Fall is a good time to plant. The pleasant weather tempts one to be outside. Moisture conditions are usually good.
Should spring planting be delayed by cold, wet weather, many valuable weeks of growing weather are given to the plants if they have been planted in the fall.
Perennial plants have time to establish well and will be ready to start active growth the following spring.
Nurseries do not send out shrubs and trees until a killing frost has caused the leaves to drop. The part above ground is then dormant, but as soon as planted, the roots grow.
This they cannot do in nursery winter storage rooms. The temperature of the soil in the fall is warmer than the air above ground, which favors root growth at a time when no strength is used for top growth.
What Can Be Safely Planted in The Fall?
Not only can the early spring blooming bulbs be planted safely, but they must also be planted at this time.
This includes:
- Crocuses
- Scillas
- The glory of the snow (chionodoxa)
- Grape hyacinths (if you have only the blue, try some white ones this year)
- Tulips (so many kinds and colors from which to choose, from the cute yellow and white one, Tulipa dasystemon, to the huge peony-flowered kinds)
- Daffodils (include the white ‘Mount Hood and ‘Beersheba,’ and some of the cluster-flowered narcissus such as ‘Poeticus’ and ‘Thalia’)
- Large-flowered hyacinths
Not as frequently seen but requiring fall planting is the:
- Charming wood hyacinths (Scilla campanulata in blue, pink, or white)
- Snowflakes (leucojum)
- Puschkinia
The latter has small nodding blossoms in loose clusters, white striped with blue. Snowdrops (Galanthus) may be the first flowers of the season appearing before the last snows have come, but they are a sure sign that spring is on the way.
The winter aconite (Eranthis) is another harbinger of spring. It blooms almost as early as the snowdrops.
They grow from small, irregular tubers, which should be planted soon. The bright yellow buttercup-like flowers are directly above the shiny finely-cut foliage.
Bulb Planting Instructions
Planting instructions almost always come with the bulbs. If not, or if they are misplaced, a general rule is to plant bulbs to a depth equal to three times their diameter, measuring from the top of the bulb to the base.
A 2-inch bulb would have the base 6” inches below the soil surface and the bulb covered with four inches of good garden soil.
Tulips and daffodils are often planted deeper as they appear to split up less than with shallow planting. Rodents are less likely to disturb the deeper planted bulbs.
Many other things can be safely planted in the fall. Nurseries issue fall catalogs. They are as tempting and exciting as the spring ones and a splendid guide to what can or should be planted now.
Order will arrive in several packages, including seeds, spring-blooming bulbs, lily bulbs, perennial plants, trees, and shrubs.
The seeds and spring-blooming bulbs will be sent as soon as they arrive from the growers. Many of these bulbs come from Holland.
Lily Bulbs Will Be Sent When Dormant
For most of them, this will be after frost blackens the leaves. Coral lily (Lilium tenuifolium), concolor lily in red and the rarer yellow, Henryi hybrids, auratum and speciosum lilies, and their hybrids, and regal lilies are all lovely and useful in the border.
The culture of the June-blooming Madonna lily is slightly different. It goes dormant during the summer and should be planted in late August or early September to have time to grow its fall leaf, which remains green throughout the winter.
The other lilies do not make leaf growth until spring. The Madonna lily requires shallower planting—put no more than two inches of soil over the top of its bulb.
Planting Season
No one planting season is equally good for all perennials. We are usually advised to plant early flowering kinds in the fall.
The exceptions are those which are questionably hardy in the region—those are best planted in the spring, as are the late bloomers such as hardy asters and mums.
Oriental poppies go dormant after blooming. Then, later on in the summer, they make new green growth.
The fleshy roots should be planted while in this dormant state and early enough to make a good crown of leaves—usually by September 15th.
Fall Catalog List
The fall catalogs list includes:
- Peonies
- Irises
- Columbines
- Bluebells (Mertensia virginica)
- Bleeding-heart
- Hostas
- Vinca minor
- Hardy ferns
- Phlox
- Hardy candytuft (iberis)
- Trillium, lily-of-the-valley
- Bloodroot
- Monarda
- Platycodon
- August-blooming hardy amaryllis (Lycoris squamigera)
- Other perennials
Eremurus, the foxtail lily, is an interesting and different perennial to be planted now.
Allium giganteum, an onion relative, has immense purple heads of bloom in June on sturdy three- to five-foot stems.
Mine were planted, quite by chance, near the ‘Royal Purple’ smoke tree. The purplish-red foliage is darker than the purple globes of the allium, and the two make a delightful color combination.
Note the trees listed in the fall catalogs—fruit trees, dwarf forms, pin oaks, ‘Sunburst’ thornless locusts, and others.
Plant them carefully, putting each in a “five-dollar hole.” Among the shrubs that are entitled to the same careful planting are spiraea, privet, mock-orange (the newer ones have much larger blossoms than the old ones), hydrangea, and weigela.
Fall Planting Roses
If roses are listed in catalogs in your region, follow the last detailed fall planting instructions that come with them.
The hybrid lilacs with larger flowers, newer colors, and appealing fragrances are favorites in any garden. ‘Ellen YVillmott’ is double white, and ‘Charles Joly’ is a rich purplish-red.
‘Congo’ has magnificent trusses lighter in color than ‘Charles Joly.’ There is a number available that are pinkish—very lovely. When lilacs are planted in the fall, there is no setback of leaf buds which commence swelling on the first warm spring days.
Plant lilacs in a well-drained, sunny location.
Follow Nature’s Calendar
We somewhat follow nature’s calendar when we plant seeds in late summer and early fall. She plants her seeds as soon as they ripen and fall from the seed pods. The rains and winds help to cover them.
If plants with ripened seeds are not in the garden for nature to work with, then we must order seeds and do the planting.
One nursery suggests these seeds for planting now:
- Carnation
- Columbine
- Coral bells (heuchera)
- Delphinium
- English daisy
- Foxglove
- Gloriosa daisy
- Hollyhock
- Oriental poppy
- Painted daisy
- Polyanthus primrose
- Russell lupines
- Scabiosa
- Sweet william
Blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia verna) and English wallflower (Cheiranthus allionii) should be planted in late August or early September. They bloom in the spring.
Time To Dig And Plant Again
Fruits have ripened on trees, and vines and vegetables have matured in fields. In gardens, flowering plants have completed their growth cycle and are preparing for rest.
Autumn: Time of Rebirth
Yet autumn is also a time of rebirth—a season to dig and plant again. Though the growing cycle is completed, it continues where it left off, never-ending but going on and on.
And in the autumn, with its abundant rains and cooler days, gardeners find renewed joy as they take advantage of ideal weather and start to dig and plant—trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs, and other plants—in happy anticipation of another gardening year.
44659 by Olga Rolf Tiemann