A Fall Refresh

It's fall, and that means it's time for apples, sweaters, and planting.  Around the middle of September I get the urge to redo the urns and containers around the house.  Don't get me wrong, the summer plantings were very pretty this year, but towards the end of the season some of the plants have gone past their prime.  Petunias start to look a little straggly, impatiens don't look healthy, and even the coleus are getting woody and losing leaves.  Now is the time to purchase mums, kale, cabbage, and pansies.  I like to stick to a color theme for my containers, and this fall I chose purple and crimson.  I found these dark purple pansies, appropriately named Halloween II.  Combined with some crimson pansies, and dark red mums they replace the yellowing impatiens that lined my flower beds.  Pansies are quite hardy and many will continue to flower in the winter.

For our large urn, I replaced the petunias and other annuals with a couple spiky kale and 2 red mums.  I like to choose mums that have not quite burst into bloom yet.  I want the color in the garden to last a as long as possible, so I pick flowers that will bloom in few days or weeks.  I used a few small pumpkins as accents.  The umbrella grass was still going strong and it adds the height to this grouping.

TIP:  When planing your summer containers, plan ahead.  Try to use a few plants that will age nicely into the fall so you are not replacing everything. 

Summer

Fall

For my smaller porch containers, I replaced the coleus and petunia with a small mum and a cabbage (the petunia is in the back of the urn in the summer picture). I kept the begonia since it still looked nice and the blue arrow juncus.  I use both perennials and annuals in my containers, but sometimes perennials do not winter in containers.  If you would like to save a perennial for next year, you should bring them inside or a sheltered area for the winter or replant them to the ground before the frost hits. Add them to your existing flower beds or designate a section for wintering your penennials.  When spring arrives, simply transplant them back the containers.  (I love the texture of the juncus, so I'm hoping it will survive the winter.)

During these crisp autumn days, before the leaves start falling, make a trip to the local roadside stand or nursery and pick up a few fall plantings to refresh those summer containers and flower beds.