In the autumn our gardens are mellow and yet the end of the growing season is bittersweet. As we work in our gardens and put them to bed we are reminded of some of our favorite poetry. This poem is an excerpt from the well-known "Ode to Autumn" by John Keats who lived from 1795-1821.   Ode to Autumn      Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!      Close bosom- friend of the maturing sun;      Conspiring with him how to load and bless      With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;      To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,       And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;      To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells       With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,       And still more, later flowers for the bees,      Until they think warm days will never cease,      For summer has o’brimmed their clammy cells.       Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store???     Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find     Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,     Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind,     Or on a half reaped furrow sound asleep,     Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook     Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;     And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep     Steady thy laden head across a brook;     Or by a cider- press, with patient look,     Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Alliums are members of the onion family, and the bulbs are planted in the fall and extend the bloom spring-bulb season. The most spectacular is Allium giganteum with tall, stiff stems tapped with globes, averaging 5 inches in diameter. These flowering onions look exotic floating above the other plants. Colors range from white through lavender to dark purple.  Plant a ribbon of these bulbs in the center of a perennial bed or put them around hostas, ferns, or daylilies to provide exclamation points. The large globes are made up of tiny florets arranged in a similar pattern to the seeds of a dandelion puff. Designers have used this globe pattern to make spectacular round water fountains that you may have seen and admired. A rounded shape, composed of sparkling water jets or colorful flowers, has great architectural appeal. Allium is the Latin word for garlic, so any allium plant has a pungent taste that deer and rodents avoid. The smaller alliums bloom later than the giants. Try the ‘drumstick’, a dark purple, which blooms in July and naturalizes well, or Allium ‘Moly Jeannine’, which throws up 2-inch umbels of bright yellow florets in May. There are so many to choose from, and the more you have the more you will want.

If you garden in zones 5 through 9 and are looking for a small to medium shrub that has fall color, Itea virginica, commonly called Virginia Sweetspire, may be a good candidate for you.  It has an upright growth habit and flowers in early summer. The flowers are white and like bottle brushes with nectar that is sought after by butterflies and other insects.  Itea is a shrub that does well in sun or shade, which is a handy asset when surrounding plantings either grow up or die down, thereby changing the exposure. However, the red fall foliage color is more dramatic in a sunny site.  I have Iteas in both sun and shade in my Midwest garden, and it is one of the few shrubs that will flower in shade. I plant them near evergreens as they like a slightly acid soil, but they also adapt well in neutral or alkaline soil.  This is a deciduous shrub that lends itself to being planted in a serpentine curve to separate two garden areas, for example. In a shady woodland setting, they will develop colonies and naturalize. Offshoots, potted up, make an appropriate house warming gift as they can be planted nearly anywhere and thrive, and they look good as a specimen plant as they don’t need much pruning. The cultivar ‘Henry’s Garnet’ turns a dark red in late October in my garden, and ‘Little Henry’ is a more compact cultivar while ‘Shirley’s Compact’ is a true dwarf that is perfect in small areas.

From late fall through winter, Ilex verticillata produces a grand display of bright red berries that persist and light up its branches long after all the leaves have fallen.  Commonly called winterberry, but also known as Michigan holly or swamp holly, this is a deciduous type of holly for cold climates. However, only the female plants produce the colorful berries. Gardeners must plant one male near 3 to 5 females to ensure good pollination and fruiting.  They perform best in full sun in acid moist soils, so they need to be watered in July and August if there is not good rain and be given acid fertilizer.  ‘Afterglow’ is a cultivar with big orange-red berries.  In a large planting, it is best to include both early and late blooming male shrubs to maximize pollination of the females. For instance, ‘Jim Dandy’ is a slow-growing dwarf male useful for pollinating early flowering females such as ‘Red Sprite’, which is a popular dwarf female maturing to less than 4 feet tall bearing large red fruits.  A taller variety, ‘Sparkleberry’, matures to 12 feet and has the additional bonus of bearing dark red berries that often persist until spring.  Winterberries are hardy in zones 3 through 9.

There are some perennials that provide an added bonus of foliage that changes color in the fall.  For example, some species of Amsonia feature brilliant yellow foliage. The common name is blue stars, as the plants have pretty little blue flowers in the spring. Another, less poetic common name is dogbane.   The narrow leaves are lancelike, similar to the foliage of a willow, and the stems have a milky sap.  All Amsonias are native to North America and like full sun or partial shade and moist soil, but established plants can tolerate dry soils. Plants can be cut back after flowering to keep them compact as they can grow up to 4 feet in large clumps in zones 5 through 9. They can also be divided either in spring or fall.   Amsonia ciliata or Downy Blue Star, native to our southeast, is a good one for small gardens, as its clumps are only a foot wide. Because of its pale blue flowers, it combines well with other spring bloomers and when its elegant thin leaves turn yellow it provides impact in the fall garden, especially next to dark purple asters. This is a plant that pays its way by performing well across the seasons.

In Autumn, not only do the colors in the garden seem richer and more mellow, but textures also assume a more dominant role in plantings. The tall sedums become focal points in the perennial beds with their intricate flower heads and fleshy leaves. The flat shape of the flower heads makes perfect platforms for bees and butterflies. Trees, such as Japanese maples, and shrubs, such as Smokebush and Ninebark, add the darker notes to the symphony of leaf colors, and vines such as Sweet Autumn clematis contribute the lighter notes of their seed heads.  All types of Salvia flowers, but especially the blue ones, seem to look more vibrant in the fall light. Annuals such as Nicotiana, Cleome and Gomphrena, provide a variety of flower and leaf shapes and textures, and of course there are so many seed heads and berries for the birds to enjoy.  The tall, airy Russian Sage and the perennial Asters and Chrysanthemums carry the bloom across the garden against a tapestry of contrasting foliage and branching patterns provided by the woody plants. The Burning Bushes glow. Even the fuzzy wooly thyme, the gray felted Lambs Ears and the herbs in the Kitchen Garden are integral parts of Autumn’s textural display.

Most of our flowering plants are past their prime in fall, exhausted after their exuberant earlier displays. As we walk around our gardens, we notice all those brown stalks we need to remove from the daylilies, and lots of spent plants with shabby foliage that needs cutting back. Aggressive perennials, such as monarda and black-eyed Susans may have increased to the point where we will have to get rid of some. If the soil isn’t too dry, excess monarda can be pulled quite easily. Perennials that have grown into over large clumps, such as iris, goldenrod, and coneflowers, can be divided with a spade and given new homes in other locations, be shared with friends, or be consigned to the compost pile. Take a good long look at your garden and think about how you want it to be next year.  Do you need to reduce, increase, or alternate specific colors? What do you have already that provides interest at successive times during the growing season? Were there periods this past year when you noticed there was nothing in bloom? Think of color in terms of foliage as well as bloom, and what you can add to create a more pleasing effect. Maybe more height, perhaps plants on a trellis or arbour, could be added next year?  Fall is a season of promise for gardeners who can envision new possibilities. As Victor Hugo said: “A little garden in which to walk. An immensity in which to dream.” 

The autumnal equinox occurs during the third week of September. It is the time when the sun crosses the equator making day and night of equal length on all points of the earth. After the equinox in Autumn, the days grow shorter.  In September we stop fertilizing plants, but we continue deadheading our fall bloomers, as we want flowers to continue coming until frost. The purpose of cutting off the spent flowers is so the plant won’t produce seeds. Once seeds are set, a plant shuts down because it has completed its primary purpose, which is to reproduce itself.  When we deadhead, we snip the spent flower off right above a leaf axil where the topmost leaves join the flower’s stem. When deadheading roses, cut just above a group of five leaves on the stem, as this stimulates the development of new growth.  Carry a bucket around the garden to collect the flower heads as you cut them off the plants. Then set the bucket of spent flowers in a cool dry spot out of the sun, and when the flowers are completely dry, place them in an airtight container and add some fixative such as orris root to which you have added a few drops of perfumed essential oil available at hobby shops. Your potpourri will be then ready to use this winter.

Chrysanthemums have been grown and hybridized for many centuries it is difficult to determine their parentage. It seems though, that they originated in China.  Confucius wrote of them in 500 BC. The ancient Chinese valued plants for their symbolic and moral associations, and the chrysanthemums which blooms in autumn, when other plants are dying off, was esteemed as a life-prolonging herb.  Chrysanthemums went to Japan in the fourth century and became its national flower. They were introduced to Europe in 1688 and arrived in America in 1798. Pots of flowering mums are now widely available for fall planting in our gardens for an instant display of autumn color. Not all will survive, however, because these flowering transplants may not have time for their roots to settle in before winter.  Those that do, should be pinched back the next spring and summer to keep them compact, and fertilized to maintain their vigor. They need a sunny spot and regular watering but should not be in soggy ground. Their variety of colors is glorious and their flower shapes include pom pom, spider, daisy, and spoon. If you want mums to be reliably perennial in your garden, look for small plants next spring and pinch and feed them through mid July. You will then have bushy plants strongly rooted in your garden for bloom next fall and for years after.

Greek frescoes from the second millennium B.C. show what is believed to be the earliest known representation of a rose. The name, according to legend, is because a woman of exquisite beauty, Rhodanthe, was turned into a beautiful rose. Roses grew abundantly in medieval gardens where the rose petals were compressed to make rosaries. Roses have been loved since antiquity, and today there are countless species, hybrids and cultivars represented in the genus "rosa." Those with the showiest blossoms are often difficult for the weekend gardener to grow. However, one polyantha rose "The Fairy" is low maintenance, and therefore an excellent choice for home gardens. It blooms throughout the growing season with clusters of small pink flowers which though they are not perfumed, last well in a vase. It can be planted in the spring or fall, preferably in full sun, though it will tolerate light shade. It prefers moist but well drained soil with plenty of compost mixed in. It is a low spreading plant and needs about an inch of water each week. Each spring prune off any dead canes, and fertilize monthly until august. This is a lovely informal rose bush that rewards your minimal attention to its needs, with a luxuriant and continuous display of flowers.

The name "gladiolus," is from a Latin word meaning "little sword" because of the shape of the plant's leaves. They grow from corms, which are planted flat side down, two inches apart and at least 4 inches deep. They look best if planted in clumps rather than rows, and they must have full sun. The vertical flower spikes that open from the bottom up are used by florists to provide height in large formal arrangements. They have been hybridized extensively to produce all colors except blue. A wild miniature variety was found near the Victoria Falls in Africa. The plants grew where there was spray from the falls and the local people called it the "The Maid in the Mist." Although this is not substantiated, some believe that gladioli were "the lilies of the field" that Jesus spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount, for they grew wild in the Holy Land. Gardeners in mild climates find them to be perennial, but in colder regions, the corms must be planted every year. It is best to leave some foliage on the plant when the blossoms are cut, so that food can be stored in the corms for the next year's growth. They can be dug in the fall and stored in paper bags for replanting the next spring.

I am lucky to have a large garden space and so I have the luxury of being able to dedicate some of my beds to a single perennial species. Dianthus, alone in a small bed, can be pretty as the foliage is neat and forms a weed- suppressing mat above which the pretty, little flowers are held aloft. I have a bed of only pure white German iris that I love for its purity and conformity. And one year my pink Japanese anemones took over a whole bed on the side of my yard, outside my fence, so I just let them have it. The foliage is neat and suffocates most of the weeds, and in bloom, that bed is a sea of pink and looks like the garden of a princess. In some of my other beds, more by happenstance than design, I have let different but equally vigorous plants duke it out. Monarda, commonly known as bee balm, nearly engulfed the other perennials in one bed, but now when it has bloomed, I just pull it all out after a rain so the roots come out easily. There is always lots left to return the next year. The wild asters and golden rod then fill in for a fall display without any more work on my part. Around my fountain, where the water splashes and the soil remains wet a lot, I have Japanese, Siberian and Louisiana iris that enjoy moisture. They bloom at slightly different times, which adds to the appeal, as does the fact that all of the blooms are in purple/lavender shades, and they seem to float above their clean erect foliage.

In her book The Once and Future Gardener, Virginia Clayton provides examples of articles that were published in popular American gardens magazines between 1900 and 1940. One article by Helen Wilson focused on spire-like flowers. She also called them "steeped flowers" evoking the image of a church steeple pointing heavenward in an English village. In high summer in our gardens, we can use red-hot poker flowers, sometimes called torch lilies, to provide erect spikes. They are members of the Lily family and their botanical name is Kniphofia. Plant Your Own These perennials like full sun and moisture, but must have good drainage, especially in winter. Cut the flower stalks to the ground after blooms fade and cut the foliage back when it looks unkempt. They rarely need division, but off-sets can be cut from the sides of the clumps in the spring. The two feet wide plants grow up to four feet tall when in bloom. Many cultivars are available, most in hot colors. Wilson wrote that the artistic placement of spire plants is an intriguing game. One must keep the width of the bed a little greater than the tallest possible spire. Otherwise the spires appear precariously placed. However, if plants are strategically placed, the gardener, like a master builder, can draw eyes towards heaven.

I recently admired a beautifully planted curbside garden in full sun with a lovely color palette. Right in front were lavender creeping phlox, and behind those was the low-growing cranesbill geranium ‘Rozanne' and low-growing perennial salvias with purple flowers. Behind these low-growing plants were taller Russian sage with its grey foliage and blue/lavender blooms. They were interspersed with Caryopteris ‘Lil Miss Sunshine', which has chartreuse foliage and blue flowers. It blooms mid-summer to mid-fall and grows 2-4 feet tall and as wide. If winter interest was desired in a planting such as this one, small evergreens with yellow foliage could be substituted for the Caryopteris sub-shrubs that die to the ground each winter. One of the advantages of this garden just described is that it is low in height in the section that abuts the street. The color scheme with the contrasting chartreuse and purple/lavender/ blue hues ties it together, and the plants selected ensure that there will be flower and foliage interest from early spring right through into fall. Purple and chartreuse always look good together in a garden. Some other taller plants, such as the shrub Sambucus ‘Lemony Lace' shrub, could be placed in a moist part of your yard with purple Siberian Iris and a sedge such as ‘Banana Boat'.

Moya Andrews talks about euphorbias. The genus Euphorbia is large—about 2000 species—and there is great variation between forms.  Some plants look a bit like cacti, and many of the species have flowers that are actually bracts.  Many of the plants are tropical and sub-tropical, though some members of this genus survive well in temperate regions.  At the holiday season we see many poinsettias, native to Mexico; they are the best known euphorbias in commerce. They are imported or are grown in cold regions in greenhouses.  Those that grow in the outdoors in cold regions are often referred to as milkweed or spurge and include Euphorbia polychroma with bright chrome-yellow clusters of flowers in zones 6 to 9. Like many in this genus, it exudes a milky sap when picked.  Euphorbia marginata grows in zones 4 to 10 and is native to North America. It produces bright green leaves margined in white and broad petal-like bracts surrounding small flowers in summer. It grows quickly to two feet and is a pretty foil for any brightly colored neighboring flowers.  Euphorbia schillingii or Schilling’s spurge is a frost-hardy, clump-forming perennial, growing to three feet and was discovered in Nepal by Tony Schilling in 1975. The flat flowers are produced from mid-summer to mid-autumn, and the fall foliage is often colorful in zones 5 to 9.  Euphorbias are becoming more popular with gardeners recently, as they are versatile, easy- to-grow and deer resistant. This episode originally aired December 4, 2014.

Moya Andrews talks about Corydalis. Many of us have seen a ferny plant with tiny yellow flowers growing on walls and in cottage gardens in England, where it self-sows enthusiastically. This plant is Corydalis (kor RID ah liss), and it grows from rhizomes. It resembles the habit and form of Bleeding Heart, and it likes similar growing conditions. It has delicate lacy-looking foliage and racemes of spurred flowers in the spring.  There are about 300 species of Corydalis, both perennial and biennial, belonging to the poppy family. Give these plants full sun to partial shade where summers are not too hot and well-drained soil with regular moisture.  Most of the species resent being transplanted, but they can be divided in spring or fall if watered well to smooth the transition. However, they grow best where they self sow, and they seem to find very pleasing sites for themselves. For example, they have self sown at the edge of stone steps in my garden and look charming there despite the fact that there seems to be little dirt to nourish them.  There are blue-flowered varieties now available, but I have not been able to get them established in my own Midwest garden. The yellow ones, such as Corydalis ‘lutea’, bloom well over a long season, however, and their blue-green foliage is attractive all of the growing season. This episode originally aired April 22, 2010.

Moya Andrews reads a poem about ajuga, a.k.a., bugle weeds. Ajugas are perennials that are commonly known as bugles or bugle weeds, and there are about 40 species in the genus.  Ajuga reptans (reptans means creeping), is often used as a ground cover that carpets the ground with glossy rosettes of spoon-shaped leaves and spikes of violet-blue flowers in late spring.  Cultivars with variegated foliage are less vigorous than those with green or bronze leaves it seems. It is hardy zones 3-9 and prefers light shade, though it will grow in sun too.  In evenly moist well drained soil, Ajuga reptans spreads vigorously, so choose a site carefully. Cicely Mary Barker, wrote a poem about this plant and called it, as you might guess, “The Song of the Bugle Fairy.” Here it is:                  At the edge of the woodland                  Where good fairies dwell,                  Stands, on the lookout,                  A brave sentinel.                    At the call of his bugle                  Out the elves run,                  Ready for anything,                  Danger, or fun,                  Hunting, or warfare,                  By moonshine or sun.                   With bluebells or campions*                 The woodlands are gay,                 Where bronzy- leaved bugle                  Keeps watch night and day. NOTE:  *Campions are Lychnis (e.g., rose campion) plants. This episode originally aired March 31, 2011.

Moya Andrews talks about bellflowers. Campanulas, or bellflowers to use their common name, are plants with bell-shaped blue or white blooms, and they range in height from ground-hugging dwarfs to plants that grow to 6 feet. A gardener who plants a number of different types can have bloom for most of the summer.  Varieties and Growing Habits They need a moderately rich well-drained soil and full or partial sun. C.persicifolia is the popular blue peach leaf, and the white equivalent is ‘alba’. These are best for humid southern summers. Cut bellflowers last well in a vase, which is a big asset, as far as I am concerned. C. ‘Telham Beauty’ has three inch lavender blue flowers on 3 foot stalks and mixes well with astilbe, either in a bed or in a vase. It will naturalize in woodland settings in light shade.  The new campanula punctata ‘Cherry Bells’ is quite a departure from the older varieties because it has red tubular flowers edged in white so provides an early summer treat for hummingbirds. An old standby that has stood the test of time is the clustered bellflower C. glomerata, which is hardy zones 3-8 and has upward facing violet bells on 1-2 ft plants. This is a very reliable plant. The newer gold leaf Adriatic bellflower ‘Dickson’s Gold’ is a short variety which provides a striking contrast of blue flowers against gold foliage that looks wonderful spilling over walls or used as a groundcover. This episode originally aired July 22, 2010.

There are roughly 900 species of salvia, which is the largest genus in the mint family. The common name is sage, and the genus includes annuals, perennials, and sub-shrubs. Remember that sub-shrubs have the woody base of a shrub and soft top growth. When pruning a sub-shrub such as sage or lavender, do not cut into or injure that woody base. Salvias have tubular flowers with two lips and are ancient plants, which were probably taken to England by the Roman legions, as the name is derived from the Latin salveo, meaning “I am well.” There is an old Arabic proverb: “How shall a man die that has sage in his garden?” That hints at the plants links with immortality. It was said to have the most power medicinally in May, just before the appearance of the blooms. Of Mediterranean origins, salvias like full sun and good drainage. The flowers can be most colors but are rarely yellow. The blues, purples, and reds are most admired.  Culinary sage is named Salvia officinalis and is a short-lived perennial with grey-green leaves and purple flowers in summer. In your flowerbeds, try two to three feet tall hybrids sylvestris ‘May Night’ or ‘Blue Queen’. ‘East Friesland’ is also pretty but shorter. All have violet-blue spires on neat green clumps in zones 4 – 9. This episode originally aired June 1, 2017.

Moya Andrews talks about marigolds. I used to be quite a snob about flowers that grow so easily that they seem to be growing everywhere. For instance, I used to be quite dismissive about marigolds, as I disliked the smell. It took me years to realize that many commonly grown flowers, in addition to being pretty, possess other reliable characteristics, such as drought and heat tolerance and resistance to pests.  After failing with zillions of more finicky plants that died as soon as a heat wave or drought struck, I finally decided that marigolds are actually quite appealing. When deer began to frequent my yard, I actually fell in love with marigolds. Now when people ask me about my favorite flowers, I rattle off a list that includes only deer resistant species. The defining attribute for any plant to win my popularity contest, is that it is not popular with deer.  Of course deer will eat anything if they are hungry enough. One year I noticed that they did not eat my butterfly weed, so I didn’t bother to spray it. Since I sprayed everything else, guess what they then gobbled up?  Adversity, (and that for me is currently spelled D-E-E-R), is a great teacher. It has taught a gardener like me to cherish every flower that blooms, no matter what its color or its smell. Because, of course, we eventually come to realize that at different times and in different places in our gardens, any type of flower may suddenly seem to be just perfect.  This episode originally aired June 13, 2013.