Thoughtful gardening now will produce a late fall encore of blooms

Now is the time to start planning for fall magic. Continue to water, fertilize, and deadhead annuals and container gardens to keep things blooming until the first frost. Celebrate the flowering shrubs below that put on a show at the end of the season and even provide late fall encores of blooms.

If your late summer garden looks tired, wake it up with one of these late bloomers and you’ll get a taste of a second spring.

Dahlias

Dahlias are sun loving, and they need to be protected from slugs. These tuberous plants are enjoying a surge in popularity as flower farms and other local growers flood the market with new and improved varieties. From huge dinner plate-sized dahlia divas to small pom pom dahlias with a long vase life, dahlias can be kept flowering until October if you get snippy often and keep the soil moist.

Japanese Anemone

These bloom in the dry shade but can spread easily elsewhere. That’s why local gardeners have a love or “get these out of my garden” relationship with the fall blooming anemones. However, if you grow them in dry shade they rarely become invasive. From pure white to deep purple, new varieties make this a graceful bloomer for late summer color. Some of the dwarf varieties are shorter and more compact and can be used as the centerpiece of a fall container garden.

Asters

These produce daisy-like blooms on tough plants. The violet purple or moody blue of the aster flower make this a good accent plant for the fall and late summer garden. Asters are prone to mildew, a white powder that grows on damp leaves and it is quick to appear on plants that have been allowed to dry out. Give asters good drainage and average soil and plants will return to flower for a decade or more with no need for divisions or extra water.

Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’

Its succulent foliage and panicles of bloom make this perennial a bee and butterfly magnet. It is the chameleon of the fall garden, starting out with stiff stems and fleshy green blooms that then turn pink, rust and finally brown as the flat flower panicles mature and turn into seed heads.

As a member of the sedum family, ‘Autumn Joy’ and her fleshy, fall-blooming cousins such as Sedum “Rubrum” and “Varigated” are easy to propagate by cutting a stem and poking the cut end into soft soil. This perennial can be used as a low hedge to border a lawn or even to support a floppy flower border.

Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the author of several books. Reach her at binettigarden.com.