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What flowers in fall?

If you search perennial gardening in Oklahoma this time of year, you might want to know what flowers in fall.

Magical closeup of sneezeweed, Helenium autumnale, still flowering. The light was just right.

Well, here I am, your ever-helpful guide. I’ll be glad to share which plants flower in my fall garden.

A painted lady or American lady butterfly on Truffula Pink™  gomphrena which is still blooming. Butterfly experts are welcome to weigh in.

Native and non-native asters flower in fall.

Asters make garden magic in fall, but they do take some care. You have to cut them back in spring to keep them tidy, and some, like the aromatic asters, seem bent on garden takeover. These are not the asters you see flowering in big box stores at the end of September. I found most of my asters online and at Bustani Plant Farm over the years. The natives have cross pollinated to the point where I have a lot of volunteers. I’m mostly ok with that.

What flowers in fall?
This is one of my favorite aster images from last fall. A very large male monarch butterfly on ‘Bluebird’ smooth aster.

However. if you’ve read this blog for a while–like the past 16 years–you might know I have a thing for asters in spite of their wild ways. By the way, I just celebrated my blogaversary. Who would have thought I’d still be writing?

Asters are definitely one of my fall favorites. I love asters, and they love my garden so I have a lot of them. They paint my garden a lovely powdery blue and purple in Autumn which is not a bad thing. [Click on the photos in the galleries to enlarge them.]

Lilac aster. I don’t know which one. I know the bees and other small insects like it.
In the kitchen border, the lilac and darker purple aster hang out together in partial shade. Yes, native asters don’t mind some shade.
What flowers in fall?
Symphyotrichum praealtum, willow aster, grows quite large and will flower in partial shade.
What flowers in fall? Asters.
Medium purple aster that just showed up in my garden.
Tartarian aster ‘Jin Dai’ with Panicum virgatum ‘Northwind’ behind. I love this plant. It is tidy and doesn’t try to take over. It is not native.
The kitchen border from another angle looking toward my back door and the kitchen. The asters reign supreme.

Carol Michel and I discussed native asters on the Gardenangelists podcast recently. If you want to read more, sign up for our weekly podcast newsletter. Here’s the latest missive. Carol writes it one week, and I write it the next.

what flowers in fall
‘October Skies’ aster is almost electric blue/purple in partial shade. It’s also tidy.

The one aster in the garden that makes me want to take a drive to Crazy Town is Drummond’s aster, Symphyotrichum drummondii. If you put in a garden where you never water, it might be fine, but here where there is drip irrigation, it has spread almost everywhere. Now, it is flowering, and it is lovely, but soon, I’ll be digging out more of it just to keep it in check. It has rosettes of leaves set down upon tough roots that spread. It also spreads by seed.

Drummond's aster is such a thug, but it's a pretty thug when it flowers in fall.
Drummond’s aster, S. drummondii, is such a thug, but it’s a pretty thug when it flowers in fall.

According to the Arkansas Native Plant Society, “The specific epithet and common name recognizes Thomas Drummond, a Scottish botanist, who, in the early 1830s, collected specimens in Texas. Other common names include blue wood aster and hairy heart-leaf aster.”

In my garden, it is known as “the most hated aster” except for this time of year. Then, it’s just so danged pretty, I’m glad I can’t eradicate it.

Some salvias start to flower in fall while others continue on.

Salvia leucantha in all her fall glory. I love this plant.
Salvia leucantha, Mexican bush sage, Hibiscus ‘Mahogany Splendor’ and pink muhly grass. I took this from a distance so you can see how large S. leucantha is.
Salvia farinacea ‘Victoria Blue’ with pink muhly as a backdrop.
A bumblebee flies to my unnamed giant blue salvia. Maybe it’s ‘Henry Duelberg?’
Monarch butterfly on my unknown salvia.
Plants I love in the garden now
Female Pipevine Swallowtail on Salvia leucantha, Mexican bush sage.

I’m a big fan of salvias of all types, but I love S. leucantha this time of year. Mexican bush sage is usually hardy in my garden even in the most windblown spot, but it does sometimes die, so I take cuttings each fall. I now have three large stands of it in the two gardens facing the street so I believe I have plenty. I think one of the most important factors in getting it to overwinter is to keep it as dry as possible. It a true sage with silvery, drought tolerant leaves.

S. farinacea ‘Victoria Blue’ with pink muhly grass from 2021. This same salvia is growing in front of it this year, but some of my pink muhly burned in the fire and as yet, hasn’t recovered. It will probably need two more years.

My other favorite perennial salvia is the S. farinacea clan. I like most of them including good old ‘Victoria Blue.’ I usually chop back these salvias in midsummer so I get another flush of flowers. I could have chopped them again last month, but I didn’t. That’s why some of them look straggly. Their blue-green leaves which are another good reason to grow them.

This year, I grew ‘Sirius Blue’ from seed, and it was a dwarf variety. It was also extremely slow growing. Like molasses really. It finally bloomed in July. That is too late for me. I won’t grow it again.

S. hybrid ‘Mystic Blue Spires.’ I don’t have a good photo of ‘Indigo Spires’ although I use them interchangeably. Their leaves are also blue green but of a rougher look.

I‘m also fond of the interspecific hybrids, ‘Mystic Blue Spires‘ and ‘Indigo Spires,’ but sadly, they don’t overwinter for me. They are only hardy to Zone 8. There’s a new hybrid that can be grown from seed called ‘Big Blue,’ but I haven’t tried it yet. It would make things less expensive since transplants are still pricey in local nurseries, and they grow like annuals.

Miscanthis sinensis ‘Morning Light’ can be a spreader, but I love it this time of year.

Ornamental grasses flower in the fall.

I grow many different types of ornamental grasses. Most begin to flower in the fall, from Muhlenbergia capillaris, pink muhly grass, to Miscanthis sinensis, Chinese maiden grass, to Bouteloua gracilis ‘Blonde Ambition’ blue grama grass, and finally, all of the Panicum virgatum, native switchgrasses. These beautiful plants sway in the wind and are good garden companions for three seasons of the year.

Pink Muhly grass with Mahogany Splendor hibiscus.

We always have wind in Oklahoma, and grasses make our gardens move with sweet music.

Mums flower in fall.

‘Sheffield Pink’ mums are one of the joys of fall.
Sheffield Pink mums and ‘Hameln’ dwarf fountain grass.
Chrysanthemum 'Emperor or China' tumbling over.
Chrysanthemum ‘Emperor or China’ tumbling over the sidewalk.
Sheffield mums with Pup Francis. I didn't straighten this photo so that you can see how much my land slopes downward.
Sheffield mums with Pup Francis. I didn’t straighten this photo so that you can see how much my land slopes downward.
Adult Monarch on 'Will's Wonderful' mum is all of its bright glory.
Adult Monarch on ‘Will’s Wonderful’ mum is all of its bright glory.
Chrysanthemum 'Fall Charm'
I need to see if I still have ‘Fall Charm’ somewhere. So pretty.

Okay, this might seem obvious, but I‘m talking about true garden mums, not the ball-shaped plants you find in the box stores in late September and early October. There’s nothing wrong with those. I love them, but I also love daisy-type mums. Presently, I grow ‘Sheffield’ aka ‘Sheffield Pink,’ ‘Clara Curtis,’ a white one I can’t remember, and ‘Ryan’s Pink.’ Sometime ago, I lost ‘Will’s Wonderful’ so I’ll be looking to replace it.

My front border flowers in fall with more traditional button mums.

There’s much more that flowers in the fall garden, but this post has taken me two weeks to write and publish. It is now too long, and I hope you’ll actually read it, but I wouldn’t blame you if you clicked away.

Still, you might save it for later if you’d like to grow plants that extend your gardening season and flower in fall.

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Related

2 November, 2023 By Dee Nash

Filed Under: Basics, Garden Design, Gardening, Perennials Tagged With: Autumn, Butterflies, Fall Flowers, fall gardening, Fall gardens, Flowers, Foliage, Oklahoma Gardening, Pollinators

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anonymous

    8 November, 2023 at 10:30 am

    You might want to try Brandywine Sunset and Campfire Glow hardy chrysanthemums. They grow really well for me in zone 7B, N MS. They’re not quite as aggressive as Clara Curtis, which tries to take over, but I still love and just edit out what I don’t want each year. Did your Jin Dai Tatarian aster take a while to establish and bloom? Mine has been in the ground a year and is still pretty small with no blooms so far.

    • Dee Nash

      26 November, 2023 at 1:21 pm

      Hi! Those are really good suggestions. I’ll look for them. Yes, it took Jin Dai three years to get going, and it is always a little less aggressive than the asters that surround it. I may even move a part of it to another spot in the garden next spring. ~~Dee

  2. Beth@PlantPostings

    3 November, 2023 at 7:03 pm

    I think I’d rather be in Oklahoma in November and February. The other months…I’m OK. How lovely to have so many things still blooming! My garden is done…well, there are a few things here and there still blooming, but it’s certainly sparse after frosts and freezes for a few days this past week. Thanks for sharing your blooms!

    • Dee Nash

      26 November, 2023 at 1:22 pm

      Beth, this was the prettiest fall I’ve seen in a long time. Those two cold days and then the rising temperatures made all the colors pop. October is also pretty nice in Oklahoma too as is April and May. We’re not hot yet. Not until mid-June. I do love summer in Wisconsin though. ~~Dee

  3. Anonymous

    3 November, 2023 at 11:42 am

    This article wasn’t too long at all. I enjoyed it very much. Happy Autumn!
    Jennie

    • Dee Nash

      26 November, 2023 at 1:22 pm

      Thanks Jennie!

  4. Anonymous

    3 November, 2023 at 9:44 am

    Just to illustrate how plants behave differently in different climates and soils: Jin Dai aster is a spreader for me. I need to dig some out every year so it doesn’t overwhelm its neighbors. And every little piece of root resprouts and becomes a new clump if I’m not vigilant. It is one of the very last plants to bloom for me, and if we have an early freeze, it may not bloom at all. On the other hand, Morning Light miscanthus makes a very slowly expanding clump but doesn’t spread beyond that, mostly because our growing season is short enough that it usually doesn’t form seed heads. This year, our October was warm and our first frost at the very end of October, and my three clumps of miscanthus combined produced one seedhead. I’m in upstate NY, at 1300ft elevation, USDA Hardiness Zone 5

    • Dee Nash

      26 November, 2023 at 1:23 pm

      It’s crazy how differently plants behave in different climates. I can barely keep Jin Dai happy here. Thanks for the information!~~Dee

  5. Jeanette

    3 November, 2023 at 7:21 am

    Well, I read the entire post. I have had Symphyotrichum oblongafolia in my north Texas backyard for two years, and I love them. I’ll be saving this post for reference next year so I can add other fall bloomers to my backyard. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

    • Dee Nash

      26 November, 2023 at 1:24 pm

      Thanks for reading Jeanette!~~Dee

  6. Anonymous

    2 November, 2023 at 5:52 pm

    I loved your long post!!

    • Dee Nash

      26 November, 2023 at 1:24 pm

      Why thank you! I appreciate it. ~~Dee

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