Perennials: Favorite fall bloomers

west texas mist flower

Nothing prettier than fall wildflowers in Texas

Very pretty! What is the plant on the bottom row, second from the left please?

Try veronica Royal Candles, which is more burgundy than blue. It is also a short and the spikes are very erect , I have seen some posting of pictures on this site that did not look at all to be Royal Candles..might be the color on the computer.It looks great w/santonia or anything yellow and low.keep it cut back till late and allow to bloom w/hardy plumbago,

Prairie girl

that's a red sumac ....turns bright red in fall and the red seed pods have individual seed that feed the birds all winter or are great in floral arrangements....small tree native in this area........have lots of small ones available now for trades, they dont get much bigger than 4 ft and they will grow in patio pots too........

Pictured as an understory plant behind my waterfall at the lily pond

Do you mean smooth sumac? I'm looking for a staghorn actually. But pretty sure both are larger than 4 feet. Thanks! Awesome lily pond and other pics.

I am not sure........I think it's called flameleaf sumac, and they do get taller than 4 ft

Well the difference between the two is that the bark is either smooth or has dense, velvety hairs, as in the "velvet stage" of a stag's antlers. ;-)

that's good to know........thanks.......mine is smooth.

Verbena bonariensis (tender, but reseeds every year) and anemone x hybrida Honorine Jobert

Donna - What is the background hedge please?


And, did you grow the castor bean in the pot from seed or purchase the plant? One of my 'must haves' this year!

This message was edited May 16, 2006 10:37 AM

Hi PrairieGirlZ5

It is the very underused and wonderful northern bayberry. The full name is Myrica pensylvanica. It is hardy to zone 2, and requires so little care that it will grow in sand. It grows from 5 to 12 feet high (ours are 9 feet) but you can hack it to bits. It’s aromatic, requires no water, and grows in clay, and is tolerant of salt and infertile soil. The only thing you have to do is give it a little sulphur once a year (Ironite is great). Birds love it. I highly recommend it.

Good catch on the castor bean plant! It's ricinus Carmencita . Here’s excerpts from my garden log:

April 21, 2005: Soaked ricinus seeds from Fragrant Path
April 26, 2005: Put six ricinus in individual peat pots
May 21, 2005: At least 4 total ricinus germed
May 30, 2005: Ricinus in blue pots

And at the same time, I put one or two in the ground, as you'll seein the picture (they get huge in the ground). As long as you water them generously and fertilize them once a week, they'll keep blooming until frost cuts them down.


This message was edited May 16, 2006 11:06 AM

Another fall favorite - purple hyacinth beans gone to seed.

I love bayberry! It does smell terrific, doesn't it? A bit too big for my needs. Do you have any experience with inkberries (Ilex glabra)? I need something smaller, to form an informal style hedge under my front windows, preferably evergreen. Might just go with good ole boxwood. I want to face them with Karl Foerster feather reed grass, kind of alternating, but in their own separate rows, if that makes any sense. Thanks again.

Beautiful castor bean plant! I guess I missed the boat this year. ;-(

Oooh, that's very pretty! Would look good with so many of the chartreuse and purple foliaged plants that are out today.

You really have not missed the boat. I just soaked my ricinus last week. I pulled out my copy of Michael Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs and he loves ilex grabra, referring to it as "one of the great plants for massing - trouble free and beautiful." He says that it can grow in wet or dry soils, under high or low ph conditions, and wow its pretty! Looks a lot like bayberry. He says it grows 6 to 8 feet high, 8 to 10 feet wide, but I'm betting it can be pruned to size. And there are smaller cultivars, some as short as 2 1/2 feet tall and 3 feet wide. He says it should be used more. Looks like a winner.

And speaking of feather reed grass, please see the image. Accompanying it are chasmanthium latifolium and some miscanthus (silberfeder) in the background.

Cripes! How many chasmanthium plants are there? I have heard how nice they are but have no experience with them. Planted KF late June, still no flowers ("wheat stalks"), but I can expect them next month, right? Thanks for info. on the inkberry, I have Dirr's Fifth, I was hoping you had some I could eyeball. It does look like little bayberry, doesn't it? Do you have Morning Light there too? LOve, love grasses, they are indispensable to the fall perennial garden.

Yes, I have Morning Light! And Silberfeil, giganteous, bluttenwunder, gracillimus, strictus, adagiio and others. There's more than one kind of chasmanthium? KF, while slow, is just about the earliest bloomer of all the grasses. The feather reed grass Acutifolia brachtitricha is even slower - blooms in fall.

Here's ML in fall, in the middle of the picture. I found it took longer than most of them to get established, but it was worth the wait!

LOL Donna, sorry for the misunderstanding, I meant how many chasmanthium plants do you have there in that clump? Quite impressive, never would've thought from looking at a single plant, that it would look so lovely.

My Arabesque maiden grass is still twigs, do you think it will be okay?

No problem, PrairieGirlZ5. I just went out and checked and you are seeing, because of the angle, 1 and 1/2 plants, because there is a newer one to the left. But yes, they can become very impressive. One of my plants is 26 inches across, and another 24 inches. They slowly spread, and in the spring I cut down the remnants and bring them into the house. They keep quite well in the house. Great plant, no maintenance, and it forms little side plants, making it easy to propagate. I put 4 of them in a bed with KF, tucked some trumpet lilies in the center, and it makes for a nice little bed.

I’ve never grown Arabesque, but your plants look wonderfully healthy. I think you’ll be very pleased by their development in a couple of years.

Thanks! Those are asters, surrounding the maiden grass. I think I might switch them out for something with spring or summer flowers. Maybe Chocolate cosmos? The yellowish foliage is the sweetspire, I think it looks great with purple foliaged plants. Like the Purple Emperor sedum I have there now.

OK, gotcha. Grasses are funny, and different cultivars kick in at different times. I have some (bluttenwunder and silberfeder) that are already 2 feet tall. I have others (giganteous) that have barely started. How long have the arabesques been in the ground? Did you plant them last fall, which can be risky? Are they on a colder sectionn of your property? They really should be showing some activity. Give them one more week.

Well, I only have that one Arabesque maiden grass. My Rotsilber maiden grass is filling in already. I planted it last summer. They're in west-facing exposure. It looks dead to me. Here is a pic of my fountain grasses, right in front of the sweetspire. One looks all right maybe, the other not so good. I was told to expect that with the fountain grass, marginally hardy here despite being rated to zone 5.

edited for clarification

This message was edited May 17, 2006 4:05 PM

Spoke to the nursery today. Sadly, the Arabesque is no longer with us. They will replace it or give me another cultivar (of my choice) at half price.

Hi PG! I am sorry that you cannot replace your Arabesque. I did think that, since we are in the same zone, and you can choose any grass you like, I’d tell you how the various grasses that I have performed in my yard.

The winners:

Gracillimus. I have 8, and have had them for almost 8 years. They do not flop, passersby drool over them and their blooms are gorgeous. 30 inches across at the base. Sarabande is very similar. These two grasses, I think, are very similar to Arabesque.

Bluttenwunder. Installed in 1999. I have 2. They bloom early, get HUGE very quickly (2 years) and both survived as fall planting while in bloom ( a BIG no-no I did a lot in the beginning). 5 feet across at the base.

Silberfeder. Installed in 1999. Everyone has it for a reason. It’s huge (five feet across at the base) and despite being 7 years old it has NO bare spots at the base. Another early bloomer and maturer. After several years it will tend to flop, but oh, so beautifully.

You already know how wonderful KF and Chasmanthium are.

Runners up:
Morning Light, only because it takes a long time to mature. I have four and they are superb, but you have to wait 4 years to see what they can do. It’s worth the wait. Installed 1999.

Strictus, the same as ML.

These two are magnificent and I wouldn’t hesitate to plant them again.


Mixed bag:
Silberfeil, an older grass, harder to find, and tend to markedly flop after about 5 years, but generally not until autumn. It’s the only grass I have to stake.

Adagio. Oh what a gorgeous 2 foot grass, but I have 3 that behave completely different, despite being installed at the same time. One died in year 2, one is medium sized and one is huge.

Jury’s out:
Huron Sunrise. It’s only in year 2.

Giganteous. Phenomenal - 12 feet tall, 14 with flowers, but it is just entering year 3.

Hope this helps. I may simply be telling you things you already know,

Donna

Donna - WoW! thanks for your reply, It's really helpful to hear from someone who loves grasses as much as I do. I think we're close enough geographically too for the info to realistically apply.

I didn't mean they didn't have Arabesque, LOL, I meant that I didn't! Replacing it is an option, I absolutely loved how the long plumes were held high above the foliage. Does Adagio do that? Any chance you have a pic of it?

I also started a thread under Trees & Shrubs forum to get suggestions on it's replacement, maybe I'll put in an evergreen. Here's what I had last year. I'm planning to move those asters and the dianthus. The sedums (and brick soldiers) will edge the bed.

Hi PG. I've been going though my Adagio images and I realized that it is a star but a little one, so it is obscured in many of my photos. But I found an image that shows how it hold its wonderful flowers. It's in the center, to the left of the pennesetum. This was taken in early September of last year.

We seem to like the same plants. Very neat!

This message was edited May 19, 2006 12:19 PM

My favorite Fall bloomers are Russian Sage (also seems to deter deer) accompanied by Black-eyed susans. They go well into the Fall. But the best blooming and great plant find I have discovered in recent years is the toad lily. This plant comes to flower when others are fizzling, it it full to part shade and has beautiful, orchid like blooms. Just beautiful! So there you have it ...some for sun and some for shade!

magnolialover - when does it bloom? I've often drooled over it in pictures, those polka dots are adorable!

Know what else I want to try? Blackberry lily (Belamcanda chinensis). Orange flowers with maroon polka dots, sword-like foliage described as iris-like. The flowers being smallish, but when they're done blooming, they curl up into spirals and pop off, giving it the common name of clown flower. The seedpods split open to reveal a cluster of black seeds that resemble blackberries, seeds remain all winter against semi-evergreen foliage. Said to like hot, dry conditions with good drainage. So I was thinking of trying them next year on the little berm I'm making out front (western-exposure).

PrairieGirlZ5-It blooms late August through OCTOBER-yes OCTOBER! There are many different varieties as well. I first noticed them in a master gardener class I took in the Fall a few years back: shocked that it was so lovely and that I hadn't heard of it. My instructor said it was a very lovely plant that is very under-utilized. So I ran out the next day and found one!
I have a few blackberry lilies in my yard and they are so very easy to grow! They too have orchid-like blooms, phalenopsis type, and multiply readily here. That one will bloom August-Sept. The foliage is iris-like. Nice choice.

Oh goodie! You're not too far away either, so I feel real good about trying those two here.

Glad to help. Happy planting! We are zone 5a here as well, so you should have no problem.

I have Blackberry lily and it bloom in early to mid July. My great Aunts called it Money Plant. I've had it at the base of a walnut tree and now it's at the base of a silver maple. It did wellin both spots. The seeds really are the main attraction for me.

I'm appreciating the info on the grasses. I have a small yard, but really want Miscanthus Zebra first. There are so many to try. DH came home with a stem of something last year that I decided was Tall Bluestem. It was the color of a Hawaiian sunset with pink, peach and apricot colors. I went down and dug the clump up and can't wait to see it this fall. Good thing I did because they stripped the ditch of weeds. We also dug up what we think is Little Bluestem. It's a beautiful red in the fall.

Billy~It's a good thing you got there in time to rescue them! I can share a piece of Little Zebra if you want it.

Thanks, my neighbor across the street is digging hers up this fall and I can have a hank of it. Appreciate the offer!

sure thing billy. Remember not to wait too late, and cut it back really hard in spring! I made the mistake of not doing that, had some problems with regrowth.

Thanks for the advice. I'm new to grass. I need to make sure I don't get reseeders, and stay with the slow clumpers. I see a lot of grass that I love, but it's out of my zone. We're starting to notice a lot of grasses, even in the country. I'm wondering if some of the farmers belong to Pheasants Forever.

If the grass doesn't haven't time to get roots re-established, it will suffer for it as well.

The one we think is Tall Bluestem can take 3 watering cans of water, and the water is all soaking in. No run-off, so I hear you on them needing to get established. It was planted last fall.