When looking for Fall plants to grow there are plenty of fall garden plants to grow that provide appealing blooms, extraordinary color, and visual interest to the autumn landscape. With a little bit of planning, flower gardens can be ablaze with a display of spectacular hues even after summer blooms have faded.

Whether you are looking to plant in containers or in-the-ground, you can make the most out of the fall’s cooler temperatures by planting some of these show-stopping fall plants. Check out our robust list of the best fall garden plants to grow and add longevity to your garden season.

Aster

Plant asters in containers or in-ground and enjoy a blanket of daisy-esque blooms that help ease the transition of summer through fall. Asters are a great fall plant because they attract beneficial pollinators to the garden through the end of the fall season, so they are a great accent near your fall vegetables.

Sedum

Discover the dynamic late-fall blooming sedum, also known as stonecrop. This succulent can be grown easily in containers and in-ground. A favorite variety that boasts it’s fall luminescence is ‘Autumn Joy.’ Sedum is available in pinks, magentas, and rust-colored blooms and really shine throughout the fall with their eye-catching foliage and bursts of color.

Sunflowers

Bring some added happiness into the gardens this fall season with sunflowers. Plant them from seed in spring and summer and bask it their beauty in late summer through mid-fall. Plant mammoth varieties to the rear of your gardens for towering backdrops that are full of cheer. They also come in many colors and varieties from small border and container-sized to medium and tall types.

Goldenrod

Goldenrod is a wonderful bold accent in containers as well as in the ground. It produces striking bright golden blooms with lovely fernlike foliage that showcases itself in late summer through the fall. It is a standout on its own and looks beautiful when paired with other fall bloomers, ornamental grasses, and sedum.

Chrysanthemums

A vibrant array of colorful mums are a pinnacle of many fall gardens. They come in a wide variety of cultivars that produce showy mounds of color as summer blooms fade. It can be fun to mix and match different types to create a showy display of color before winter takes its hold. Mums thrive well in containers as well as in traditional garden beds.  They are readily available in the fall and can be treated as annuals or planted in springtime as perennials. They require pruning and deadheading to prepare their roots for hardiness and blooms for autumn.

Coral Bells

Coral bells add drama to the garden in more ways than one. They are great in containers and provide exciting leaf textures and show-stopping color combinations. These shade-loving fall plants are also tolerant of full sun in the cooler days of fall. They are spectacular fall blooming flowers, but it may be their colored and uniquely shaped foliage and longevity that adds visual interest to planters throughout the growing seasons. They are happy in the shade but tolerate the sun in cool climates. Pair with ornamental grasses and other fall flowers for a striking fall container

Helenium

This late-summer showstopper is an excellent option for fall containers. It produces daisy-like flowers that resemble an autumn sunset. Continually deadhead the spent flowers will enjoy these beautiful flowers through a good part of the fall.

Japanese Anemone

Elegant in overflowing fall borders, this rapidly spreading perennial produces white and yellow flowers that bring cheer throughout the autumn months. This fall plant takes a couple of years to fully establish itself, but once it does, you will find it plentifully producing blooms. Because it needs time to develop itself, it is best as an in-ground plant, but its vigorous spreading potential could give you a fun surprise in a nearby container.

Russian Sage

Spires of silvery purple will adorn your fall landscape for weeks, first appearing at the summer’s end or in early fall—plant in the ground in springtime for a recurring display each year. Russian sage is a low maintenance fall plant that should be pruned back in early spring each year because its flowers produce themselves exclusively on new growth.

Ornamental Grasses

Ornamental grasses should not be overlooked in fall landscapes. Many produce splashes of color and textures that have tremendous visual appeal. They can be planted in-ground, and they even add texture and height to container displays. Try planting eye-catching varieties such as ‘fountain grass,’ ‘flame grass,’ ‘Japanese forest grass,’ and ‘pink muhly grass’ in your fall garden.

Winterberry Holly

Winterberry Holly is a perennial shrub that puts on quite a show in the fall when tiny white flowers transform into bright red berry clusters throughout the entire branches. This in-ground perennial shrub brings life to the landscape throughout the fall and even into the winter.

Sweet Autumn Clematis

Gardeners cannot resist the sweet scent and delicate beauty of sweet autumn clematis. This fall plant performs extremely well in large containers or in the ground as long as they are trellised for climbing support. This vining, fragrant beauty produces idyllic small white flowers that bring immense beauty to any fall landscape.

Chinese Lanterns

Chinese lanterns are fun and unique fall blooming flowers to grow. Their bright orange papery pods are intriguing to plant in a fall garden. They are ornamental with papery pods that turn a deep orange-red color in early fall. Once you’ve admired them in your fall garden, they make a fabulous dried flower arrangement that you can bring indoors and enjoy in a vase.

Caryopteris Shrub

Add some intense blue blooms to your fall landscape by planting a caryopteris shrub in the garden. Attractive for its bold blooms and ornate silvery-green foliage, this shrub is an eye-catching variety. This sun-loving plant produces fragrant blooms and foliage and attracts beneficial pollinators to the garden, increasing your fall garden’s productivity and blooming potential.

Dianthus

Much like mums, dianthus can either be an annual of a perennial, depending on when it is planted. Also known as ‘Sweet William,’ the fall plant produces vibrant firework-like flowers in shades of pink and sometimes variegated in white, pink, and deep magenta. Dianthus produce mounds of color and are a great border plant. Its ability to produce bunches of color also makes it a fabulous accent to any fall garden or container.

Fall Flowers, Plants, and Grasses

Many of the fall plants listed above can be one-time wonders or perennial favorites if planted at the right time.  If you are looking for perennial flowers to be cold-hardy in your fall garden, plant them in mid-spring or summer so that they have time to become established. This practice will produce a more robust display of colorful blooms.

Select plants that have a late bloom time and plant accordingly to ensure a lovely fall display. Additionally, plants like mums and asters can be purchased as annuals and planted when fall arrives. In these cases, they add beauty to the landscape, but their roots do not have enough time to establish themselves as a hardy plant, making winter survival uncertain.

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