Flower Gardening

Improve a Fall Garden with a Diverse Plant Selection

By Jean Starr

If ever a season could be called bittersweet, fall is that season. Not the scientific fall, which occurs this year on Sept. 22, but just before then, when the nights come noticeably earlier and are definitely cooler. Mosquitoes are on the wane, humidity is down (now referred to as “damp.”), and it’s much more pleasant to work in the garden.

If your garden lacks the charm it had in July, it’s time to rethink your choices. Plants that carry the garden through until frost and even beyond should be introduced. While it’s best to plant most of them in spring, now is the time to clear out the garden to make room for them.

There are dozens of plants that will pick up the color pace in September. Here are six to start with.

Mum Was the Word

Chrysanthemums are now in the genus Dendranthema, but for purposes of this feature, we’ll refer to them as mums. I’ve grown several, and I always plant them in the spring. This year I’m growing two varieties in the Igloo series. They’re both new on the market and were sent to me by Rozanne and Friends to test in my garden. I pinched them back just once, removing about an inch or so from each stem around July 1.

This series of mums is bred to be compact, and are described as needing no pinching. Because I don’t have the six hours plus of full sun that mums prefer, they tend to grow taller than shown on the tag, stretching toward the sun. They now are no more than around 18 inches tall and smothered in buds just waiting to pop. In their first year after spring planting, mums in the Igloo series (like ‘Harvest Igloo’) bloom later in the season than they will in subsequent years.

Asters

Asters also have had a name change, and it’s a doozy. Symphyotrichum is the botanical moniker for the flower that is often in the blue range as far as color goes. It’s a diverse group, from rangy and shade-loving to perky, stiff-stemmed sun worshippers. I’ve grown a variety of hybrids that run the gamut in size and even color. For small gardens and gardeners who prefer a low growing mound, ‘Wood’s Light Blue’ is amazing. Growing no more than 20 inches tall and smothered in bloom, this hybrid also is available in blue, purple and pink. The name “Wood’s” refers to the hybridizer, an apple grower in Portland, Oregon named Ed Wood.

One of the problems with some of the taller asters is that, by the end of summer, the leaves on the lower part of the plant die, leaving ugly bare stems. The plant goes on to bloom just fine at the uppermost stems. The best way to prevent or at least mitigate the damage is to avoid overhead watering, divide the plant every three years, and make sure it is watered about an inch a week during droughts.

The Chicago Botanic Garden’s plant evaluation manager, Richard G. Hawke, published an extensive evaluation report on cultivated asters that lists dozens of different varieties, rating them for bloom coverage and disease resistance.

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