaf node. Leave sturdy, upright central stems untouched, so they can continue flowering uninterrupted. This targeted reduction immediately lifts a border's visual weight while preserving the main display.

When working between plants, don’t forget to wipe blades frequently with neem or rubbing alcohol. For a top bargain, Vi-Jon Swan 70% Isopropyl Alcohol from Amazon keeps blades pristine. This strategic cutting will leave the border looking refreshed, less cluttered, and more defined.

2. Vary Cutting Heights Across Clumps

When strategically cutting stems back, consider height. This is the heart of the staggering strategy. Cutting everything the same height runs the risk of storing up the same problems later, where everything grows back at the same height, running the risk of a secondary collapse. So instead of giving tired plants a uniform cut, stagger the heights to create a more tiered, natural, and fuller look.

With your trusty bypass pruners in hand, identify the stems you definitely want to cut and make those cuts thoughtfully within a clump or grouping. Work methodically from the front of the clump toward the back. Trim the outermost, front-facing stems back by one-third to one-half of their height. Then trim middle stems back by a quarter, and leave the rear, strongest stems at full height, merely deadheading at the tips. Always make angled cuts just above a leaf joint. This prompts lateral buds to break dormancy, producing secondary flowering side-shoots inside a couple of weeks.

This staggering looks more natural than a uniform chop. The lower front stems cover up leggy central stems, while those left taller maintain the height of the plant. There’s a longer-term benefit, too. If you make your cuts just above a node or pair of leaves, the plants branch, creating denser growth and triggering more flowers. Ultimately, you’ll get more flowers staggered across the end of the growing season. After these height cuts, add a gentle nutrient tonic with Bloom City Organic Liquid Seaweed & Kelp Fertilizer available from Walmart to encourage future blooms along.

3. Thin Dense Interior Stems

Fall borders start to look untidy as top-heavy stems slump, but also as the centers grow dense and crowded. Not only does this look messy, these dense centers have poor airflow that can lead to trapped moisture, disease, and sickly foliage. Dense clumps can become prime breeding grounds for powdery mildew and botrytis. These infections thrive in stagnant plant interiors where morning dew fails to dry quickly.

Thinning out choked centers is a crucial step that preserves clean foliage through the rest of the season. Thin out dense clumps of plants such as bee balm (monarda) and asters, by reaching into the center of the clump and snipping off about 20% of the stems. Cut them right at the base to allow air and sunlight to penetrate the plant. Focus on stems that are rubbing against each other, growing inward toward the center, or showing early yellowing due to light starvation.

Your plants will instantly look tidier and your border less congested. Alongside these cuts, apply a preventative spray to the rest. A biological spray such as Arber Organic Bio-Fungicide Concentrate, available at Walmart can protect newly thinned foliage from nasty pathogens.

4. Selective Deadheading

Deadheading spent blooms promotes additional flowering and helps beds and borders look tidier. However, you don’t need to strip every fading flower from your autumn bed. Adopting a selective approach to deadheading allows you to maximize late-season flowers, while preserving crucial food sources for late pollinators and birds. Heavy feeders like dahlias and mums should be deadheaded aggressively. Cut spent blooms down to the nearest branch junction to redirect energy into developing buds (and lots more blooms) before the first hard frost.

However native prairie perennials such as purple coneflowers and black-eyed Susans should be deadheaded with care. Remove fading, damaged, or weak outer stems, but leave strong, upright central seed heads intact. As temperatures drop, these central cones dry into vital reserves that supply energy-rich seeds for goldfinches, chickadees, and towhees. They will also look pretty on twinkling frosty mornings! With the flowers you do cut, make a clean snip just above the first set of leaves. This will trigger branching for a vibrant late-season flush.

5. Step Back for Balance

The rewards are high for this strategic type of pruning. To be sure of the best results, though, be sure to step back from your beds and borders, and appraise things as you cut. Do this at regular intervals ideally, but definitely a couple of times before you decide to down tools. Pruning up close can often lead to over-trimming, as it is easy to lose sight of horizon and balance. So take a step back to evaluate your blooms from a distance, viewing from paths, patio seating areas, and even windows. This is essential for creating balance, as you’ll see gaps and dense areas better.

Step back 10-15 feet (3-4.5m) after every few cuts. Look for visual heavy spots where dense foliage creates dark blocks, as well as gaps where neighboring plants have flopped. Use selective cuts to soften harsh foliage lines, balance plant heights front to back, and create rhythmic negative space to highlight specimen blooms. Where you have to, use a little soft jute twine to anchor key plants. Some PerkHomy Twine from Amazon is gentle and thick, and blends invisibly into foliage where a gap needs a little extra subtle support.

Post-Pruning Care for Fall Borders

Proper post-pruning care ensures your plants recover quickly and flourish through fall before transitioning into dormancy. After trimming, give plants a deep watering at the base of each clump. Soaking the root zone settles disturbed soil around exposed crowns and supplies the moisture needed to power secondary bud growth. Always direct water to the soil line, using a low-pressure wand or soaker hose. This keeps freshly cut foliage dry to prevent fungal infection after all the chops and changes. After this, you should be able to reduce watering and hydrate only as needed.

Avoid applying high-nitrogen synthetic fertilizers after early September. High nitrogen induces a flush of tender, sappy green foliage that will not have time to harden off before freezing temperatures arrive, leaving plants vulnerable to winter kill. Instead, you can top-dress planting beds with a 2 inch (5cm) layer of organic wood mulch such as aged compost or Back to the Roots Organic Premium Mulch from Amazon, and don’t forget that gentle seaweed drench to help build stem strength.

Need more ideas for getting the most from your plants, indoors and out, and looking for the best seasonal expert advice delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the free Gardening Know How Newsletter!

Even though summer is winding down, there is still plenty of heat in many areas of the country. Depending on where you live, the hot, dry weather can last well into fall, and this kind of weather can quickly leave beautiful beds wilted and crispy. By early September, weeks of lingering summer heat and sporadic rainfall can leave borders looking thoroughly exhausted. While watering heavily each day might be an option, it makes more sense to grow plants that are naturally adapted to dry conditions.

Drought tolerant plants give you structured, vibrant color that can effortlessly cope with late-season dry spells. These plants often have deep taproots to seek out water further underground, as well as moisture-storing succulent leaves or silvery reflective foliage to flourish in dry climates. The drought-tolerant plants in this roundup offer a variety of flowers, textures, and even pollinator value, even when rainwater is scarce.

Adding a few of these to your yard now is a smart yet simple way to get your space looking brighter and more vibrant, while saving you time keeping things in order. Soil temperatures in early fall are still warm, creating an ideal environment for young root systems. Getting them into the ground now guarantees a lush, wilt-proof display that will also be back next year to greet future heat with grace. So fill your space wisely and beautifully with some of these easygoing heat-seekers.

Grow These Drought-Tolerant Superstars

Many plants adapted to dry conditions will grow even if you have poor or sandy soil. They tend to thrive in sunny beds and on slopes where water runs off quickly. Just make sure you are planting in a spot that receives plenty of sunshine. Most drought-tolerant plants prefer full sun. Good drainage is a must for low maintenance landscaping, as these drought-friendly plants will not tolerate soggy soil and soggy roots. So steer clear of heavy compost or high-nitrogen amendments. Rich soil can encourage more foliage that needs more water and flops more readily.

That said, if you have heavy clay soil that doesn’t drain very well, you’ll need to lighten it. Prioritize soil structure over fertility. If you know that your yard consists of dense, water-retentive clay, amend the top 6-8 inches (15-20 cm) of the planting bed with expanded shale, pumice, or coarse horticultural grit. For a gentle way to aerate heavier soils, try some Back to the Roots Perlite, available from Amazon. This can naturally boost drainage and reduce compaction at a stroke, supporting healthier root development for your drought-loving perennials.

Just remember that drought tolerance doesn’t mean a plant never needs watering. Even tough dryland champions need plenty of hydration while establishing. If you’re planting now, water regularly to establish good roots. When setting container-grown specimens into warm soil, soak the root ball deeply every few days for the first 3 weeks, then gradually taper off watering as cool fall weather arrives. Applying a 2-inch (5 cm) layer of organic gravel or wood mulch can insulate root zones against temperature fluctuations, retain surface moisture and suppress weed seeds.

1. Coneflower

Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) is a widespread native perennial that is always popular for its large, daisy-like flowers and low maintenance needs. It’s adapted to living on the prairie and in open, sunny places that get dry for weeks at a time. Its extensive root system helps it to find more moisture, and once established it’s extremely drought-tolerant. Mature coneflowers push out sturdy blooms with raised centers that attract late-season butterflies, goldfinches, and native bees.

Make sure you plant coneflower in a sunny spot with soil that drains well. This drought-tolerant beauty needs at least 6 hours of direct sunlight daily. Water only when there is no rainfall, and resist the urge to over-fertilize, as excess nitrogen weakens the rigid stems that support their heavy floral heads. Leave late seed heads in place for natural fall accents that provide essential food for migratory songbirds.

You can still get loads of pre-grown coneflower varieties online, such as the container-friendly sorbet sizzler Double Coded Raspberry Beret Coneflower and prolific Sombrero Adobe Orange Coneflower, but if you can’t decide on a color, why not try the vibrant mixed echinacea rainbow tones of Cheyenne Spirit Coneflower, all from Plant Addicts?

2. Stonecrop

Stonecrop (Sedum spp.) is a large group of succulent perennials native to various parts of the world, including North America. There are stonecrop species and varieties for just about every garden. Depending on the type, these plants are hardy in USDA hardiness zones 3-10. They store water in fleshy leaves, allowing them to survive and thrive in dry conditions.

You can also get summer and fall flowers. Some stonecrop varieties change color as the seasons progress. A great choice for a border or a container, Autumn Joy Sedum is a bargain from Nature Hills and gives gorgeous transitional color through fall, with pink broccoli-like flower heads deepening to rich rusty-rose and dark copper. For something more unusual and deeply chic, try Proven Winners Rock N Grow Back in Black Sedum from Nature Hills, with lush black foliage as well as pink blooms.

Choose a full sun location in gritty soil with excellent drainage. High soil moisture combined with shade is the only threat, leading to stem rot and floppy growth. Water new plants to get them established, but otherwise leave them be. Groundcover sedums make ideal living mulches along stone pathways or rock walls, while upright types serve as lively late-season structure along border edges.

3. Russian Sage

Russian sage (Salvia yangii) is a drought-tolerant perennial native to central Asia that flourishes in extremes. It’s prized for its ability to thrive in dry conditions, but also for its delicate foliage and abundant lavender blooms. Fine, silver hairs coat the foliage to reflect harsh light, while tiny surface stomata minimize water loss. From midsummer to late October, this drought-tolerant beauty produces feathery clouds of lavender spires, filling garden gaps with airy texture.

Planting this sage plant in early September allows its woody root system to settle into warm soil ahead of winter. Choose the driest, sunniest patch in your yard, such as an exposed slope or along a concrete driveway. Avoid heavy organic mulches, as trapped surface moisture causes stem base rot. Wet soil is more likely to kill this plant than drought, so avoid overwatering.

Prune hard in spring to encourage dense, healthy growth, and trim lightly through the season to maintain the size and shape. You can buy Clovers Garden Russian Sage Live Plants from Amazon for a real bargain, available as a double bundle, with advanced root development for faster, stronger growth.

4. Blanket Flower

Blanket flower (Gaillardia x grandiflora) is one of the most drought-tolerant of all perennials. Descended from native coastal and prairie wildflowers, it relies on a long taproot and coarse foliage to navigate nutrient-deficient soils and severe heat. This bloomer brings electric sunset hues and also supports local pollinators. If you’ve got a smaller garden, patio or container that needs a burst of fall color, you’ll love native Plants That Work’s Spintop Red Starburst Blanket Flower from Plant Addicts, with its massive blooms and easygoing pollinator potential.

Plant blanket flowers in a sunny spot and make sure the soil drains well. Whatever else you do, don’t pamper this plant. It does best without fertilizer or extra water, except while getting established. So water deeply but infrequently after planting to support good root growth. These plants are happiest in lean, sandy or gravelly soils. Shear back spent blooms to encourage a fresh flush of late-fall flowers.

5. Yarrow

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) grows readily even in poor conditions, with flat-topped umbels of frothy flowers. These umbrella-like blooms are like landing pads for bees and butterflies in September. With deep roots and a tolerance for poor soils, yarrow is a lovely choice for sun-baked beds. Pick up dazzling Strawberry Seduction Yarrow from Nature Hills. For something really dainty, Hirt’s Gardens World’s Smallest Tiny Gold Yarrow from Walmart is enchanting in containers, rockeries and fairy gardens.

Give yarrow a spot with full sun and well-drained soil. Only water as the plants get established and avoid rich fertilizers, which cause the feathery foliage to grow leggy and flop. Deadhead spent flower heads down to side buds to encourage secondary blooms, or leave dried stems in place to add winter texture to the border.

6. Black-Eyed Susan

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) is a great native pick for droughts. They light up borders with yellow rays around chocolate cones that pollinators adore. Possessing deep roots and coarse, hairy foliage, these varieties are uniquely equipped to handle dry spells without wilting or losing their color. Take advantage of a limited offer to buy 3 and get 1 free with Plants That Work’s American Gold Rush Black-Eyed Susan from Plant Addicts. They’re generous, long lasting, and well suited to fall splendor.

Rudbeckia thrive in sunny, dry conditions and well-drained, even poor soil. Plant in full sun for the best blooms and water only as the plant is getting established. Later, only water these plants if the soil is totally dry. While highly disease-resistant, ensure proper spacing between plants to allow adequate airflow, which prevents late-season powdery mildew on lower leaves. Deadhead flowers for a tidy appearance or leave them in place to feed the birds in fall.

7. Lavender

Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is native to the hot, dry conditions of the Mediterranean. While loved for its aromatic oils and iconic floral spires, the delicate, silvery foliage is especially useful for drought tolerance. These leaves reflect intense sunlight and the woody frame keeps water loss to a minimum. Even in intense fall droughts, established bushes hold their own, releasing calming fragrances whenever brushed. If you want the king of drought tolerance, Plants That Work’s Phenomenal Lavender from Nature Hills gives larger blooms and extended flowering even in frost.

Grow English lavender in full sun and in soil that drains very well. Plant in a location that receives at least 8 hours of direct sun daily, elevated on a slope, raised bed, or rockery. Mix coarse sand or crushed limestone into the planting hole to raise soil pH and ensure rapid drainage. Avoid organic mulches around the base, opting instead for white gravel or pea shingle. Even in a drought, these plants will remain upright, sturdy, and full of flowering fragrance.

So as you can see, late season drought doesn’t have to mean a wilted, dying garden. Instead of fighting the heat, choose plants that play to its advantage. Fortunately, there are many options for drought-tolerant plants, so you can still enjoy beautiful, varied beds well into fall. Plant now in the right spots, and they will reward you with masses of color for years.

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Perennial plants are like people in many ways. Some are all about themselves and their beauty, relying on humans to meet their every desire. They bloom, accept applause, then they are done for the year. Others just keep giving, blooming brilliantly in summer, then offering Act Two in fall or winter, creating a multi-season garden.

This latter group includes some of the longest-blooming perennials, like purple coneflower, plants that offer four or five months of continuous blooms from midsummer into autumn. Others transform in fall into fiery colors or provide striking seed heads or architectural silhouettes in winter.

Here are five of my favorite plants you shouldn’t prune in fall for multi-season interest. Add them to your garden for an extra pop of joy.

Don't Prune for Multi-Season Beauty

Why settle for one-season blooms when, for the same amount of garden work, you could plant perennials that entrance you for two seasons? Now’s the time to plan for next year, expanding the joy into two separate seasons. But don’t rip out your current plants yet!

You may actually have some of these popular multi-season, long-blooming perennials in your backyard already, yet be unaware of their secret second act. If you chop these plants down too soon, you shorten their bloom period or miss Act Two entirely.

1. Purple Coneflower

They may look like purple daisies with drooping lavender petals surrounding a central dark cone. But purple coneflowers are a species of their own. They are well-loved by gardeners for their flexible growing requirements (from hot, dry conditions to much cooler ones) as well as their super-long growing season.

Purple coneflowers are one of those perennials that just keep blooming, as long as you don’t chop them down. They start in early summer and can keep up through and a bit beyond the first frost. Sometimes coneflower take a break after their opening bloom period, but new buds appear quickly. These perennials are prolific bloomers and deadheading will keep them in bloom all summer.

You can prolong their garden use even more if you don’t shear them back until spring. Let them stand through winter and the birds will thank you for the food and shelter. Solitary bees and other beneficial garden insects will be happy, too, since the leftover plant debris offers them safe spots to overwinter. The standing stalks and cones are pretty, too, offering structural contrast.

2. Black-Eyed Susan

It’s hard not to love daisy-like flowers best. Maybe that fondness comes from the days of “he loves me, he loves me not” or daisy chains. Maybe it’s the striking contrast between the long, thin egg-yolk yellow petals and the dark brown center. For whatever reason, easy-care black-eyed Susans are garden favorites, their vibrant flowers offering a pop of color in the garden.

Pollinators also love these long-blooming native wildflowers. Black-eyed Susans bloom from June to September, and often into October, painting open fields and meadows golden-yellow beauty. And once they are installed, you don’t have to worry. These are prolific self-seeders. You can reduce this by deadheading but there are advantages to leaving the plants alone until spring.

First, local wildlife will applaud the choice to let these plants spend the winter intact. The black-eyed Susan offers a resting place for native insects and wild birds and its dried seeds are welcome food. It may also be better for the plant, since the foliage insulates and protects the plant’s root system.

3. ‘Autumn Joy’ Sedum

This cool perennial grows in upright clumps to 2 feet (0.6 m) tall and wide. It is a succulent with fleshy, gray-green leaves and flat flower heads that provide a color show of their own.

'Autumn Joy' sedum grows in green, then transform into rosy pink. As summer progresses, the blooms deepen to rich red or salmon and, by winter, finish a coppery rust and rich brown. They are very appealing to bees, butterflies, and late-season pollinators.

Autumn Joy is very drought-tolerant and also low-maintenance. Leave the plants in place through winter and you’ll find the browned seed heads are interesting and eye-catching. Pinch or prune the stems back in early spring.

4. Joe-Pye Weed

Joe-pye weed is a majestic native perennial that prefers moist areas and a full sun location. If ever a perennial could claim to offer multiple seasons of beauty, it is Joe-pye weed. Your landscape will never be the same when you install this incredible perennial.

It starts off strong in early summer with lush, architectural green foliage, lights up late summer with massive purple domed flower clusters, then decorates the chillier seasons with striking dried seed heads.

The Joe-pye story starts in late spring and early summer, as the plant emerges. The mottled purple-pink stalks can grow very tall – up to 10 feet (3 m) tall – with large, whorled, deep green leaves.

From early July through September, this “weed” bursts into bloom, with amazing vanilla-scented clusters of flowers. The blooms can be pale pink, lavender, or deep purple and the native bees, butterflies, and beneficial pollinators love them all.

With the cooler weather of fall, the flower color fades into darker, richer tones, leaving dark bronze dried seed heads standing tall. Don’t cut them! They will provide an architectural silhouette in the garden all winter long, also offering valuable food sources for overwintering birds. Wait to cut these back until early spring.

5. Sea Holly

Sea holly is one striking plant! It’s a perennial with thistle-like good looks, growing in stiff, erect clumps to 3 feet (1 m) tall and almost as wide in a full sun location. It is famed for its metallic blue, cone-shaped flower heads and spiny, architectural foliage. It adds color and texture to the landscape from spring through winter.

The plant emerges in spring with attractive, deeply-lobed foliage. The leaves are a silvery blue-green with intricate white veining. Come summer, the electric blue flower heads appear with their dramatic, spiky bracts. They attract bees, butterflies, and pollinators.

These blossoms mature in autumn, deepening into rich colors of bronze and silver. The exceptional architectural structure remains through the winter, as the stems and dried flower heads stand tall in the backyard, offering a dramatic silhouette against the winter weather.

Seasonal Gardening Shopping Inspiration

As we head into the colder months, now is a great time to create next year's perfect plot. This is what our team is shopping:

Once summer’s peak is over, the price of plants plummets and there are some great deals to be had. You see, most folk simply don’t want to buy summer bloomers once they’re done blooming, because of the long wait till next year to be rewarded for their outlay. Consequently, nurseries are stuck with lots of pots to overwinter, so many slash prices to clear them out.

Add in some extra Labor Day plant deals, and we're talking big savings. And you, dear gardener, have the patience to capitalize on this summer-bloom bonanza. Buy these perennial plants and shrubs now and you’ll not only save a heap of money in your yard but getting them into the ground in late summer or early fall means they’ll grow bigger and better. Planting summer bloomers at this time of the year brings a magical combination of warm soil and regular moisture, and plants will use their energy to grow a supportive root system rather than flowers. By the time they’re ready to flower next year, they’ll be far stronger plants than if you had planted them in spring, so are better able to deal with heat- and drought-stress.

Just choose perennial plants that are cold-hardy for your zone, get them into the ground as soon as possible, and keep them watered through fall if it doesn’t rain. To give them a little extra insulation over winter, it’s a smart move to lay a duvet of mulch over the soil, using homemade compost or an organic mulch such as Back to the Roots Premium Mulch, available from Amazon. As a gardening editor for over a decade, I think all these plants are a must for every garden on account of their easy-going nature, beautiful flowers, foliage or fruit, and reliable performance year after year.

1. Lavender Phenomenal

If you want to save money on plants, start your journey right here. An exceptionally tough lavender, Lavandula ‘Phenomenal’ thrives harsh winters and hot or humid summers alike in zones 5 to 9, and brings vibrant violet-blue flowers atop a neat, rounded evergreen mound of silver-green foliage. Though it’s a lavender hybrid, which usually have a sharper, more camphorous scent than true lavender, its fragrance is beautifully sweet and can be harvested to dry. Phenomenal also blooms for significantly longer than standard English lavenders, often throwing out a repeat flush of flowers in fall.

2. Jolly Good Clematis

If ever I’m stuck for a present for a friend, whether they’re a gardener or not, I buy them a Jolly Good clematis. It’s one of the most easy-going clematis vines to grow, and is a hybrid of the already incredibly dependable Clematis ‘Jackmanii’. With lavender blooms from June to September, it’s happy in a pot or the ground in zones 4 to 9 and happily scrambles up a fence, trellis or post. It only grows to 6-7 feet high and 2-3 feet wide, though, so stays a tidy size. It’s a Group 3 clematis which means it's super-easy to prune – it blooms on new wood so you simply chop all the stems to around 2 feet from the ground in early spring, and let it scramble off all over again.

3. Kansas Peony

A gold medal winner from the American Peony Society, Paeonia lactiflora ‘Kansas’ is a peach of a peony. It boasts globe-shaped buds which open into ruffles of carmine-red petals that don’t fade, its stems are extremely strong and its scent is simply dreamy, drawing in bees and butterflies from all around. Flowering in mid to late spring, this perfect peony kickstarts your garden year, then the glossy dark green foliage remains a good foil for other blooms. Kansas peony can live up to 50 years in zones 3 to 8 so consider it a fabulous investment!

4. Star Jasmine

Is there a plant with a more divine fragrance than star jasmine? I don’t think so. Trachelospermum jasminoides, also known as confederate jasmine, is a versatile vine that thrives in sun and shade and its tiny white pinwheel flowers can fill a whole yard with their sweet, honey-like scent in late spring and summer. What’s more, star jasmine’s blooms open in the early evening and release the strongest fragrance just at the point of the day when you should be relaxing on your patio with a sundowner! Hardy in zones 8 to 11, its glossy green leaves are evergreen so the plant looks good year-round.

5. PowWow Echinacea

Because they’re such reliable, abundant bloomers, PowWow coneflowers can command a high pricetag. So if you're wondering what to plant in September, deals on these reliable bloomers shouldn't be missed. PowWow is a compact, award-winning series bred from the native Echinacea purpurea, retaining their resilient nature but with more branching for lots more flowers and sturdier, shorter stems that don’t need staking. Requiring no deadheading, drought-resistant once established and growing well in zones 3 through 9, these no-fuss flowers are a must-have for any sunny border.

6. Meyer Lemon Tree

Does every garden deserve a lemon tree? If you’ve got room to overwinter it indoors then the answer is a resounding yes. Citrus x meyeri ‘Improved’, more commonly called the Meyer lemon tree, is a cross between a tart lemon and a sweet orange, producing fruit that’s delightful in desserts and juices. You won’t have to wait long, either, as it’s quick to bear fruit in 1-2 years. Grow this pretty lemon tree outdoors year-round in zones 9-11 and overwinter it indoors in zones 3-8.

7. East Friesland Salvia

Salvia nemorosa ‘Ostfriesland’ is a real favorite among landscape designers for its intensely purple flower spikes that bloom all summer long from June through September. Color-drenching is a big landscaping trend at the moment, as is using a purple palette, and East Friesland Salvia is perfect for both. Drought-tolerant and so easy to grow, this salvia is a naturally neat, compact plant growing 2 feet high and wide without flopping in zones 4 to 8. Pop it alongside a path or at the front of a border as its wrinkly leaves release a fresh herbal scent when brushed.

8. Dark Lavender Chiffon Rose of Sharon

This variety has far more impressive flowers in a richer shade than the original Lavender Chiffon rose of Sharon – and that was pretty lovely to begin with! Don’t be beguiled by the beauty of this plant because it’s one tough cookie and copes with heat, humidity, drought, clay soil and even salt-laden winds. As a Proven Winners variety, I don’t need to tell you that it’s a reliable bloomer, and pollinators appreciate this summer-long source of nectar. Start this shrub off in a patio pot to enjoy those flowers up close then transplant into the ground as it can grow to 8-12 feet tall, though is easily kept smaller by pruning.

9. Summerlong Coral Agastache

If you love to share your garden with wildlife then Agastache mexicana ‘Balsumlora’, more commonly known as Summerlong Coral Agastache is a must. Living up to its name, it brings vibrant coral colors from April or May throughout summer into September in zones 7 to 10, which in turn attract hummingbirds, bees and butterflies. Unlike most other agastache, this variety has a tidy habit, growing in a neat mound with a dense volume of flowering stems reaching just 22 inches high. This resilient drought-tolerant perennial has foliage with a gentle, pleasant scent, too.

10. Autumn Royalty Encore Azalea

Why anyone grows azaleas other than the Encore series, I don’t know! Bred to bloom from spring, all through summer into fall, this shrub couldn’t be easier to grow and it rewards your efforts richly with beautifully vibrant flowers month and month. Growing to 4-5 feet high and 4 feet wide in zones 6 to 10, the reblooming Autumn Royalty Encore Azalea is a fabulously low-maintenance choice for a front yard.

If You Need More Planting Space…

Green Day might have told us to wake them when September ends, but this isn't a month to sleep on if you're a gardener – especially if you're hoping for a bigger and more colorful flower garden next summer!

In many parts of the U.S., early fall is an excellent time to plant perennials. The cooler temperatures give these forever plants a chance to establish their roots before winter, without having to cope with the heat and drought stress that can make summer planting more difficult.

If you get to work now, then, you'll give perennials more than enough time to settle into their new homes and emerge in spring with an established root system, ready to put its energy into leaves, stems and, come summer, beautiful flowers, too. What's not to love about that, eh?

6 Perennials To Plant In September

September is a brilliant time to get perennials in the ground, especially if you want them to put on their very best show. However, your exact planting window will depend on your USDA hardiness zone and local conditions, so check that the perennial you're buying is suitable for your area and follow the planting instructions that come with it.

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That caveat aside, then, these are six perennials I'd consider planting this September for a bigger and better display next summer...

1. Peony

If you're after big show-stopping flowers, there are few perennials that can compete with a peony (especially if you go for your birth month peony for extra razzle dazzle). After all, those ruffled blooms are one of the great spectacles of the early summer garden, and fall is an excellent time to plant bare-root peonies.

Getting them into the ground now gives their roots time to establish before winter, as peonies aren't particularly fast-growing; this is a plant where patience well and truly pays off. Because, while a newly planted peony may not give you its full floral display immediately, it can live and flower for decades with surprisingly little fuss once it's established.

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2. Bearded Iris

Look, bearded iris might look like delicate works of art, but these are remarkably tough perennials, and their flowers can make a serious impact in a summer border.

Their beautiful blooms come in an almost dizzying range of colors, from deep purple and blue to yellow, pink and white. Many varieties also have a wonderfully sweet fragrance, so why wouldn't you want them growing in your garden?

September is a particularly useful time to plant or divide bearded iris because the rhizomes have time to establish before the following growing season. Pick up something like these bearded iris rhizomes, then, and take care not to bury them too deeply.

3. Coneflower

If you want big flowers and a garden full of pollinator activity, coneflowers are an excellent choice! These tough North American natives produce daisy-like flowers with prominent central cones, typically in shades of pink, purple, white, orange or yellow depending on the variety (many, though, rave about the Magnus Purple Coneflower from Nature Hills, as the petals never flop).

They're also wonderfully forgiving once established, tolerating heat and periods of dry weather better than many thirstier perennials. Plus, planting in September gives these low-maintenance blooms a chance to establish its roots while temperatures are cooler. By next summer, you can expect tall stems topped with flowers that keep going all season long... not to mention offer some winter interest in the form of their striking seedheads.

4. Daylily

Fu fact: daylilies are the kind of perennial you can plant in September and basically forget about, safe in the knowledge that they will still put on an impressive summer display.

Despite the name, daylilies aren't true lilies; they're clump-forming perennials that produce masses of trumpet-shaped flowers, with each individual bloom typically lasting for just one day. Fortunately, plants produce many buds, so the overall flowering period is a lot longer than that... especially if you establish them in early fall and let the cooler weather give them time to develop roots before the heat of summer returns.

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5. Garden Phlox

If your idea of a spectacular summer garden involves great clouds of flowers rather than individual blooms, then garden phlox should definitely be on your list. This variety produces large clusters of colorful (and beautifully fragrant) flowers on tall stems.

It's a particularly useful perennial for the middle or back of a flower border because it brings height as well as color. And planting in September gives the roots time to establish before winter, setting the plant up for a strong start next growing season.

Try something like the Jeana Tall Garden Phlox from Nature Hills; it's a pollinator-friendly native, so guaranteed to keep local critters happy!

6. Hollyhock

Look, I think we can all admit that, for sheer height and drama, it's difficult to beat a hollyhock. Especially if you have blond hair (it makes a wonderful alternative to purple shampoo).

These towering plants can send flower-covered stems several feet into the air, creating a spectacular backdrop for any garden; that being said, hollyhocks are technically short-lived perennials or biennials depending on the variety and growing conditions, but they can readily reseed themselves in the right spot.

Their tall flower spikes are particularly useful if you're trying to add another dimension to a border rather than simply filling the ground with color. And, as fall is a good time to establish many hollyhocks, now isn't the time to sleep on this blooming beauty. Give these Hollyhock Summer Carnival Mix Flower Seeds a go and see how you get on!

BONUS: Don't Forget the Spring Bulbs

Tulips, daffodils, alliums, crocuses and many other bulbs need a period of cold temperatures to complete their natural growth cycle, making fall the perfect time to get them into the ground. Try combining fall-planted bulbs with your perennials, then, for one of the easiest ways to create a garden that changes throughout the seasons.

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It's important to remember that perennials have different growth rates, and some varieties need a couple of seasons to reach their mature size. But giving them a good start is one of the simplest things you can do to encourage a strong, healthy plant.

To make that first winter easier, be sure to water newly planted perennials thoroughly, particularly if your area is experiencing a dry fall. A layer of organic mulch can also help (so long as you don't pile mulch directly against the crowns or stems of your plants), and, finally, resist the temptation to fertilize heavily.

Happy planting!

Adding saffron crocus bulbs to your lawn is so easy yet these tiny blooms light up dull fall days in the garden. Most autumn-flowering bulbs need to be planted in spring, but fast-blooming Crocus sativus can be planted in September for blooms in late October and November, so add it to your list of bulbs to plant in fall. Part of the Weekend Win series, this is a 10-minute job that brings a big reward, making saffron crocus one of the best set-and-forget bulbs to buy now.

The chalice-shaped flowers of Crocus sativus grow just 3-6 inches high with petals in the most beautiful lavender hue that’s a fabulous contrast to the fiery tones of fall. Saffron crocus are fabulous plants to refresh containers for fall, too, but adding them to your lawn really shows off their beautiful shape and shade. By the time they bloom, you’ll have stopped mowing your lawn, so you can enjoy drifts of color for many weeks, for years to come.

But the best bit? You can buy 20 Crocus sativus bulbs from Jackson & Perkins for $17.95, which is less than $1 a bulb. So, as budget ideas for a beautiful fall backyard go, this fall crocus is a winner. Here’s exactly what to do…

• Saffron crocus needs full sun and excellent drainage, so choose a suitable spot, avoiding any areas of the lawn where rainwater pools, as this will rot the bulbs. For a natural-looking drift, it’s best to plant one fairly dense clump of bulbs then dot a few bulbs at random intervals around this area.
• To plant the main clump, slice an ‘H’ shape or three sides of a square in the turf and carefully peel back the layer(s) of grass. The turf should separate from the soil easily but slide a spade beneath the grass roots if needs be.
• Plant the bulbs around 4-6 inches deep with the pointed end uppermost and flat root end down. Try and space the bulbs randomly, keeping them at least 4 inches apart.

• Roll the grass back into place and press down to firm the soil.
• For the bulbs set randomly around the central clump, the easiest method is to use a transplanting trowel like this from Amazon (transplanting trowels have a sharper, more pointed end than standard trowels) or a bulb planter that removes plugs of turf like this ProPlugger bulb planter from Lowe’s. To get a natural effect, try throwing the bulbs up in the air and planting them where they fall.

• Water well to ensure the soil settles around the bulbs, and you’ll see flowers in 6 to 10 weeks.

Saffron crocus are suitable for growing in zones 3 through 8 and each year, the mother bulb is replaced by several new baby corms. This is a gentle process, so don’t worry that they’ll take over your lawn. The fall flowers are sterile, too, so they don’t produce viable seeds, meaning your crocus drift will stay where you planted it. Blooms still produce nectar and pollen though, making them a valuable source of food for late-flying bees and a great addition to your list of garden pollinator-friendly plants.

When the plants are done flowering, the green grass-like leaves remain through winter, feeding bulbs for next year’s blooms. Once the foliage starts to wither in spring, it’s fine to mow this area of your lawn again. In warmer zones where grass is still growing in fall and early spring, simply plant saffron crocus towards the edge of your lawn so you can easily mow around the drifts as part of your lawn care.

More Weekend Wins

This feature is part of the Weekend Win series, packed with quick and easy 10-minute gardening tasks that bring a big reward.

Chrysanthemums bring glorious color to fall containers – but when that first frost hits, the show is quickly over. Far better to plant cold-hardy beauties that will bring color all through fall but carry on looking good into winter. Whether you have patio planters, welcoming containers either side of your front door or want to make showstopper fall hanging baskets, these cold-season plants will flourish while everything else in your garden fades away.

Get your fall containers planted in early September while the weather is still warm enough to encourage strong growth, and all the plants will have the time to develop a good root system. Then, when temperatures start to drop and fall storms move in, you have strong plants that can handle whatever the weather throws at them.

From trailing pansies to ornamental kale, gracefully arching Carex leaves to intensely colored Heuchera foliage and the prettiest little cyclamen blooms, there are plenty of fabulous options to choose from. All with thrive in containers big or small, so you can choose to fill fall planters with just one variety or mix and match for a textural feast. As budget ideas to keep your yard looking good into fall, they're such an easy win. With a little deadheading, and a sheltered position in prolonged cold snaps, all these plants will shine through winter and get spring off to an early start, too.

1. Pansies

For easy color, pretty pansies are one of the finest cool-season container plants, but be savvy about which varieties you buy if you want blooms that keep on coming as the weather gets colder. While standard pansy varieties flower in fall, they’re not hardy so won’t last for long. Instead, choose winter-flowering pansies that have been bred to survive plummeting temperatures. As long as you plant these early enough in September, they’ll start blooming in fall and continue to spring. Cool Wave pansies, available from Trees (previously Fast Growing Trees) are a brilliant winter-flowering choice with exceptional hardiness and superfast growth to quickly fill a container with cheery blooms from October to May.

Another good choice is Plentifall pansies that flower from October to May. As well as growing upwards to around 8 inches, Plentiful pansies also boast trailing stems so they’ll spill over the edge of baskets and pots. Burpee stocks both the Plentifall Lavender Blue Pansies and the paler blooms of Plentifall Frost Pansies.

2. Ornamental Kale and Cabbage

One of the most unusual, eye-catching plants for autumn containers is ornamental kale or cabbage. These ornamental varieties have been bred for intense color which typically become more intense as temperatures drop. Ornamental kale tends to be a little more frilly and flouncy than cabbage, but both bring a tight rosette of leaves for incredible texture. Crane Pink, known as the cut-flower kale and available from Burpee, has even been bred to grow on 35-inch stems to resemble roses!

Cold-hardy and frost-tolerant, these plants are set to be a huge trend this fall, and make for a showstopper display, whether you choose to fill a planter with one variety or pop just one into a hanging basket.

3. Heuchera

If you want your container to stay looking good from fall into winter, it’s a smart move to use evergreen foliage to bring statement color, rather than relying solely on flowers. Coral bells (Heuchera) are technically semi-evergreen and keep their leaves through winter in milder climates, but varieties with leathery dark leaves tend to retain their colorful foliage better as temperatures fall, so are a good option for colder zones.

It’s a happy fact that darker-toned heuchera do better in sun and lighter, brighter foliage colors prefer shade, so they’re brilliant plants to bring contrast to a container. As well as a range of intense colors from lime green to amber, vibrant purple to almost black, coral bell varieties come in all sizes so pair the cultivar with your container capacity. Varieties that naturally grow in a neat mound, such as Caramel coral bells, available from Plant Addicts, work best in pots. For a smaller container or fall hanging baskets, choose heuchera hybrid heucherella (foamy bells) which is more compact but just as cold-hardy. Fun and Games Capture the Flag, also available from Plant Addicts, is a great choice.

Another option if you’re pushed for space in a hanging basket is to opt for a starter plant of any variety – and Heuchera ‘Wildberry’, with starter plants available from Walmart – is a fabulous deep purple – then move them into a bed or border next spring.

4. Heather

Compact varieties of perennial Scotch heather (Calluna vulgaris) and autumn heather (Erica manipuliflora) are ideal for a fall container as they add texture as well as color and as they’re evergreen, look good all through winter, too. These slow growers need very little care and stand up well to harsh weather. Look for a variety that excels as temperatures fall, such as Beauty Ladies Scarlet Scotch Heather, available from Plant Addicts, whose red hues intensify as winter approaches.

5. Carex

Fully evergreen, sedges are grass-like perennial plants with a wonderfully ornate habit, their blades growing up and over to create an elegant arching effect. They're also one of the most easy-going plants that practically grow themselves. Use carex in the center of containers and pansies will grow up through the slender blades for a professional-looking display, or position them towards the planter edge so the leaves cascade over the rim.

The Evercolor carex series is a super choice for all containers, including hanging baskets, as they’re compact, low maintenance and grow at a manageable pace. They’ve been bred to be highly ornamental and there are all sorts of cultivars to choose from. Plant Addicts stocks a good range, including the harder-to-find Eversheen carex which has has a lime stripe down the center of its green leaves.

6. Hardy Cyclamen

A lovely little add to any fall container or hanging basket is hardy cyclamen. Look for Cyclamen hederifolium (ivy-leaved cyclamen) as this flowers in fall, while Cyclamen coum flowers a little later in winter and early spring, so planting a combination of the two will keep your planter filled with these sweet blooms from September to March.

You’ll find ready-to-flower plants in garden centers at this time of the year, and can often pick them up at grocery, big-box and hardware stores too. Watch that you don’t buy the florist’s cyclamen, Cyclamen persicum, though, as these are houseplants and will quickly die outdoors, so aren't the best plants for fall pots. They’re easy to tell apart: Cyclamen persicum have large, marbled heart-shaped leaves with scalloped or serrated edges; the foliage of Cyclamen coum is heart-shaped or round but with smooth edges, while Cyclamen hederifolium leaves are shaped like ivy.

7. English Ivy

The great thing about English ivy is that it’s happy to grow pretty much anywhere. While it can grow into a big plant, corralling it in a planter or hanging basket will control its vigorous nature and it’ll put all its efforts into throwing out a waterfall of long leafy stems to drape over the container sides.

English ivy is often sold as a houseplant, and these plants raised for a life indoors won’t be as hardy as those destined for garden use. So, make sure you look for garden-bound plants such as English ivy from Garden Goods Direct. For an even prettier effect, Hedera helix ‘Glacier’ is an English ivy cultivar with smaller gray-green with creamy-white, almost silver variegation. Glacier ivy is also available from Garden Goods Direct.

8. Bugleweed

A more unusual but no less fabulous spiller is Ajuga reptans, or bugleweed. Normally used as a groundcover plant, position this near the edge of a planter or hanging basket and its spreading habit means that stems that creep over the rim. But its biggest boast is the light it brings to any container as the leaves have a waxy coating that shimmers even in dappled sunlight. While bugleweed is hardy down to zone 4, it’s a semi-evergreen, only fully retaining its leaves in warmer zones 8-9. It’s a tough cookie, though, and quickly regrows after a blast of cold weather.

There’s a wide range of colored foliage to choose from. Ajuga reptans ‘Chocolate Chip’, available from Garden Goods Direct, is super in a container as it has smaller, narrower foliage than most varieties in a classy chocolate-burgundy shade. More modern varieties boast particularly ornate leaves, such as Feathered Friends Pleasant Pheasant Ajuga, available from Plant Addicts. As well as foliage that takes on appealing copper tones, it’s been bred for variations in leaf shape for added texture.

What Potting Mix to Use for Fall Containers

While plants grow more slowly in fall and winter, you still need to fuel good growth if you want an abundant display in a small volume of soil. Use potting soil designed for containers such as Miracle-Gro Potting Mix, available from Amazon, which already has slow-release fertilizer mixed in. If you’re using a regular potting mix, add a broad-range slow-release granular plant food such as Osmocote Smart-Release Plant Food, available from Walmart, to the soil at the recommended dose.

Ensure your planter has good drainage, and drill extra holes if needs be.

By all means enjoy planters filled with fall flowers that dazzle till the first frost. But by choosing plants that thrive in cooler weather for your fall containers, too, you’ll enjoy a display that lasts well beyond into winter. Using vibrant foliage such as heuchera as well as enthusiastic bloomers like pansies for color, adding texture with heather and the frilly leaves of ornamental kale, and forming interesting shapes with the spilling stems of English ivy or bugleweed, you’ll create containers that will still be looking good as the holiday season comes around, for no more effort than potting up those chrysanthemums.

Gardens aren’t just for daytime. Plan it right, and your garden can shine at night, too. As the sun goes down, many flowers close up but others open and actually release more fragrance. This is an evolutionary strategy to attract nighttime pollinators, but you can use it to your advantage.

Create an evening garden with night-scented flowers so you can enjoy gorgeous fragrances after the sun goes down. You don’t need an entire garden built around these flowers, but a few placed strategically around patios or decks and near open windows can transform your evenings.

Our suggestions here are known for nighttime aromas and include a variety of types, so you can find something suitable for your space.

1. Night-Blooming Jasmine

Night-blooming jasmine (Cestrum nocturnum) is a woody shrub that grows quickly and, despite its name, is not a true jasmine. It’s a nightshade, which means it's related to tomatoes.

What it does have in common with jasmine, though, is a strong aroma. It blooms at night and the very strong floral fragrance intensifies after dark. A little bit goes a long way, so consider placing it a little way away from a seating area.

Night-blooming jasmine is a tropical plant, hardy in USDA growing zones 8 through 11. It grows best in full sun or partial shade with fertile soil that drains well but stays consistently moist.

This shrub will grow quite large in warm climates, so give it plenty of room. Alternatively, you can keep it smaller in a container and bring it indoors in winter in colder zones.

Get a 3-pack of night-blooming jasmine online from the Home Depot.

2. Evening Primrose

Evening primrose (Oenothera biennis) is a native biennial that grows well in full sun and soil that drains very well and may even be sandy. It’s hardy in zones 4 through 9 and grows vigorously, so be careful where you plant it.

Consider using containers for this flower or growing it in a naturalized native plant garden. Using containers is beneficial not only for containing evening primrose, but also so that you can move the flowers around to best capture the fragrance in the evening.

In terms of fragrance, evening primrose is delicate. The flowers open in the evening and release a light, sweet floral scent. Because the fragrance isn’t too strong, you can plant this close to seating areas.

Try this drought-tolerant Missouri evening primrose variety from High Country Gardens for extra easy care.

3. Moonflower

For a night-scented vine that is an annual in most growing zones, consider the moonflower (Ipomoea alba). The large white flowers, which look similar to morning glories, open at night and release a scent that is often described as sweet and with hints of vanilla and almond.

Moonflower is a perfect choice for a pergola, arbor, trellis, or deck and balcony railings as it needs something to climb. Grow it in a spot with full sun or partial shade and rich, well-drained but moist soil. Moonflower grows quickly, so even when planted from seed in spring, you’ll soon have a vigorous, fragrant vine.

You can find heirloom moonflower seeds from Botanical Interests to start in next year's garden.

4. Angel’s Trumpet

Angel’s trumpet (Brugmansia spp.) is a dramatic and showy shrub known for its large, trumpet-shaped flowers, which have a sweet and intensely floral aroma. The smell of the flowers intensifies in the evening.

Be sure to plant angel’s trumpet in a spot where you can enjoy both the fragrance and the spectacular flowers. It does best in full sun or partial shade with rich, fertile soil that stays moist.

You can grow angel’s trumpet year-round in zones 9 through 11 or as a container plant that you bring plants indoors for winter in colder areas. If you’re using a container, make sure it’s big enough to hold this large shrub.

Also, be aware that angel’s trumpet is highly toxic. It might not be the best choice if you have pets or small children.

You can get this unique tropical plant online from Walmart.

5. Flowering Tobacco

Flowering tobacco (Nicotiana alata) is a tropical plant that is only hardy in zones 10 through 11, but it is very easy to grow as an annual anywhere. The abundant flowers are highly fragrant at night and have a jasmine or honey-like smell. It’s a good option for an easy-going plant that won’t grow too large or commit you to growing a perennial that needs more care.

Grow flowering tobacco in full sun or partial shade, especially in the afternoon in hot climates. The soil should be fertile and moist, but also drain well. You can find different varieties of nicotiana that vary in flower color and fragrance intensity. If you want a more intense aroma, group plants together near seating areas.

Try Park Seed's 'Sensation Mix' nicotiana seeds for a combination of colorful blooms.

6. Night-Scented Stock

Night-scented stock (Matthiola longipetala) is an annual known for its spectacular evening fragrance. It’s described as having notes of spice, clove, and vanilla. While the flowers are delicate and airy, at night, they really come alive with an exotic scent.

Place these flowers in areas with full sun or partial shade and soil that drains well. Night-scented stock is best grown as a cool-season annual, so it will thrive in both spring and fall.

This is a small plant that isn’t too showy, so it’s great for getting more fragrance in a small garden and when tucked in among other plants or in containers.

Get night-scented stock seeds online from Amazon for only a few dollars.

7. Mock Orange

Mock orange (Philadelphus spp.) is a medium-sized shrub that is hardy in zones 4 through 8. Although not related, the aroma of the flowers is very similar to orange blossoms, sweet and citrusy.

Mock orange flowers don’t open at night, but they do produce a strong scent that lingers in the evening. Place it close to a patio or deck to make the most of it after sunset.

Mock orange grows best in full sun or some light shade. More sun leads to more flowers. The soil should drain well, but the shrub is tolerant of many conditions once it gets established. This is a great scent option if you’re looking for a permanent and sizable landscape element.

An 'Illuminati Sparks' mock orange from Wayside Gardens has gorgeous variegated foliage in addition to a beautiful scent.

Tips for Growing Fragrant Plants

Choosing the right plants for your night-scented garden is just the first step. To make the most of them, plant them where you’ll capture the aromas on outdoor evenings: next to patios and decks, on balconies, next to porch steps or along walkways, and near windows so you can enjoy them inside, too.

You can also use breezes to your advantage. If the evening winds tend to blow in one direction, be sure your seating areas are downwind of the fragrant plants. Also, consider layering these plants by height, including some taller and shorter options.

Of course, it’s also possible to overdo it with scented plants. Be selective and mix them in with plants that are not fragrant, so you don’t overwhelm your senses. Start with one or two options and then build from there as needed.

How two ingredients can elevate a recipe to such heights, I don’t know, but rose salt is simply magical and it's so easy to make from your garden-grown blooms. While rose salt pairs so well with chocolate bakes such as brownies and cookies, a scant sprinkle over a stack of pancakes is similarly game-changing. Try a pinch on a bowl of strawberries or a watermelon slice, too. And don’t stop at sweet dishes if you make rose salt, because a scattering over roast vegetables just before serving takes you straight into Thomas Keller territory.

But the best thing? If you’ve got roses growing in your garden and salt in a kitchen cabinet, you already have all you need to make this flavorful condiment and create some culinary alchemy. Roses are one of the best edible flowers to grow in your backyard as they don't just look pretty but bring noticeable taste and a subtle yet appetising fragrance to recipes.

Here’s exactly what to do for great results.

How to Make Rose Salt

1. Pick the Right Rose

If you're wondering can you eat rose petals, rest assured. The petals of all true roses are edible, but it’s important to ensure they’re not contaminated with chemicals. The best way to be sure they’re untainted is to pick roses from your own garden that you know to be free of pesticides. Avoid any plants growing near a road or a treated wooden fence.

Unless marked as organically grown, any recently purchased rose bushes should be left well alone, too, as it takes around 6 months for chemical sprays and fertilizers to fade. Never eat petals from shop- or florist-bought cut roses as these are highly likely to contain chemicals.

As a general rule, strongly-scented roses have petals with the most flavor.

2. Harvest Some Petals

For plenty of flavor, harvest newly-opened blooms early in the morning. Separate the petals from the central base, and discard the inner workings. Remove the heel – the pale, whiter base of each petal – as this tastes incredibly bitter. Submerge the petals in a bowl of cold water to remove any dirt or debris then pat dry with a paper towel. You will need ½ cup of fresh rose petals.

3. Blend the Petals With Salt

Put the rose petals in a food processor or blender along with ¾ cup of coarse or flaky sea or rock salt. Pulse until the petals are finely chopped and the salt takes on the tone of the roses.

4. Dry and Store

Spread the salt mix on a parchment-lined baking sheet. It’s important that the layer is fine, so use two sheets if necessary. Place in an oven on a very low heat (120°F), stirring every half an hour, for around two hours or until the petals have darkened and the salt is fully dry. Leave to cool completely then store in an airtight jar.

How to Use Rose Salt

The exact taste of your rose salt will depend on your rose variety, as some petals are far more potent in both flavor and fragrance than others. To enjoy the fullest flavor, scatter rose salt over a dish at the end of the cooking or baking process. If you’re using rose salt as the final flourish to your favorite brownie recipe, sprinkle it on the second you remove the tray from the oven so the residual heat helps the crystals stick to the crust. For a slightly more subtle finish, remove the tray from the oven 10 minutes early and sprinkle the salt on before returning to the oven to finish baking.

As well as using rose salt on savoury dishes – and it adds an extra depth of flavor to pretty much any dish but especially vegetable-based recipes – use this fragrant condiment to edge glass rims when making margaritas and dirty martinis.

Flavorful Roses

A rose’s taste mirrors its fragrance in terms of its scent profile but also its strength. So, choose a rose with a fragrance you adore and you’re likely to appreciate its flavor, too. As a general rule, pink, white and yellow roses have the best flavor, while darker reds can be bitter.

So many of our favorite backyard blooms that we plant afresh every year have long-lived cousins that survive the winter and return, year after year, with lots more blooms for near-zero effort. If you’re wanting to cut down on the time and cost it takes to keep your garden looking good, swap those flower-once-and-die annuals for long-lived perennial plants that will bring abundant flowers for years to come.

Whether you like to grow lush borders or raise flowers for cutting, there are plenty of perennial versions of popular annual plants to choose from. From sweet peas and sunflowers to candytuft and coreopsis, foxgloves and poppies to baby’s breath and cosmos, there’s a perennial option that brings plenty of blooms for a lot less effort – and we all love flowering plants that practically grow themselves. For a lovely but low-maintenance garden, it's a no-brainer.

Which of these annual plants do you currently grow in your garden, that you could swap out for a perennial version that will flower for years to come?

1. Sweet Pea

If you're wondering what to grow in a low-maintenance garden, start your planting list with a perennial sweet pea. The annual sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus) is fabulous, granted, but the everlasting sweet pea (Lathyrus latifolius) has lots to offer, too. Pest-resilient and happy to grow in poor soil, it flowers from mid-summer to the first hard frost and returns year after year in zones 5-9.

The only trade-off you’ll have to make is scent, as perennial sweet peas don’t have the wonderful fragrance of annual sweet peas. Everlasting sweet pea varieties range from white to a warm palette of pinks, magenta and red, and for the prettiest result, grow a mix for a standout color show all summer long.

2. Sunflower

Yes, it’s fun to plant sunflower seeds each spring and watch the plants grow sky-high – but it’s also lovely to sit back on the patio and see your perennial Helianthus pop up without any assistance from you! Most sunflowers are annuals (Helianthus annus), completing their life cycle in one season, but there are also a few perennial sunflower varieties that return year in, year out.

If you love the height of annual sunflowers and have the space, then Helianthus maximiliani (Maximilian sunflower) is an excellent choice, growing 6-8 feet tall stems smothered in yellow flowers from midsummer to frost in zones 3-9. Explore the wonderful world of perennial Helianthus salicifolius, too, which brings the same sunny vibes on shorter stems. Autumn Gold Narrow-Leaved Sunflower, available from Plant Addicts, is a favorite, growing just 1-2 feet high with a similarly long blooming season in zones 5-10.

3. Poppy

There are so many beautiful annual poppy varieties that pop up and flower for a few weeks then die, from corn poppies (Papaver rhoeas) to opium poppies (Papaver somniferum). Wonderful as their paper-thin petals are, the flowers can be fragile and fleeting. The perennial oriental poppy Papaver orientale, however, has a lot more punch in the flower power arena.

Because they’re fuelled by a far bigger perennial root system than their annual cousins, oriental poppies are bigger plants with bigger flowers. Papaver orientale flowers last far longer in a vase, too, produce robust seedpods that dry well, and their plump, fuzzy buds are adorable. There are all sorts of varieties to choose from, and Eden Brothers has a lovely oriental poppy selection to begin a journey into this world of flouncy petals and six-inch crepe-paper blooms.

4. Cosmos

Love the carefree flowers of cosmos? If you’re already growing annual Cosmos bipinnatus you’ll know just how many blooms a single plant can put out over the summer months. And there’s a perennial cosmos that's just as enthusiastic.

Cosmos atrosanguineus – the chocolate cosmos – is a dark, sensuous beauty that blooms all summer with rich, deep red petals that last well in a vase as well as borders. It’s hardy in zones 9-11 but as it grows to 30 inches high and is heat- and drought-tolerant, this perennial cosmos thrives in a container so you can easily move it to overwinter in a sheltered spot in cooler zones. As you'll discover, growing chocolate cosmos in a pot is a great move as you can easily place the blooms on a table or plant stand to enjoy their remarkable chocolate fragrance.

5. Foxgloves

The cottage-garden appeal of foxgloves is joyful; the hassle of sowing seed one year and having to wait till the following summer for a fleeting show of these sensational spires is not. The foxglove we most often grow in our gardens is Digitalis purpurea, a biennial that grows leaves in its first year, then flower spikes in its second year before dying. There are perennial foxgloves, however, that return year after year.

Digitalis grandiflora, the large yellow foxglove, lives for around five years and flowers from June to August in zones 3-8. Digitalis parviflora (chocolate foxglove) is a slightly shorter-lived perennial but an incredibly striking plant to add to a modern border or gravel garden. With tightly-packed flower spikes in an unusual rusty brown tone that looks fabulous paired with corten steel, chocolate foxglove seeds are available from Walmart and are suitable for zones 4-9.

6. Black-Eyed Susan

Why grow short-lived annual or biennial Rudbeckia hirta when you can grow long-lived perennial Rudbeckia fulgida and enjoy a reliable display of golden black-eyed Susan flowers for years to come?

There are plenty of varieties to choose from ranging from short-stemmed cultivars perfect for a pot to tall back-of-the-border plants. Perhaps the best of all is Rudbeckia fulgida ‘American Gold Rush’, named Perennial Plant of the Year in 2023 and reliably growing well-behaved mounds smothered with yellow daisies in zones 3-8. The blooms are beloved by pollinators and, as this variety has been bred to be exceptionally disease-resistant, keep on coming to the first frost.

7. Candytuft

You’re no doubt familiar with the annual Iberis umbellata, sown every spring to fill fronts of borders with white, pink or purple flowers through summer – but do you know the perennial candytuft, Iberis sempervirens? It does a similar job of bringing a carpet of flowers – though earlier, typically from March to June, and with white blooms – but also boasts a dense, evergreen mat of needle-like leaves thats act as year-round ground cover.

Because it has woody stems, this is a tough, reliable perennial in zones 3-8, heat- and drought-tolerant once established, and also does well cascading over the front of walls and raised beds.

8. Coreopsis

If you’re a fan of annual Coreopsis tinctoria and its pretty daisy-like flowers with yellow petals and darker centers, take a look at Coreopsis lanceolata. This perennial tickseed is native to North America with long-lasting spring blooms in zones 4-9, and lance-leaf coreopsis seeds are available from Eden Brothers.

Several cultivars have been bred from the wildflower for more dramatic, long-lasting blooms with the same tough nature and appreciation for poor soil, such as Coreopsis lanceolata ‘Sunburst’. Exceptionally heat- and drought-tolerant, it's as happy in a container as it is in the ground, and the flowers are easily dried, too.

9. Baby’s Breath

Annual Gypsophila elegans is such a useful plant in any garden, with clouds of tiny white flowers and gray-green leaves on airy stems. It only lasts a summer, though, so if you want to keep its elegant effervescence in borders, you need to replant every spring. There is, however, a perennial baby’s breath that reliably returns year after year, bringing that wonderful froth of petite blooms for far less effort.

There are various Gypsophila paniculata varieties but one of the most useful is Festival Star. It has fairly short stems, only reaching 18 inches, but they're smothered with tiny white flowers. Blooming from late spring, this sea of bijou blooms acts as the most fabulous coverage for dying bulb foliage, and it continues flowering into early fall in zones 3-9. Festival Star baby's breath has a long tap root so is drought-tolerant, you don’t need to deadhead it, and it spreads to two feet so one plant makes quite an impact.

10. Marigold

If you grow vegetables, you likely grow marigolds to attract beneficial pollinators and act as a sacrificial trap crop to lure aphids away from your precious veggie plants. While the annual French marigold (Tagetes patula) is easy enough to raise from seed every spring, the perennial Tagetes lemmonii works in a different way to benefit your veg patch, for far less effort.

Thanks to a concentration of oils in the foliage which emit a citrussy mint smell, Tagetes lemmonii deters pests and can mask the alluring fragrance of nearby crops. This Mexican bush or mountain marigold is hardy in zones 8-10 but many gardeners outside these zones grow it in pots so it's easilty moved to overwinter in a sheltered spot. As this shrub can grow 3-6 feet tall, growing it in a container also helps to keep the plant small, and the stems are easily pruned into a pleasingly bushy, rounded shape.

Lots of flowering plants are best sown in spring once days begin to lengthen and the last frost is behind us, but there are plenty that can be sown in fall for abundant blooms the following summer. In fact, there are lots of seeds that are better started in fall than spring. Get all these tough-cookie varieties into the ground now and you’ll get bigger plants that flower earlier next year than if you’d sown the exact same seed in spring.

You see, some seeds need to be exposed to low temperatures and moisture before they’ll germinate, a process called cold stratification. That’s why you’ll see tips about freezing poppy seeds in ice cubes before sowing. But it’s far easier to simply let winter do the job for you. Because germination is largely governed by day length or temperature, and sometimes both, you can rest assured that fall-sown seed will sprout at the exact right moment in spring that suits it best, too.

Other species are hardy enough that they will germinate quickly in fall and survive winter as a small plant, racing ahead of spring-sown varieties as soon as the sun’s warmth returns. But the really good news is that because of their naturally resilient nature, seeds that can be sown in fall are usually low-maintenance plants that practically grow themselves, and gently self-seed to give you more blooms for free. Which of these beauties will you sow this fall, for the wisest garden investment you'll make this year?

1. Bachelor Buttons

Cornflowers sown in fall will flower by late May and June, so by making a spring sowing too, you can enjoy these low-maintenance blooms in your garden for months. While there are plenty of many-petalled varieties to choose from, the simpler open flowers allow bees and butterflies better access to the sweet nectar. Birds will eat the seeds, too.

Centaurea cyanus ‘Blue Boy’ has a lovely blue hue and grows 2-3 feet tall and is particularly attractive to pollinators; stems last well in a vase and the petals are edible, making a pretty sprinkling in salads or on cupcakes. Cornflower ‘Blue Boy’ seeds are available from Botanical Interests. September is an ideal month to sow and while it’s an annual, Bachelor Buttons gently self-sow so will return without any assistance from you.

2. Poppies

Papaver somniferum are annual poppies, completing their lifecycle in a year but gently self-seeding for fresh plants the following year. They need a period of cold to germinate well so by sowing them in fall, you give them the natural conditions to which they’re suited.

There are all sorts of wonderful Papaver somniferum to choose from, which is why it’s fun to grow a blend of varieties such as the Peony Double Blend Poppy Seeds from Botanical Interests. Double poppies look rather like peonies and their nodding buds and shapely seedpods all add to the display.

3. Purple Coneflower

Sowing perennial Echinacea purpurea in fall mimics its natural lifecycle and cool winter temperatures will lead to strong germination in spring. Because seeds sprout as soon as the conditions are viable, you’ll get stronger plants this way, too. Echinacea purpurea usually spends its first year growing foliage and a supportive root system, adding flowers in the second year and reaching full blooming abundance in its third year. Get them off to a head start with a fall sowing, however, and you may be lucky and be rewarded with a few flowers in the first year.

So yes, you’ll need to be a little patient, but looking at the pricetags of mature ready-to-bloom plants can help with that! Echinacea purpurea seeds are available from Eden Brothers and the perfect time to sow is right around your first hard frost.

4. Larkspur

A September or October sowing of larkspur brings larger plants and longer stems of this pretty as pretty can be plant. Consolida regalis flowers in late spring and early summer and, in cooler zones, can carry on flowering all the way to fall, and is much loved by hummingbirds. Growing 3-4 feet tall, these elegant spires are prized by florists, and the stems dry well for lasting arrangements, too.

Larkspur ‘Shades of Blue’, available from Botanical Interests, is a favorite as it has multiple blue hues and, though it’s an annual, self-seeds easily. One word of caution: all parts of this plant are toxic if eaten.

5. Calendula

Sow calendula seeds in September or October, around a month before your first expected frost, and you can look forward to strong plants and earlier blooms in spring. Not all calendula are orange, and you can find varieties in shades from cream through yellow and bronze and even pink, like these Surprise calendula seeds from Amazon.

This is a hard-working, low-maintenance plant that’s indispensable in the garden. As well as looking pretty, flowers acts as a trap crop to lure pests from vegetable plants, stems last well in a vase and the petals are edible and can be used to make skincare products.

6. Butterfly Weed

Not a weed at all but a rather lovely plant with vivid orange flowers that draw butterflies from all around, and particularly Monarchs. Butterly weed is another plant that needs a period of cold stratification so let winter do the work for you, then enjoy flowers all through summer and the following fall.

Asclepias tuberosa is a perennial in zones 3-10 so it’ll be back, year after year. Butterfly weed seed is available from Eden Brothers and, for best results, wait until the soil cools down in November before sowing.

7. Coreopsis

Coreopsis lanceolata is one of the few perennials that will flower the first year from sowing, especially if you give it a head start with a fall sowing. This North American native is beloved by pollinators, so you’ll be adding lots of life to your garden as well as these cheery yellow tickseed blooms.

Lance-leaved coreopsis seed is available from Eden Brothers and the best time to sow is late fall around the first hard frost. Freeze-thaw action over winter will lead to good germination as soon as the ground warms up in early spring.

Tips for a Successful Fall Sowing

• All these seeds can be direct-sown where they are to grow.
• Rake the soil to create a fine texture (called a tilth) and sow seeds according to the instructions on the packet. Some seeds need light to germinate, some need dark, so you'll get far better results if you stick to the sowing guidelines.
• Sow a little more than you want as some seed will inevitably get eaten.
• It can be tricky to know what's a weed and what's a seedling, so sow a pinch of seed in a pot with a label, too. That way, you can easily identify your seedlings.

It’s been a long, hot summer so no wonder your patio pots are looking tired, but a quick injection of nutrients now will keep plants flowering for a little longer. There are plenty of plants that reliably keep on blooming well into fall; and there are plenty more that give up as August draws to a close. Give them a boost with tomato feed, however, and they'll get a new lease of life and grow more flowers.

Why Use Tomato Feed for Flowers in Late Summer?

Tomato feed isn't just a helpful product to keep tomato plants producing fruit in August. It's very high in potassium, also known as potash, which drives not just fruit production but flower production too. And – crucially at this time of the year – tomato food is also extremely low in nitrogen, and this is the element that encourages new stems and leaves to grow. That’s why you stop feeding most plants towards the end of the summer with general fertilizers: even most flower-focused feeds have levels of nitrogen that will stimulate the growth of soft green foliage that won’t have time to toughen up before frost arrives.

However, by using tomato feed, you can still maximise bloom production and keep plants in pots flowering while suppressing new stem growth, so you don't leave the plant vulnerable to frost damage.

The high potassium content has an extra benefit, too: this element strengthens a plant’s cell walls, hardening tissue before the onslaught of winter.

Why is it So Important to Feed Container Plants?

As well as containing potassium to boost flower and fruit production, tomato feed is typically fortified with magnesium. Tomato plants need this micronutrient to correct yellowing leaves, but you’ll often see this chlorosis in container plants at the end of the summer, too. That’s usually because they’ve exhausted the nutrient supply in the limited volume of soil they have access to. In a hot, dry summer when those pots have been watered more often than usual, more nutrients are likely to have been washed out of the soil, too.

So, tomato food can help replenish the soil, also helping plants to flower for longer.

If you want to give plants growing in the ground a boost in August, then a seaweed tonic will reinvigorate their roots to take up more moisture and nutrients from the soil.

How to Use Tomato Feed to Give Container Plants a Late-Season Boost

• Before you feed plants in pots, water the container first as normal. Moist soil will absorb the feed far more evenly than bone-dry soil, and this is better for the roots.
• Use a liquid tomato food such as Espoma Tomato!, available from Amazon. Dilute the tomato feed accurately, according to the instructions on the packaging. You’re not doing your plants any favours by adding an extra glug of concentrated feed to your watering can, as a too-high concentration can burn roots.
• Apply in the early morning or late afternoon so evaporation doesn’t concentrate the feed post-application. Choosing an overcast day is similarly helpful to the plant though not critical.
• Water the soil rather than the plant.
• Re-apply once a fortnight, depending on whether your plants are annuals or perennials (see below).

How to Use Tomato Feed for Annual Plants

If your plants are annuals, completing their lifecycle in one year – or they’re perennials but you’re growing them as annuals because of your zone – you can keep giving your containers a fortnightly boost with diluted tomato feed until plants die with the first frost.

As plants are going to be killed by the cold anyway, you have nothing to lose by continuing to feed them. This will keep plants such as petunias in hanging baskets and begonias in pots flowering right up to the first frost. If you're a fan of container planting, this little tomato-feed trick will keep your annual bedding plants blooming long after most folks' flowers have finished.

How to Use Tomato Feed for Perennial Plants

With perennial plants, you need to be a little more careful, but the benefits are even greater. Feed your plants now and give them another feed in a fortnight, but don’t feed them any later than mid-September or around six weeks before your expected first frost date, or you might interfere with their natural fall into dormancy.

Giving perennial plants a boost with tomato feed now will improve their winter hardiness and avoid frost damage by toughening their cell walls. Some plants will also be able to store some of this extra fuel in their roots for a stronger start when they reawaken next spring.

Handy Helps to Get More Flowers

More Weekend Wins

This feature is part of the Weekend Wins series, and there’s still time to do the other August Weekend Wins:

• Remove rose suckers to enjoy bigger, better blooms next summer.
• Use a $4 dog comb to groom ornamental grasses and save yourself hours weeding in spring.
• Trim lavender so it has time to grow a duvet of dense foliage to survive winter well.

What do you get when you cross fluttery purple coneflowers with spiky blue sea holly? The answer is prairie planting perfection – romantic, sculptural, and made to shimmer in the soft dappled light that stretches from late summer into fall. Looks can be deceiving, though, as these graceful beauties are hard as nails, tolerating heatwaves and drought as if they were minor inconveniences.

Add my latest Plant Matchmaker pairing to your garden now, and you’ll get weeks of flowers this year, followed by months of structural seed heads through late fall and winter. Then, the perennial plants will be established in time for next summer, giving you floral fireworks for months on end.

Coneflower (Echinacea) is, without question, one of the best native perennials you can add to your garden, bringing months of color while feeding pollinators and birds. Sea holly (Eryngium) is its tougher-looking counterpart, with steely blue flowers and spiky bracts that add contrast, texture, and a slightly wild edge. When planted together, they offer the perfect blend of softness and structure, and as they both have similar growing requirements, they’re easy to grow side by side.

Which Varieties to Choose

There are endless Echinacea varieties to choose from, but the classic look of purple coneflower is simply irresistible here. Try the Magnus purple coneflower, available from Woodies Garden Goods, for the lovely airy prairie planting effect pictured above. To save money, you could also start seeds this fall for plants next year, with these Sweet Yards purple coneflower seeds, from Amazon.

If purple’s not your thing, then an orange coneflower, like Artisan Soft Orange Coneflower from Nature Hills, will give a lovely warm contrast that feels more modern and energetic while keeping the prairie character.

For sea holly, I love the look of tall, frothy Blue Glitter sea holly, available at Plant Addicts. When the light hits the plant just right, it shimmers and gives an electric blue aura. If you prefer larger heads, then Big Blue sea holly, also at Plant Addicts, is a great choice. Blue Star, available to preorder as roots from Eden Brothers, is a striking alternative if you don’t mind waiting until spring, as each divided bract is like a ruff around the flower.

Why Coneflowers and Sea Holly Work Together

If long bloom times (2–3 months) followed by architectural seed heads in winter sounds appealing, then a coneflower and sea holly pairing hits the Plant Matchmaker jackpot. They flower at similar times, yet each brings something completely different to the table.

Coneflowers, with their tall, slender stems, carry soft, daisy-like petals surrounding rounded central cones, while sea holly adds spiky, structural flower heads and metallic blue tones. Together, that contrast makes both plants look more interesting. Their colors work naturally, too: purple coneflower blends beautifully with blue for a romantic prairie look, while orange varieties create the kind of dramatic contrast that Van Gogh would approve of.

The plants’ flowering seasons also overlap beautifully, and both hold onto striking seed heads long after the last petals have fallen, giving extra structure into fall and winter.

How to Grow Them Together

Coneflowers and sea holly make natural companions in garden borders. Both thrive in full sun, prefer well-drained soil, and become impressively drought tolerant once established. Most coneflowers are hardy in USDA zones 3–9, while many sea hollies suit zones 4–9, although it is worth double-checking the recommendations for your chosen varieties.

To ensure strong plants and abundant flowering, give the pairing at least six hours of direct sun each day. Neither plant likes sitting in wet soil, and sea holly in particular prefers the soil to be on the dry side. They will tolerate a range of soil types provided drainage is good, though if you have heavy clay soil, you’ll need to improve drainage before planting. Avoid making the soil overly rich, though, as this can encourage floppy growth.

For a natural prairie effect, weave the plants together, rather than planting each variety in a separate block. Allow roughly 18–24 inches (45–60 cm) between plants, depending on the mature size of your cultivars, and repeat small groups through the border, so the purple or orange coneflowers appear to float among a sea of metallic blue.

Consider height when deciding on position. Taller coneflowers like Magnus can sit towards the middle or back of a border, with similarly tall, airy sea hollies like Blue Glitter threaded between them. But more compact varieties can be brought further forward, so their contrasting flower shapes are easier to appreciate.

Water newly planted perennials regularly during their first growing season, to allow roots to establish. After that, you’ll find both plants to be pleasingly low-maintenance. Simply water during prolonged dry spells and avoid heavy feeding. Coneflowers can be deadheaded to encourage more blooms, but leave at least some faded flower heads standing in fall to continue the display into winter.

Prairie natives need better PR, I've decided. Especially as it is a truth universally acknowledged that any garden designer worth their salt will tell you to look to the Mediterranean when the brief is a garden that can cope with heat and drought.

It's easy to see why, of course; lavender, salvia, rosemary, sage and their sun-loving companions have evolved to thrive in hot, dry landscapes, and they've been giving gardeners a blueprint for drought-tolerant planting for generations. The silver foliage helps reflect the heat and limits water loss, while the tough stems and deep roots allow many Mediterranean plants to keep going when other perennials are wilting.

They look beautiful, smell wonderful and, once established in the right conditions, can be remarkably undemanding. But there's another answer to the problem of hotter, drier gardens – and it's one that comes from a landscape that a) looks very different indeed, and b) is a lot closer to home.

The Prairie Native You Shouldn't Sleep On

Yes, there is one particularly striking prairie native making waves right about now, but, weirdly enough, I first spotted somewhere I really wasn't expecting to find it: in the middle of Sussex.

I'd gone to Wakehurst, Kew's wild botanic garden, and found myself standing in front of the magnificent American prairie they'd somehow been recreated in the English countryside, with towering grasses and wildflowers stretching out across the landscape.

It was beautiful, but it didn't really look like a traditional British garden. There was something wilder and more elemental about it, as though a little piece of the American Midwest had been dropped into Sussex. And among all those plants, there was one prairie native that stopped me in my tracks: rattlesnake master.

With its blue-green leaves radiating from the base and globes of greenish-white flowers held high on branching stems, it looked almost like a cross between a yucca and an alien allium. It was architectural, slightly otherworldly, and completely unlike anything I'd normally expect to see in a sunny perennial border.

There's more to the appeal than just that, though; those strange little flower heads are packed with tiny blooms, providing pollen and nectar for an impressive range of pollinators, from bees to butterflies to birth month bugs.

It's also worth noting that Wakehurst's American Prairie was designed as a living experiment in climate-resilient gardening, using plants from North American prairie communities to explore how they might perform as our own climate changes. And, if you're in the market for flowering perennials that thrive in 95°F heat, this little beauty is definitely one of them.

If you've fallen for this prairie native's strange good looks as well, the good news is that rattlesnake master isn't particularly difficult to grow. All it wants (all it really really wants) is full sun and plenty of room for the basal foliage and its tall flowering stems.

In terms of planting, it needs things well-drained and can tolerate the likes of sandy, rocky and clay soils. And, while you should water regularly while establishing it, it becomes wholly drought tolerant once mature and doesn't need the constant moisture that many garden plants do.

That's... well, that's it; you can just leave it to do its thing (and should; the flowerheads can be left standing after flowering for added winter structure).

Shop Prairie Plants:

Lavender will always have its place. So will salvia. Rattlesnake master, though, represents something that our gardens are going to need more of: plants that can cope with difficult conditions without sacrificing beauty or wildlife value.

And, after seeing rattlesnake master thriving in that surreal little slice of American prairie in the middle of Sussex, I'm beginning to wonder whether the future of the dry garden might look a lot less Mediterranean than we think...

By the latter part of August, a lot of borders are looking tired. Salvia has started to go to seed, the catmint is yawning, and the yarrow has turned rust-colored. The instinct at this point is to write the season off and wait for some fall asters to carry the show. But if your beds and borders are starting to look floppy, brown, or seed-heavy as August winds down, don't throw in the towel just yet.

Those tired-looking perennials are mostly responding to their own seed set rather than to anything going wrong. But if you act fast (and I mean, fast!), then a late summer trim can give some of your favorite flowering perennials a whole new lease of life. Some thoughtful pruning and trimming this week can trick some of your border superstars into a late summer frenzy, so your backyard is filled with flowers into fall.

By removing spent flower heads and tattered foliage before September, you can trigger dormant buds to push out an extra wave of glorious late-season color. Taking an hour with your shears this week doesn't just recharge your yard’s curb appeal, either. It also strengthens root crowns and prevents weediness – and all without having to splurge on a brand new border full of plants. Here are the perennials you need to cut back to size right now.

Perennials That Love an August Chop

Timing trips people up more than technique does. But depending on where you live, perennials cut back this week should bounce back before September is out of the door. Before making your first cut, assess your garden's USDA hardiness zone and local frost dates. A late summer cut requires 4-5 weeks of growing weather before freezing temperatures arrive. Gardeners in northern regions (zones 3-5) should aim to prune this week. Growers in central and southern regions (zones 6-9) may have a little longer, with mild weather pushing fresh growth well into October.

Wait for a cool, overcast stretch if the forecast offers one. Even the most easy going perennials will struggle if short on water in a heat wave. Make sure you use clean, razor-sharp tools for this task. If you don’t have some super-sharp pruning shears, it’s well worth investing in something that will last, such as Corona Forged Steel Classic Cut Bypass Pruners from Amazon. These pruners ensure smooth cuts that heal within days.

Sanitation is equally vital. Late August is the peak season for fungal diseases like powdery mildew and leaf spot. Before starting, sterilize your shear blades using a quick spray of diluted Captain Jack’s Neem Max Oil Concentrate from Walmart to target thrips, spider mites and mildew spores. Alternatively, rub the blades with some isopropyl alcohol. Make sure you clean the blades between different perennial cuts, to prevent cross-contaminating plants.

Always check the crown of your plants before cutting. New green shoots at soil level mean there's something to regrow from. Avoid cutting woody-stemmed perennials like Russian sage or lavender in August, which require old wood to survive winter. And skip anything already crisped from drought. That plant needs water, not a pruning. Hydrate your plants deeply the day before pruning, and again after. Then you’re ready to get the following perennials back to their blooming best once more.

1. Catmint

Catmint (Nepeta × faassenii) can collapse in theatrical fashion by late August. By August the whole mound can look like something sat on it. Popular cultivars like Walker's Low are famous for their sprawling midsummer collapse. Once the first heavy wave of purple blooms finishes, stems can splay, exposing a bare, unsightly center. So shear the entire plant back by two-thirds, roughly to 6 inches (15cm), and don't be delicate about it. This will instantly restore a tight, mounded habit.

A pair of hedge shears handles the job faster than pruners, since precision isn't the point. Lightweight Fiskars PowerGear 2 Hedge Clippers, available from Amazon, are especially comfortable for tackling bushier, more expansive catmint shrubs without leading to hand fatigue. New growth shows within a week of warm weather. You’ll see a fresh carpet of fragrant, silver-green foliage, followed by a reliable second flush of lavender-blue flowers that lasts well into fall.

2. Perennial Salvia

Spent salvia spikes (Salvia nemorosa) often turn a dull brown that can hang on for weeks through midsummer. Salvia varieties like Caradonna and May Night carry dark purple flower spires that can become stiff, weathered and seed-heavy by August. Cutting spent stems all the way down to the low leaf rosette at the base forces the plant to send up secondary floral spikes from side nodes.

Cut low enough that the rosette sits in the light. Don’t be tempted to leave leafless stalks as it just slows down regrowth. For swift cuts, use Fiskars Titanium Micro-Tip Pruning Snips from The Home Depot which give a precise, clean action. Top-dress with a slow-release organic feed or a sprinkle of compost. By mid-September, you should see a second round of spikes, shorter than the first but a real bloom.

3. Yarrow

Even the most vibrant yarrow (Achillea millefolium) can look a little weary and rust-colored by August. The umbrella-like flower heads of Moonshine and Paprika dry into stiff, rusty-brown plates that linger indefinitely. Yarrow won't drop these on its own, so the plant can look finished long before it really is. Because yarrow thrives in lean soils, late-summer pruning also corrects leggy flopping caused by rich beds.

Cut spent flower stalks down to the feathery basal leaves. A second round will follow on shorter stems, thinner than the first but much tidier. After trimming spent stems, protect the shallow root zone by top-dressing with a thin inch (2.5cm) layer of aged compost or bark mulch, such as Back to the Roots Organic Premium Mulch from Amazon. Fresh stems should push up within a fortnight.

4. Cranesbill

Once cranesbill finishes its main flush, the foliage yellows and the plant spreads into a loose ring with a bald patch in the middle. Hardy cranesbill geraniums like Johnson's Blue, Rozanne and Ann Folkard often turn spotty and sprawling by late summer, leaving an open, hollow ring in the center. Cutting back to 2 inches (5cm) from soil level feels drastic, but it is the single best way to rejuvenate your clump.

Lop off all tattered foliage and spent stems down near soil level for a total reset. Don't panic when the plant looks like an empty patch of dirt for a week, as new leaves should emerge rapidly from the underground crown. Within 14 days, fresh, mound-shaped foliage emerges, often with late-season blossoms that last until frost. Water the bare crown deeply and apply a gentle liquid root tonic like Bloom City’s Organic Liquid Seaweed and Kelp Fertilizer from Walmart to jumpstart growth.

5. Tickseed

Threadleaf tickseed types (Coreopsis verticillata) are the dependable rebloomers here, often carrying flowers to first frost after an August shear. However, deadheading coreopsis one bloom at a time is a fool's errand: there are hundreds! Attempting to individually deadhead threadleaf coreopsis cultivars like Moonbeam or Zagreb is nearly impossible, due to the sheer volume of tiny flower heads.

So, shear the plant back by about a third, straight across, hedge-trimmer style. This simple shearing removes spent seed heads, tidies up foliage, and triggers a massive secondary wave of starry flowers that blooms right up to a hard freeze. It might look alarming for the first 4-5 days, but it will fill back in. After trimming, give the sheared mound a gentle feed like Espoma Flower-tone from Amazon. This promotes root resilience and stimulates rapid bud formation within a couple of weeks.

6. Blanket Flowers

Blanket flower (Gaillardia × grandiflora) blooms itself into exhaustion, which is part of why so many clumps are short-lived. Gaillardia bloomers like Arizona Sun and Mesa Yellow produce red and gold blooms continuously through summer. If left unchecked, heavy late-summer seed production drains the plant's root reserves, causing this perennial to die out over winter. So an August cut isn't only about blooming. Taking the load off the crown gives the plant a better shot at coming through the winter.

Take the whole thing down to 6 inches (15cm), spent stems included. This redirects vital sugars back down into the root crown, ensuring winter hardiness while sparking a vibrant second wave of autumn flowers. Trim using bypass pruners, then top-dress plants with a rich, carbon-based amendment like Rosy Soil Biochar Plant Mix from Walmart to boost water retention and root strength. Flowers will return in 2-3 weeks and keep going until a hard freeze.

7. Spiked Speedwell

Veronica's spikes bloom from the bottom up. The vivid blues, pinks, or white spires of speedwell (Veronica spicata) open progressively from the base upward. By late August, the bottom of the spire will be turning brown and seed-heavy while the tip fades, giving the entire clump a really sorry and shabby look.

Rather than shearing the plant flat, cut each spent main spire back to just above a healthy set of lateral leaves. Side branches will emerge from these leaf axils to produce a secondary display of slender flower spires in about 3 weeks. After cutting back, apply a mild foliar treatment like Arber Organic Bio-Fungicide, available from Walmart. This will protect fresh cuts from late-summer humidity and leaf spot pathogens, giving your next flush the best shot at flourishing into fall.

8. Bee Balm

By late summer, high humidity and crowded stems can leave bee balm (Monarda didyma) coated in unsightly gray powdery mildew. Once the foliage turns crisp and white, deadheading alone won't restore the plant, which makes the issue of cutting back a very simple and satisfying one. Cutting the entire clump down to 2-4 inches (5-10cm) above the ground removes the diseased canopy completely.

Fresh, mildew-free green shoots will push up from underground rhizomes within 14 days, often yielding a secondary flush of blooms for migrating hummingbirds. You can be sure late season pollinators will work that flush as hard as the first. Spores can overwinter on fallen leaves, though, so the cleanup matters as much as the cut itself. Bag up cuttings using sacks like GardZen 3-Pack Garden Bags from Amazon, which are super easy to store and will carry you through plenty more autumnal litter.

Shop Late Season Bloom Companions

Making the right cuts is guaranteed to give you more flowers for free, but if you’d like an abundance of fall splendor, these late summer perennials can help you add a splash of fresh zing and texture to transitional beds and borders. These hand-picked selections are built to settle in fast, hold their ground in late heat, and deliver effortless, high-impact blooms that will keep your borders bright right through to first frosts.

Need more ideas for getting the most from your plants, indoors and out, and looking for the best seasonal expert advice delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the free Gardening Know How Newsletter!

August can be a challenging month for orchids with high temperatures, intense sunlight, and dry indoor air due to air conditioning. Many orchids are taking a pause in flowering during this time of year, but care now isn’t about forcing new blooms. It is all about creating the optimal conditions for healthy plants that will bloom well later, when they’re ready.

August orchid care isn’t time-consuming or difficult. It’s all about ensuring your plants have the conditions they need to finalize summer growth and be healthy enough to put out flower spikes later. The effort you put in now will reward you later with abundant blooms.

Proper orchid care at the end of summer should focus on light, water, humidity, fertilizer, and checking plants for pests, healthy roots, and good airflow. Follow this simple August care checklist, which can also be used into early September, to set up your orchids for successful blooming in the coming months.

1. Provide Bright, Indirect Light

August sunlight can be intense, especially if you have plants situated in west or south-facing windows. Most orchids thrive in bright, indirect light. Too much direct light can be damaging. Signs of too much sun include scorched, yellow, or faded leaves.

Check that the shifting August light has not compromised your orchid. If it has, move it to a better location or use a sheer curtain or taller plants to filter some of the bright light coming through the window. The right balance of light for orchids will keep your plant healthy and allow it to develop the strong foliage and root growth that will lead to flower spikes.

2. Adjust Watering as Needed

August can be hot and humid or hot and dry, depending on whether you use air conditioning or not. Most people do, so your indoor air is likely very dry during this time of year, which is not ideal for orchids.

Instead of watering orchids according to a strict schedule, check the roots and potting medium and water as needed. Healthy roots are green and fleshy, while dry roots may begin to appear silvery or wrinkled. This often means watering more than usual to accommodate the dry air.

Water your orchid until it drains through the bottom of the container, then let it dry completely before putting the pot back into a tray or dish. Standing water from overwatering can be as damaging as letting your plant dry out too much. If you're not sure how much or how often to water, you can use a soil moisture meter, like this one from Amazon, to check.

3. Maintain or Increase Humidity

Watering well and more frequently is just one way to combat dry August weather. You also need to ensure your orchid has enough moisture in the air surrounding it. Orchids thrive in humidity and suffer in dry air.

You can manage this using a humidifier, like this highly-rated option from Levoit, in the area around your orchid. Another option is a pebble tray. Fill a shallow tray with pebbles and water and set your orchid pot on top of the pebbles. The bottom of the pot should not be sitting in the water, just on top. This creates the humidity your orchid needs in the air right around the plant.

4. Keep Feeding Orchids Carefully

Orchids are typically still in a period of active growth right now, but they might be slowing down. It’s important to keep fertilizing orchids in August without overdoing it.

Too much fertilizer can damage the roots. The right amount of fertilizer doesn’t specifically create flowers, but it does push the plant into producing healthy leaves and roots, which support new flower spikes.

The easiest way to feed an orchid is to use a product designed specifically for orchids. Follow the instructions on the label. Never apply fertilizer to dry roots. Water the plant first and then apply the product.

Also, keep in mind that it’s better to use a diluted formula more often than to apply a strong fertilizer only once in a while. This organic orchid-specific fertilizer from Espoma is good option is a good option for mixing into water to get more blooms.

5. Check the Roots & Potting Medium

Now is a good time to inspect your orchid roots and potting medium. Remove the plant from the pot to look at the roots. They should be firm and green. If they are lighter colored and wrinkled, they’re not getting enough water. If they are mushy or dark, they are getting too much water.

As potting medium breaks down, it holds onto more water. This can lead to mushy roots even if you haven’t increased watering frequency. If the potting medium and roots both indicate an issue, it’s time to repot your orchid. Get fresh potting medium – this orchid potting mix from Amazon is a good choice – and if the roots seem crowded, transfer your plant to a slightly larger container.

6. Watch for Pests & Airflow

Summer conditions can easily lead to houseplant pest problems. The issue can be exacerbated for orchids if you add humidity without ensuring good airflow.

Inspect your plants this month for common orchid pests like aphids, mealybugs, scale, and spider mites. Use water to remove pests and consider isolating affected plants from others until the problem is under control.

To improve airflow around plants, use a fan. A gentle moving breeze from a rotating fan is best and will help move the air, making it a less desirable location for pests to settle down. This compact, clip-on fan from Amazon is easy to position near orchids or wherever else you may need it.

Black-eyed Susans are a late-season essential but if you’ve got the classic Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’ in your garden, you need to know that there are other varieties that bring more flowers, for much longer. This popular perennial was introduced way back in 1949 and since then, plant breeders have created cultivars and hybrids that are more drought tolerant, heat tolerant and disease resistant, with more abundant blooms over a longer period.

So, if you’re looking for low-maintenance late-season plants that will flower for months into fall, these modern black-eyed Susan varieties are a no-brainer. Whether you want to enjoy the daisy-like blooms yourself, provide a late-season source of nectar for pollinators, or grow a feast of seeds for your garden birds, these robust plants will give you far more flowers for far less effort.

And let's be clear: black-eyed Susan Goldsturm is still a fabulous plant – but these black-eyed Susans are better. Plant one in your garden and see for yourself.

1. Best for Disease Resistance: Black-Eyed Susan American Gold Rush

One of the biggest issues with black-eyed Susans is that they’re vulnerable to Septorial leaf spot, a fungal disease that causes foliage to wither and die, affecting the plant’s vigor and cutting the flowering season short. However, Rudbeckia ‘American Gold Rush’ is virtually immune to this common disease because its slightly hairy leaves stop moisture from sitting on the foliage, so avoiding the conditions that the fungal spores require.

Named Perennial Plant of the Year in 2023 by the Perennial Plant Association, the excellent disease resistance of ‘American Gold Rush’ means its foliage stays flawless even in humid conditions, and it reliably flowers from July through September and often till the first frost. Growing 1 foot high and 1-2 feet wide in zones 3-8, black-eyed Susan ‘American Gold Rush' is available from Plant Addicts.

2. Best for Flower Density: Black-Eyed Susan Little Goldstar

Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Little Goldstar’ boasts the highest bloom density relative to its size, its 16-inch stems smothered with yellow flowers from July to October. It’s estimated that a single plant can produce over 80 blooms, bringing impressive flower power to borders and pots in zones 4-9.

This compact plant grows to 2 feet wide and stays neat, its sturdy, shorter stems resisting the usual late-season black-eyed Susan flop. Highly disease-resistant and drought-tolerant once established, black-eyed Susan ‘Little Goldstar’ is available from Nature Hills.

3. Best for Temperature Extremes: Black-Eyed Susan Glitters Like Gold

Rudbeckia ‘Glitters Like Gold’ looks very similar to Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’, growing 2-3 feet tall and 1-2 feet wide, but it’s been specifically bred to handle hot, humid summers. It’s also hugely cold-hardy down to -40°F so it can handle life at both ends of the temperature scale in zones 3-9.

With strong disease resistance to Septoria leaf spot and sturdy stems that don’t flop over, this boasts more flowers that bloom for longer than ‘Goldsturm’ too. Black-eyed Susan ‘Glitters Like Gold’ plants are available from Nature Hills.

4. Best for Wildlife: Black-Eyed Susan Deam’s

If you’re looking for a black-eyed Susan for a wildlife meadow or garden, then Rudbeckia fulgida var. deamii is the one for you. Not a modern cultivar but native to parts of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, black-eyed Susan 'Deam's' nevertheless holds not just the prestigious Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit but also its Plants for Pollinators recommendation.

The dark central cones of this clump-forming perennial are particularly rich in nectar for pollinators, and produce a heavy load of seed to feed finches through winter. As a native, it’s very adaptable and grows in pretty much any well-drained soil and, though it’s highly drought resistant once established, the trick to lots more fall flowers is to give it a good drink once a week. If you deadhead, it will keep flowering from July to October, though be sure to leave the last flush of blooms intact to form seedheads and keep your garden goldfinches happy. Growing to 2-3 feet high and 1-2 feet wide in zones 4-9, black-eyed Susan Deam’s is available from Plant Addicts.

5. Best for Flower Color: Black-Eyed Susan ‘Blackjack Gold’

While the yellow petals and dark centers of most black-eyed Susans are joyful enough, the color of Rudbeckia triloba ‘Blackjack Gold’ is particularly intense. Because of its tall but narrow habit (the plant grows 3 feet tall and 1 foot wide in zones 3-8), you can pack plenty of these into a border, too, for a real hit of saturated color.

The flowers are smaller but the densely branched stems carry a profusion from July to October, and those golden petals are enhanced by striking central cones and sturdy stems that carry a red tone.

While Rudbeckia fulgida are long-lived, clump-forming perennials and a pretty-much permanent addition to your garden, Rudbeckia triloba is a shorter-lived perennial but reliably (and gently) self-seeds so you'll never be without it. Black-eyed Susan ‘Blackjack Gold’ plants are available from Plant Addicts.

6. Best for Containers: Black-Eyed Susan Viette’s Little Suzy

This compact dwarf variety grows to 12-18 inches high and wide so it’s perfect for a pot. Rudbeckia fulgida Viette’s Little Suzy is heat- and drought-tolerant once established so can handle the more erratic environment of life in a container, and copes well with both humidity and heavy rainfall. This bonny black-eyed Susan has exceptional disease resistance, too, to flower through summer into early fall, making it one of the best perennials for patio pots.

For low-maintenance pots to pretty up your patio or deck, you won’t do better than this little lovely, and it attracts bees and butterflies, too. Black-eyed Susan Viette’s Little Suzy plants are available from Garden Goods Direct.

7. Best for Low-Maintenance: Black-Eyed Susan ‘Treasure Trove’.

Taller black-eyed Susans can require staking to stop them flopping over once fall weather arrives, but not Rudbeckia ‘Treasure Trove’. This is one of those wonderful low-maintenance flowering plants that practically grow themselves. Though it grows to 2-3 feet high and wide, it has a neat, bushy habit with heavily-branched stems, so supports itself well. And yes, those branching stems mean a massive volume of flowers!

It has strong Septoria leaf spot resistance, handles summer heat in zones 4-9, usually resists nibbles from hungry deer and rabbits, and once established, only needs watering in prolonged dry spells. So pretty much all you need do is an occasional deadhead if you want it to keep blooming from July to October. Planted with other low-maintenance heroes like daylilies and goldenrod, this is a great choice for beginner or busy gardeners alike, and black-eyed Susan ‘Treasure Trove’ plants are available from Plant Addicts.

Some garden plants earn their space in beds and borders twice: first with a showy display of flowers and later, once the flowers have faded, with structural elements that lend a little extra something to look at in fall and winter. These include seedheads, tall stems, interesting foliage, or even winter color.

Many gardens lose visual interest once the blooms are done, but structural plants continue to shine even in fall and winter. When choosing plants for your garden, consider what they’ll look like after the flowers are done. Look for plants, like some of our favorites below, that both bloom and have interesting structure after flowering. For best results, make sure your choices are suited to your USDA zone, soil type, and sun exposure.

1. Sedum

• Botanical name: Hylotelephium and Sedum
• USDA zones: 3–9
• Light: Full sun
• Soil: Well-drained, on the dry side
• Best for: Rust-red and bronze dried flower heads

Sedum, or stonecrop, is a big family of succulent plants that flower in late summer and fall. They bloom with very small flowers clustered in large, flat-topped heads. Sedum grows best in full sun and well-drained soil that stays mostly dry. While stonecrop flowers are attractive and great for pollinators during the growing season, the plants have more to offer.

In fall, the flower clusters on many sedum varieties change color and dry in place in attractive rust-red, copper, or bronze shades perfect for the season. Additionally, the fleshy leaves provide ongoing visual interest, so resist cutting this pretty perennial back in the autumn. Let it shine, even in winter, as snow collects on its dried blooms.

For a standout variety, try Autumn Joy sedum, pictured above and currently on sale at Trees.com. Its large flower heads open pink in late summer before deepening to coppery-red and eventually drying to brown for winter interest. For something different, Back in Black sedum, available from Plant Addicts, pairs near-black foliage with pale flowers and persistent seedheads, while Mr. Goodbud, available from Nature Hills, has huge, richly colored flower heads on sturdy reddish stems.

2. Coneflower

• Botanical name: Echinacea
• USDA zones: 3–9
• Light: Full sun
• Soil: Well-drained
• Best for: Sculptural seedheads that feed birds

Always popular in gardens for its tall, elegant stalks and striking summer blooms, coneflower is a native plant that supports pollinators, birds, and other wildlife. It’s a great addition to beds and naturalized areas where it thrives in full sun and well-drained soil.

Don’t be quick to cut back the stems after coneflowers have faded. They’re about to put on the second act of their show. The cone-shaped seedheads remain atop the tall stems, feeding birds and also providing striking structural interest in beds. These act like winter yard sculptures, so leave them in place until warmer weather returns.

For the classic look pictured above, try purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), available from Walmart, with its familiar pink-purple petals and prominent orange-brown cones. For more color, Cheyenne Spirit coneflower, available from Garden Goods Direct, produces flowers in a vibrant mix of red, orange, yellow, cream, and purple. If you want to grow a larger drift economically, this coneflower seed mixed color pack from Sow Right Seeds on Amazon is an easy way to get plants started.

3. Sea Holly

• Botanical name: Eryngium
• USDA zones: 5–9
• Light: Full sun
• Soil: Dry, well-drained, even sandy
• Best for: Spiky, sculptural dried flower heads

Sea holly is a unique non-native perennial that grows well in zones 5 through 9 in full sun and well-drained, even sandy soil. It blooms in summer and fall with silvery blue, thistle-like flowers. These flowers, as well as their bracts, dry prettily in place once the growing season is over, leaving behind sculptural flower heads atop stiff, structural stems.

For particularly vivid color, try Big Blue sea holly, available from Plant Addicts, with large, intensely blue flower heads and matching spiky bracts. Another striking option is Blue Glitter, available from Walmart, which produces masses of smaller steel-blue blooms on branching stems and is especially good for cutting and drying.

4. Ornamental Alliums

• Botanical name: Allium
• USDA zones: 4–9, depending on variety
• Light: Full sun
• Soil: Well-drained
• Best for: Striking spherical seedheads

These ornamental relatives of culinary onions are favorites in garden beds for their unique, spherical flower heads that tower over other flowers. They’re also easy to grow, requiring only full sun and a spot with soil that drains well. Once established, they don’t need a lot of water to thrive.

Alliums bloom in spring and early summer, but don’t cut them down when they’re done flowering. The spherical seedheads will remain in place, providing an interesting sculptural element to your bed. They look good long after the flowers have faded and can even last into winter if the stems remain upright and in good condition.

For a dramatic display, try the pictured Gladiator allium, available from Walmart, with huge purple globes held high on sturdy stems and attractive dried heads after flowering. For something a little different, Bobblehead allium, available from Plant Addicts, produces pale lilac globes followed by perfectly spherical seedheads, while drumstick allium (Allium sphaerocephalon), available from Burpee has smaller burgundy-purple flower heads that bring a more delicate, naturalistic effect to borders.

5. Jerusalem Sage

• Botanical name: Phlomis
• USDA zones: 5–10
• Light: Full sun
• Soil: Dry, well-drained
• Best for: Architectural, pom-pom-like seedheads

Jerusalem sage – often known as Turkish sage or its botanical name phlomis – is a small shrub native to the dry climate of the Mediterranean. In zones 5 to 7, it is deciduous but evergreen in zones 8 through 10. Give it a sunny spot with dry soil, and it will thrive and bloom with yellow flowers in summer.

Phlomis offers a dramatic architectural and visual effect in fall and winter if you leave the seedheads in place. The flowers grow on tall spikes, and when they fade and set seed, you’re left with interesting pom-pom-like structures that look like beautiful yard art. Even without evergreen foliage, the dried stems also add to the visual appeal of this unique plant.

For a particularly architectural choice, try Phlomis russeliana, available from US Perennials. Its pale yellow flowers appear in distinctive tiers up sturdy stems, leaving behind sculptural seedheads that can provide interest well into winter.

6. Astilbe

• Botanical name: Astilbe
• USDA zones: 3–9
• Light: Partial shade
• Soil: Rich, moist, well-drained
• Best for: Feathery dried plumes in tan and bronze

Astilbe is a small, shade-tolerant perennial with feathery plumes of summer flowers in shades of pink, purple, white, and red. Partial shade is ideal for astilbe, but it will tolerate full shade or even more sun. The soil should be rich and moist.

The pretty flowers will have faded by late summer, but leave them on the plants. They retain their feathery shape and texture as they dry to muted tan and bronze colors, bringing visual interest and lightness to shady beds and borders.

For a similar frothy pink display to the picture above, try Younique Silvery Pink astilbe, available from Plant Addicts, which produces masses of soft, feathery pink plumes. For something more dramatic, Dark Side of the Moon, also from Plant Addicts, pairs rosy-purple flowers with striking chocolate-brown foliage, while Fanal, also at Plant Addicts is a compact choice with rich red plumes. Leave the faded flower heads standing to provide texture and interest later in the year.

7. Ornamental Grasses

• Botanical name: Varies by species
• Light: Usually full sun, with a few exceptions
• Soil: Varies; most prefer well-drained soil
• Best for: Airy seedheads, texture, and winter movement

You can hardly go wrong with any type of ornamental grass for visual interest at any time of year. These grasses grow in clumps, some strictly upright, others with an arching shape. Some grow several feet tall, while others grow much shorter, giving you options for beds, borders, privacy screens, and even containers.

Grasses aren’t known for their flowers, although they do bloom with feathery flower heads in summer. In fall and winter, the blades, airy seedheads, and movement in the wind all offer great visual appeal. As long as they remain upright and in good condition, leave your ornamental grasses in place and wait to trim them next spring.

For some of the best varieties, try pink muhly grass, pictured above and currently on sale at Trees.com, which produces clouds of pink flowers in fall before fading to soft tan. Little bluestem adds coppery fall color and fluffy silver seedheads – in particular, Standing Ovation little bluestem, available from Plant Addicts, is prized for its strong, upright habit. ‘Karl Foerster’ feather reed grass, available in a three-pack from Walmart, is a great choice for tall, upright structure that lasts well into winter. For a shadier spot, try All Gold Japanese forest grass, available from Plant Addicts, which brings graceful, arching foliage and bright golden color to beds that receive less sun.

Shop Structural Beauties

Take inspiration from this list and find plants that work for your garden and that provide more than just summer flowers. Consider how any plant will look after its colorful blooms fade to get more year-round visual interest.

For the best results when planning a garden that goes beyond the standard growing season, consider diversity. Use a mix of textures, like a combination of airy ornamental grasses with spiky sea holly. Create layers with short, medium, and tall plants. And don’t forget containers. They can also add to the fall and winter landscape with versatile, interesting plants. Choosing plants based on their entire life cycle creates a garden that remains interesting long after the blooms peak.

• RATING: Easy
• TIME: 10 minutes
• REWARD: Bigger, better rose blooms next year

When a rose is under stress, it often produces suckers that steal food and water from your plant, resulting in fewer, smaller flowers next year. August is a prime time for rose suckers to form, and you can bet your bottom dollar that after this hot, dry El Niño summer, your rose plants are feeling pretty stressed right now. So, the chances of them growing some pesky rogue suckers? Sky high.

The problem with rose suckers is that they grow from a part of the plant that can produce very vigorous growth, so if you leave them to grow they can quickly take over, starving the flowering stems. But it’s an easy 10-minute job to remove rose suckers, even if you’re a beginner gardener, and then your plant can direct all its energy into growing the stems that will support next year’s flowers instead.

Ready for this important element of August rose care? Here’s exactly how to prune rose suckers.

Why Rose Suckers are a Problem

Most modern roses are a result of grafting (fusing) a rose variety with the desired flowers onto the root system of a different, far more enthusiastic rose variety. So, the top of the plant is one rose variety, and the bottom is another variety. This achieves the happy combination of beauty and strength and a plant that produces exquisite blooms month after month and survives winter unscathed.

However, the problem with stress-induced rose suckers is that they emerge from the other rose variety that has its roots sunk into the ground. That means the suckers are vigorous and grow quickly, using up a lot of energy and overtaking the main stems. Leave them be and they will flower – but you won’t get blooms like those on the main plant, but flowers from the other variety. Because this rootstock variety has been chosen for its vigor and not its ornamental value, these will likely be small, single-petaled flowers in a pale pink, white or plain red.

Those suckers can be so boisterous that they can starve the main plant entirely – and that's why getting rid of suckers is such an important part of summer rose care.

How to Get Rid of Rose Suckers in August

1. Find the Knobble on the Main Stem

All grafted roses have a thick, swollen section low down on the main stem, right at the base. This might be just above the soil surface or a couple of inches below it, so you may need to scrape away the top layer of dirt to find it. This is the graft, or bud union, the point where the desired rose variety was fused onto the rootstock variety. Everything on or above this bulge is the rose variety you want to grow; everything below it is the vigorous rootstock that's fuelling that ornamental variety.

2. Identify the Suckers

Any stems that grow out of the sides of or above this bulge belong to the rose variety you do want. Your rose may well be growing new stems from this bulge right now, and these are called basal stems. Leave these be, as they’ll mature and eventually grow flowers of the variety you want.

However, any new stems growing from below that bulge are suckers belonging to the variety you don't want to flower. You might spot new vertical stems emerging from the soil away from the main base, too, and these will be suckers emerging from lower down the rootstock.

The stem’s appearance can give you clues as to whether it’s a beneficial basal stem or a pesky sucker. Suckers tend to be green with duller leaves and fewer thorns, and shoot straight up. Sometimes the leaves of suckers can look lighter to those on the main portion of the plant, and sport a different number of leaflets.

Basal shoots are likely to have more thorns and may have a hint of red on the stem and leaves, and the foliage will better match that of the main plant.

Once you start regularly checking your roses for suckers, you’ll quickly learn to recognise the difference, and the longer you leave them to grow, the more obvious the differences become. But while you’re getting to know your rose, the only sure way to identify whether that stem is a keeper or a loser is to find its point of origin.

3. Remove the Suckers

Wearing a pair of thornproof gauntlet gloves like these Rose Pruning Gloves from Walmart, dig down as far as you can towards the point the sucker emerges from the rootstock. Aim to disturb as little soil as possible, so use a narrow, pointed transplanting trowel such as this Corona Transplanter from Lowe’s or a Hori Hori Garden Knife like this Workpro Hori Hori from Amazon. You’re not creating a hole, just freeing the sucker so you can pull it out at its point of origin.

Then grip near the bottom of the sucker and give it a sharp, firm tug to tear it from its base. Ripping it out is a better method than cutting as the sucker is far less likely to regrow. To finish, firm any displaced soil back around the roots.

What About Suckers on Tree Roses?

Standard or tree roses are those with a ball or crown of flowering stems atop a taller trunk. The graft union on standard roses is at the top of the trunk, and you’ll clearly see a swollen bulge from where all the flowering stems emerge.

Because the main vertical stem is part of the vigorous rootstock, as well as tearing out the suckers that emerge from the ground, you need to trim any side stems that grow from this trunk. Simply use a pair of hand pruners such as these Fiskars Steel-Blade Pruners from Walmart to cut these shoots off flush with the trunk. Do sharpen your blades first as clean cuts are easier for the plant to heal, and it’s a two-minute task with a tool such as this $7 Garden Guru blade sharpener from Amazon.

Keep an Eye Out for More Suckers

August is peak time for rose suckers and the younger those stems are when you pull them, the easier it is to remove them, and the less energy they’ll suck from your plant. But do keep an eye out all through spring and summer, checking around once a month and removing any that you spot.

While summer heat stress is a big trigger, any stimulation to the rootstock or graft union such as an accidental knock with the lawn mower or frost damage, can cause suckers to grow.

As you learn to recognise what’s a sucker and what’s a basal stem, you’ll be able to remove suckers when they’re very small, saving your plant valuable energy.

Add removing suckers to your list of what to do with roses in summer as, left to their own devices, these rogue stems can sap the plant of energy, for fewer flowers next year. In the worst cases, suckers can weaken the ornamental stems to such an extent that they die, and you’re left with a rampant, plain rose variety you never intended on growing. So do find 10 minutes to pull out rose suckers this weekend, and you’ll be rewarded with prime blooms next year.

This feature is part of the Weekend Win series, and there’s still time to do the other August Weekend Wins:

• Use a $4 dog comb to groom ornamental grasses and save yourself hours weeding in spring.
• Trim lavender so it has time to grow a duvet of dense foliage to survive winter well.

Everyone thinks that a beautiful garden is the result of back-breaking labor, but I have finally accepted that I am not doing my garden any favors by tidying it too much. Especially when it comes to my perennials.

Yes, I am very much of the opinion that some perennials genuinely look better when you leave them alone (which suits my gardening style and generally lazy demeanor) right down to the ground. Honestly, stop deadheading, cutting back and generally fussing over them, and you'll find that their seedheads become architectural, their stems add movement, and the whole border takes on a wonderfully Secret Garden vibe that is so much more appealing than a garden where everything is standing to attention.

That doesn't mean I let everything go. My lupins, for example, are spectacular for the five minutes they're in flower and then spend the rest of the time looking like they've escaped from a Tim Burton film. Those, I am still tempted to tidy away. Still, there are plenty of perennials that become more interesting as the flowers fade, and I've become increasingly convinced that we should give them the chance.

6 Perennials That Look Better When You Let Them Go Wild

Look, it might appeal to my lazy side to let my perennials do their own thing, but there's an added bonus; leaving plants standing can also be better for wildlife, too.

Yes, faded flowers and seedheads provide food and shelter, while their stems and foliage add structure long after the main flush of flowers has passed. And, selfishly, there is something rather lovely about doing less work and ending up with a garden that looks more abundant.

The trick is knowing which plants to leave alone. These are the ones I've found can handle a little benign neglect – and, in many cases, actually look better for it.

1. Alliums

Alliums are perhaps the easiest place to start if you're trying to break the habit of tidying everything the moment it finishes flowering. I love them in flower, but I think I might love them even more once those purple globes have faded and turned into sculptural seedheads.

Rather than cutting them down, I leave them standing among grasses and other perennials. The dried heads hover above the planting like little skeletons of the flowers that were there before, catching the light beautifully, particularly later in the season. And because they hold their shape for so long, they give the border something to look at when many early-summer flowers have disappeared.

If you fancy an unusual twist on the trend, go for the Nevskianum Allium Bulbs from Burpee; this rare red allium blooms from May to June. If you prefer that classic purple hit, though, Burpee's Globemaster Allium Bulbs are widely considered the best for color intensity.

2. Agapanthus

Agapanthus is another one of those perennials I am very reluctant to cut back too soon. Those spectacular blue or white flowerheads are obviously the main event, but the fading heads can remain attractive for weeks afterwards, gradually drying into something that looks almost as though it belongs in a flower arrangement.

There is also something very satisfying about allowing a plant to go through its whole performance (from bloom, to flower, to fading petals, to seedhead) rather than treating the end of flowering as a cue to get the scissors out.

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3. Coneflower

Coneflowers are practically designed for the stop-tidying approach. The flowers are beautiful, but once the petals fall, those prominent central cones remain, giving the plant an entirely different look.

I leave mine standing for as long as possible, particularly into fall. The seedheads add useful structure when the border is starting to lose its summer fullness, and they provide food for birds.

It's a perennial that serves as a good reminder that a flower doesn't necessarily stop being useful – or beautiful – just because it has stopped flowering. Although, yes, there are ways around this; something like the Magnus Purple Coneflower from Nature Hills is great as it never droops or goes floppy!

4. Salvia

I have salvia in pots out front, and for years I have done absolutely nothing to it. It comes back, flowers, gets a little unruly and generally looks lush without asking for much in return. It's one of those plants I planted and then more or less forgot about.

Recently, though, I will admit that I've had to start watering it. And honestly, if salvia is telling you it needs a drink? Yeah, then you know it's been hot; no surprise, then, that this year's heat and relentless sun have left it looking a little more scorched than usual, but normally it just gets on with things, filling its pots with flowers and foliage without any careful shaping or constant deadheading from me.

That's exactly what I love about it. I'm increasingly drawn to plants that don't need me hovering over them, and salvia has more than earned its place in the garden on that basis alone. Let it grow, let it flop a little and let it do its thing – the result is much more relaxed than anything I could achieve by trying to keep it perfectly tidy.

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5. Mexican Fleabane

I have spoken before about my undying love for this invasive perennial, because Mexican fleabane is truly the ultimate “please just leave me alone” plant. I grow it in pots (every container garden needs one plant that thrives on neglect, right?), where it spills over the edges in clouds of tiny daisy-like flowers and somehow manages to make the whole container look more generous than anything I deliberately planted in it.

While you should never let it loose near sensitive habitats or encouraging it to spread unchecked, it's a beautiful pot plant. And a very, very, very easy one, too.

6. Yarrow

Yarrow is another perennial that gets more interesting as it ages, not least of all because it is one of the longest-blooming perennials going. Its flat-topped flowerheads have a lovely meadow-like quality when they're in bloom, but I also like the way they gradually dry and turn into little architectural platforms above the foliage.

Instead of cutting them down as soon as they fade, let them remain through fall and even into winter if you like the look. And, if you want one that looks like the picture above, you need the Strawberry Seduction™ Yarrow from Nature Hills in your life.

BONUS: Plants I Want to Grow

The lazy side of me is always on the lookout for plants that look fantastic while requiring approximately zero fuss. So there are a few more perennials firmly on my wish list.

Bee balm, catmint, Russian sage and tickseed (Coreopsis) are all calling my name, largely because they seem to have that same wonderfully unfussy quality – plenty of flowers, plenty of movement and very little need for me to hover over them with secateurs.

I'm particularly tempted by Russian sage for its silvery foliage and hazy purple flowers, while tickseed has the kind of cheerful, easygoing look that makes a border feel instantly more abundant. And bee balm? Anything that brings flowers, pollinators and a slightly unruly presence to the garden has my attention.

Shop Perennials That Love To Be Left Alone:

Basically, my ideal perennial is one that looks like I've put considerably more effort into the garden than I actually have.

If that's not a planting strategy, I don't know what is.

Fall-planted bulbs are such a simple, easy way to add drama to your garden. Plant them in autumn then forget all about them, and they’ll bring striking blooms to borders and patio containers all through spring into summer – and these are flowering plants that practically grow themselves. But here’s the thing: when new bulb varieties are introduced, there aren’t very many to go round. That’s for commercial reasons, to test the market and see if we gardeners are ready for diva-ruffle daffodils or modern-art alliums, but also because of the time it takes to produce large quantities of a fresh variety.

So, if you want to have the newest, most fabulous flowers in your garden, you need to buy your bulbs a good few weeks before it’s time to plant them. And if you look at any online retailer selling fall-planted bulbs, you’ll see that plenty are already sold out. And it's such an easy task to store bulbs. They'll arrive in a dormant state so it's as easy as popping them in breathable paper bags – Kraft brown paper lunch bags such as these from Amazon are perfect – and stashing in a cool, dark, dry spot with good air movement. A shed or garage is a good choice, or a spare bedroom if it’s baking hot outdoors; the ideal temperature is between 50 and 60°F.

And your reward for getting organised and buying bulbs early to plant in fall? Just take a look at these easy-to-grow beauties, all offering plenty of blooms for your bucks, and all raised from bulbs that can be planted in fall. Some are brand new cultivars, others are fresh to the US market, so you can be sure they’ll grab everyone’s attention in your garden.

Top 10 New Bulbs to Order in August for Fall Planting

1. The Rare Tulip that Stops Everyone in Their Tracks

• Zones 3-8
• Full sun or partial shade
• Flowers mid-late spring
• Grows 24" high

Grow this amazing tulip and prepare to be dazzled! Tulipa ‘Strawberry Cream’ starts off looking like a perfectly ordinary tulip, albeit a green one. But then layer upon layer of sugar-pink petals start to peek though, creating this incredible dome shape. And – there’s more! – the flowers finally splay open, looking far more like roses than tulips. Despite its fancy appearance, this rare bulb is easy to grow, making it one of the best tulips to add to your garden this year.

2. The Allium with Crazy Attitude

• Zones 3-9
• Full sun
• Flowers May-June
• Grows to 20" high

We all went wild for Allium ‘Hair’ (available from Dutch Grown) with its curious crown of green tepals when it was introduced by Dutch breeders, and now there’s a new kid on the block hailing from the Netherlands. Allium scorodoprasum ‘Art’ grows its small purple flowers on the ends of long, wiry stems. Butterflies adore alliums, so expect those blooms to be regularly topped with some colorful wings, too. With each flower lasting 2-4 weeks, and the structural seedheads for months more, these bulbs offer great value for garden space as well as your hard-earned dollars.

3. The Daffodil with Diva Ruffles

• Zones 3-8
• Full sun or partial shade
• Flowers mid-late spring
• Grows 18-20" high

If Lady Gaga were a daffodil, she would undoubtedly be Narcissus 'Bellabombe'. With extravagant bursts of petals in peach and apricot-yellow tones layered like an over-the-top tulle gown, this flamboyant bloom sure likes to be the center of attention. Leave the green leaves to die back naturally so they can feed the bulb, and this perennial has staying power, returning year after year for another fabulous show, and it will become one of the best daffodils in your yard. It lasts well in a vase so makes a great cut flower, which will allow you appreciate its delicate fragrance, too.

4. The Anemone that’s Highly Prized by Florists

• Zones 7-10 (2-6 if overwintered indoors)
• Full sun or partial shade
• Flowers early-mid spring
• Grows 18" high