Fall-Planted Perennial Suggestions

This fall, I am digging up the section of grass in between my driveway and the sidewalk up to the front door, with plans to put in a perennial bed there. It is in full sun.
So far I have TONS of irises to plant, as well as tulips; does anyone have suggestions of perennials that I can plant in the fall that will help my new bed be in bloom for a full season instead of just in spring?

The choices are endless. You can go to any garden center and check the tags for perennials. They can be planted now and will come back next year. Mums and sedums will bloom late in the year to give you fall color. Does that help?

For a longer bloom season, I would include coneflowers, and coreopsis. Both of these flowers blooms for months. You could actually start some coneflowers from seed now to save some money, and plant them late summer, early fall when you new bed is ready.

I also focus on season-long bloomers and am building my stockpile of Verbenas, Asiatic Lilies, Dianthus, lots of vines, Veronicas, Carnations (also Dianthus), Dahlias, Hardy Hibiscus, and more. I have almost an acre to landscape & still have a lot to do!!!

I tend to buy my "fall planting" plants in the summer & stick them in pots until I'm ready to put in the ground. The seed idea is good, too, and I've started that this summer.

I haven't found a lot of help at garden centers, at least not in my immediate area. I find it much more helpful to use the net to find new plants *and* all the info about them (I always cross validate the info with other sites, tho). If you go to a lot of the garden/plant sites, they have search functions where you can put in perennials with the features you want. Even on eBay you can search for "perennials" and I buy the vast majority of my plants from eBay; it's just so much cheaper. We have a marketplace here now, too, that I've started shopping at.

Try using foliage color as well as blooms to add long lasting color. Some suggestions
- Sedum 'Purple Emperor - beautiful burgundy color
- Sedum 'Meriovariegatum' yellow & green variegation - plays really well off 'Purple Emperor'
- Iris pallida 'Vareigata' - beautiful white and sage green foliage - nice lavender flowers but the foliage lasts all season
- origanum 'Hopley's Purple' - ornamental oregano with blue green foliage & late summer flowering - act as a small shrub in the landscape - nice winter interest
- Origanum 'Aureum' - golden oregano - great golden yellow color, make a good ground cover


Some long blooming perennials
- Knautia macedonica - blooms from mid-June to frost
- Nepeta - blooms blue in June-July, cut back and will re-bloom in last August-September
- Phlox paniculata 'David' - large white blooms in July-early August

Hi Bethanski from a neighbor in Henrietta.
I ditto the comment that the choices are endless.
Bluestone has an advanced search where you can search by zone, soil, sun/shade, color and bloom time - so you could get a lot of ideas whether you chose to purchase form them or not.
I'm sure there are other similar sites too.
http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/adv_search_mod.html?id=EcQJR4kp