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FeedLate Bloomers
Nurture the colors of fall with plants that peak after Labor Day
By Bonnie Blodgett
Photo by judy white / gardenphotos.com
At a certain point in midsummer, few gardens look their best. The idea that there could be a kind of rebirth came as a delightful surprise to me. But when I finally did learn about plants that peak later in the season, many of them became the plants I’d look forward to most all year.
The colors of fall are, of course, red, orange, and gold. But the garden begins turning in that direction long before, say, October. Cooling temperatures deepen flower color and, because late summer-light is more luminous and angled (the sun is lower in the sky), now is the time to plant anything that looks good with light coming through its leaves and flowers.
“Bloom” implies flowers, but late summer is when fruits and berries are beginning to decorate the branches of cotoneaster, viburnum, porcelain berry vine, bittersweet, crabapple trees, and many other trees and shrubs. Buddleia blooms late, which is unusual for a shrub, but butterfly bush (its common name) isn’t really a shrub at all. It’s actually a subshrub. Buddleia acts more like a perennial, often dying all the way back to the ground in winter, showing up late in spring, quickly leafing out, growing tall and robust, and finally blooming on new “wood.” Though its flowers resemble lilacs, buddleia has more in common with another late-blooming subshrub, the handsome Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia). However, while Russian sage gets to be a rangy, gray-leafed plant with pale blue flowers, buddleia looks like a bush, with flowers ranging in color from white to purple to blue to pink.
Many late bloomers like moist soil, and a surprising number thrive in the shade. Monkshood (aconitum), with its delphinium-like spikes of blue or purple flowers, is a staple of the late-season shade garden. Another shade lover is the toad lily (Tricyrtis hirta), whose unlovely name belies its exceptional beauty. No other plant passes so easily for an orchid. Turtlehead (Chelone obliqua) is named for its flower shape, not because it in any way resembles a turtle. It has pink or white flowers. The native obedient plant, Physostegia virginiana, is also oddly named. It can be anything but obedient if it likes your moist garden. You might want to consider the noninvasive cultivar ‘Miss Manners’ instead. ‘Bouquet Rose’ is lovely in pink, while ‘Vivid’ is vividly lilac. Ligularia almost guarantees at least one hummingbird sighting. ‘The Rocket’ has tall, yellow flower spikes. It is not to be confused with the native Lobelia cardinalis, whose bright red flower spikes attract hummingbirds in swarms if you give it partial shade and moist soil.
Autumn or black snakeroot, also known as bugbane, is the star of my late-summer shade garden. Don’t let its bizarre common names (or foul odor when blooming) fool you into thinking this is not a must-have plant. Cimicifuga simplex ‘The Pearl’ blooms first, with plumelike flowers on long stems over nice clusters of pointy leaves. C. racemosa follows; I grow the copper-leaved ‘Brunette’.
In late summer, the only hosta flowers worth bragging about show up. In my garden, they belong to ‘Royal Standard’ and ‘Grandiflora’, which send up tall, long-lasting, white flower spikes.
Single hollyhocks also bloom a long time if you give them lots of sun and well-drained soil. Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) is a Zone 5 plant worth taking a risk for, as is Caryopteris x clandonensis ‘Worcester Gold’, a smashing combination of charteuse leaves and blue flowers.
A friend of mine, who introduced me to Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Alba’), says it’s the best plant in her huge country garden. Culver’s root doesn’t mess around. It’s big, tall, and beautiful, with elegant white racemes.
I love the way certain plants change as summer wears on. The sedums are perhaps the best example of plants that never look bland or bedraggled, because they are constantly in flux. In addition to the indispensable ‘Autumn Joy’, whose flowers turn from lime green to rosy red to rust, my favorites are ‘Matrona’, with slightly crimson stems, and the smaller and more languid ‘Vera Jameson’. I planted ‘Black Jack’ last fall. Its deep, smoky color will be fabulous come fall against the deep purples and blues of the asters.
Probably the best all-around aster, Aster x frikartii ‘Munch’, is not reliable in Zone 4 (but worth trying in a sheltered spot). On the other hand, ‘Purple Dome’ won’t fail you. I grow the wood asters on my boulevard, with blue, purple, and pink flowers.
So many late-summer plants! How can I leave out hybrid goldenrod, Joe Pye weed, Rudbeckia ‘Herbstsonne’, and the fall anemones?
And, finally, no late-summer garden should be without those cool-weather living annuals: pansies, kale, snapdragons, sweet alyssum, and the rest. If they like it in your garden, they might even come back next year—with or without an invitation.
Bonnie Blodgett publishes The Garden Letter. Her book about smell will be published by houghton mifflin in 2008.
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