Some plants that really star in fall

With the return of cooler weather these next few months, we’ll be spending more time entertaining outdoors. It makes sense, then, to brighten up our surroundings, to greet our guests with the rich shades of the season. Let’s look at some of your very best options.

Some plants survive the summer intact, and the falling temperatures will deepen their colors. Copper plant (Acalypha tricolor) is the best possible example. Its bronzy-orange leaves take on a deeper, rich coppery-red in the fall. Nurseries may still have some larger transplants you can use to highlight back corners of your beds and to act as centerpieces of your patio pots.

Firebush (Hamelia patens) does the same thing. It’s a tropical annual that produces salmon-orange blossoms all season. In the summer, they’re set against bronzy-green leaves, but in the fall, flowers and leaves take on enticing, coppery-red shades. Plus, the fall migration of hummingbirds will surely find them. Nurseries still have them in one-gallon pots.

Begonias that suffered through the heat may rebound for the fall. Their leaves will be crisp and perky (not scalded-looking, like they were in midsummer). They’ll gear up to start blooming, and the colors will be rich against the vibrant leaves. They’ll look great up until the first frost.

Joseph’s coat (Alternanthera ficoidea) is a sprawling foliar annual that comes in several delicious flavors. In the summer, most types are basically green, but come fall, their leaves turn shades of green, yellow, red, orange and bronze.

Fall bloomers

Other plants star only in autumn. Chrysanthemums are coming into North Texas nurseries currently, so you can choose them for instant color. They’ll bloom every year about now, but do remember that they’re only in flower for a few weeks. Cut them back to the ground once they finish. New shoots will emerge come spring.

Fall asters (Aster oblongifolius) are also at their peak in September. This old heirloom perennial has made its way back into the retail nursery trade, so you won’t have to beg it from friends any longer. It grows to 18 to 22 inches (taller and lankier if you forget to shear it once in May), and its flowers are a wonderful shade of lavender-blue. It colonizes into small clumps, and it’s the perfect backdrop to garden mums or fall marigolds or zinnias.

Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha) is native to Texas, so it’s well-adapted to our climate. It’s a bit winter-sensitive in North Texas, but it will survive as a perennial plant most years. Like fall asters, it will sprawl if you don’t pinch out its growing tips in May and perhaps again in early July. From late summer and through much of the fall, it will produce spires of lavender-purple blooms that drive bees, butterflies and hummingbirds nuts. Use it behind low-growing mums and marigolds for the best effect. Cut it to the ground immediately after the first freeze, and put mulch over its roots to give it the best chance of coming back the next spring.

Pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) is a much more refined cold-tender perennial (usually an annual for us). It has bright green leaves that are a nice contrast to its bright red fall blooms. Again, wildlife loves it. Its leaves give off the rich aroma of pineapple. It grows to 18 to 20 inches tall.

Mexican mint marigold (Tagetes lucida), oddly enough, doesn’t resemble either namesake. It’s an upright plant to 20 inches tall and wide. It doesn’t come into bloom until early each fall, when it covers itself with masses of golden yellow single blooms. All the while, its leaves give off a rich smell of licorice. And spider mites, bane of annual marigolds, leave it alone.

Candletree (Senna alata) isn’t used as much as it once was. That’s sad, because it’s a great annual plant with huge, buttery yellow bloom sprays. Its prime problem is that the plant itself is so large. It grows to 5 to 7 feet tall and 4 to 5 feet wide. But, as a backdrop to a brightly colored garden, it’s unequalled.

Neil Sperry publishes Gardens magazine and hosts Texas Gardening radio show from 8 to 11 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays on KRLD/1080 AM. Reach him during those hours at 214-787-1080.

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