LATE-SEASON COLOR:

It's time to add fall-blooming plants to your garden

September 20, 2019



PHOTO BY VICTORIA COUNTY MASTER GARDENER INTERN DENNIS DURKEE

Firecracker Jatropha puts on a stunning display with its star-shaped flowers.  It remains in bloom throughout the fall until the first frost.  These blooms are currently on a Texas Superstar Jatropha Plant at Victoria Educational Gardens and will remain through cooler autumn weather. 



The Gardeners’ Dirt is written by members of the Victoria County Master Gardener Association, an educational outreach of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension – Victoria County. Mail your questions in care of the Advocate, P.O. Box 1518, Victoria, TX 77901; or vcmga@vicad.com, or comment on this column at VictoriaAdvocate.com.

PHOTO BY VICTORIA COUNTY MASTER GARDENER INTERN DENNIS DURKEE

Pride of Barbados is a popular Texas Superstar flowering plant. A deciduous shrub in South Texas, it keeps its stunning display well into the fall months.  Its leaves are fernlike, and it has incredibly showy blossoms of orange and red, blooming best in full sun.  It is moderately tolerant of salty conditions and is extremely drought-tolerant.  The striking flowers are an attention grabber.

The end of our long, hot summer is in sight. Shorter days and cooler temperatures are coming. We promise.

Comfortable time to get out

That means, it’s finally going to be comfortable spending some time in the yard and garden.

•     Add late-season colors

“Many of our warm-season plants are looking worse for the wear and should be pulled out to make way for the next color change in your garden beds,” said Skip Richter, contributing editor of Texas Gardener magazine and Harris County Extension Agent – Horticulture.

Consider adding some of the many late-season colors to your garden. Dianthus, marigolds, mums, petunias and zinnias are some good options. Fall-blooming plants include Mexican bush sage, mountain sage, Copper Canyon daisy, autumn aster and chrysanthemums. As the weather cools in late October and early November, it will be safe to add pansies and violas.

•     Get in fall crop of veggies

In the vegetable beds, hurry to get in a fall crop of green beans, cucumbers or summer squash. From now into late October, it’s good planting time for bountiful fall crops such as beets, carrots, lettuce, peas, radishes, spinach and Swiss chard.

Don’t wait for fall to do fall gardening

“Fall is the best gardening season of the year for most crops, but don’t wait until it feels like fall to get started,” Richter said.

The weeks between now and Thanksgiving are crucial for next year’s garden, too. Between Halloween decorations and football cookouts, here are some other items for your autumn to-do list:

•     In the garden

Clean up your garden beds by removing dead plants, branches and leaves, and by raking up plant debris on the mulched surface which will welcome some organic matter to the soil.

Add some new mulch. While mulching is popular in the spring, it’s also beneficial in the fall. Mulching in October will trap soil warmth and moisture that will help plant roots. It can also help reduce winter weeds, and it will brighten the garden for the holidays.

Roses and perennials will continue to blossom through the fall, just be sure to continue pruning off the old blooms on a regular basis. And the cooler weather will mean it’s safe to fertilize your rose bushes.

Fall is a smart time to plant perennials. They won’t face the summer heat, and they have enough time to become well established to survive the winter. Consider a variety of colors and heights for a garden with good visual appeal.

Fall is also an ideal time for planting container-grown trees and shrubs. It gives the restricted root system ample time to recover from transplanting – and begin spreading out – before springtime.

Plant bluebonnet and other wildflower seeds now for a showy Texas -sized display next spring.

Take a critical look at your gardens. Are there perennials that have grown too large for their location, or don’t get enough sun, or are just in a spot that you no longer like?

Fall is an ideal time to relocate or divide plants, and to redesign the garden for next year.

Get new ideas for next summer’s garden. “Now that summer has taken its toll for the past few months, it is a great time to notice what is still blooming and looking good around town or in a botanical garden in your area,” Richter says. “Add whatever appeals to you to your list for next summer.”

•     On the lawn

If winter weeds were a problem in your lawn last year, get ahead of them this time. Now is the time to apply a granular pre-emergence herbicide. It will kill sprouting weed seed. Hold off on fall lawn fertilizer, however, until your lawn has stopped growing.

Walk your lawn to look for fire ant mounds, and treat any with bait insecticides.

Ants are foraging again after being dormant most of the hot summer months.

Cooler weather and rain bring brown patches to St. Augustine grass. “If your lawn has been plagued by these in previous years, it is usually an indication that you may be overfertilizing, especially in late summer and early fall,” Richter says. “Once the circles appear, it is too late to do much good with fungicide sprays. These products need to be applied just prior to the appearance of the disease.”

If you want to overseed your lawn for a greener winter look, use a mix of annual and perennial ryegrass seed, in late October.

Over-seeding for the winter, however, will mean regular watering and mowing through the cool months.

Fall is a good time to do so many things in the garden.