4. Establish Cool-Season Annuals in Containers
As your summer annuals begin to look tired and leggy, it is time to refresh your containers, window boxes, and hanging baskets with tough, cool-season varieties. Fall container gardening allows you to experiment with rich, saturated color palettes and unique textural combinations that can easily withstand chilly autumn nights.
When designing fall containers, use the classic “thriller, filler, spiller” design formula. Choose a tall, upright plant as your central focal point (the thriller), surround it with mounding, colorful flowers (the filler), and finish with cascading foliage that drapes over the rim of the pot (the spiller). Because plant growth slows down significantly as temperatures drop, you can pack your fall containers tighter than you would in the spring for an instant, lush look.
- Pansies and Violas: These cheerful flowers can survive hard frosts and will often bloom continuously through winter.
- Flowering Kale and Cabbage: Their ruffled, rosette-like heads develop intense purple, pink, and white centers as temperatures drop.
- Chrysanthemums: The quintessential fall flower, available in dome-shaped mounds of bronze, gold, burgundy, and orange.
- English Ivy: Serves as an excellent evergreen “spiller” that cascades beautifully over container edges.