Best Fall Flowers & Plants for New Jersey Gardens
Fall doesn't mean the end of color in a New Jersey garden.
In many ways, it opens an entirely different planting season.
As temperatures begin cooling and summer starts giving way to autumn, mums, asters, ornamental cabbage and kale, celosia, ornamental millet, late-blooming perennials and ornamental grasses can completely transform gardens, porches, patios and containers.
At Maple Leaf Farms Garden Center & Country Store in Manalapan, NJ, fall is one of our favorite times to work with plants because there are so many different ways to create seasonal color.
Some plants provide flowers. Others contribute colorful foliage, height or texture. Some can be planted into landscape beds, while others are perfect for containers and seasonal displays.
The key is knowing what each plant brings to the landscape.
Garden Mums: The Classic Fall Flower
If there is one plant most closely associated with fall in New Jersey, it's the garden mum.
And there is a good reason for that.
Mums can produce an incredible number of flowers on a relatively compact plant, making them perfect for creating large areas of color without needing dozens of different plants.
Depending on the varieties available, colors can include:
Yellow
Gold
Orange
Bronze
Red
Burgundy
Purple
Pink
White
Cream
Multicolored and transitional shades
Where Can You Use Mums?
Mums are extremely versatile for seasonal decorating.
Use them around:
Front entrances
Porches
Patios
Walkways
Steps
Mailboxes
Landscape beds
Decks
Outdoor living spaces
Storefronts and business entrances
Mixed fall containers
They can look great individually, but larger groups usually create the strongest visual impact.
Choose Mums Based on Their Buds, Not Just Open Flowers
When shopping early in the season, don't automatically overlook a mum because it isn't completely covered in open flowers yet.
A plant with plenty of healthy buds can have much more color still ahead of it.
A fully opened mum gives you instant color, while a heavily budded mum gives you something to watch develop.
Depending on when you're decorating, both can have a purpose.
Asters: Beautiful Late-Season Flowers
Asters are one of the plants we particularly like for extending flower color later into the growing season.
Their masses of daisy-like flowers commonly appear in shades of:
Purple
Lavender
Blue-purple
Pink
White
Asters look excellent beside mums because their flower shape and growth habit provide contrast rather than simply duplicating the same appearance.
Asters Are Valuable for Pollinators
Late-season flowers matter.
As the number of flowering plants begins decreasing toward autumn, blooming asters can provide food for bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects.
That makes them useful both ornamentally and within pollinator-oriented landscapes.
Ornamental Cabbage & Kale: Fall Color Without Flowers
Some of the best fall plants aren't grown for their flowers at all.
Ornamental cabbage and ornamental kale are grown primarily for their colorful foliage.
Depending on the variety, their leaves may combine:
Green
White
Cream
Pink
Purple
Burgundy
As temperatures cool, these plants become especially appropriate for autumn displays.
Why We Like Cabbage & Kale in Fall Containers
Texture.
Mums and asters provide masses of relatively small flowers. Cabbage and kale provide large, layered leaves.
Put them together and each plant becomes more noticeable.
They work well in urns, mixed containers, window boxes, landscape beds and larger porch displays.
Celosia: Bold Color and Unusual Texture
Celosia is one of the easiest ways to make a fall combination look different.
Depending on the type, its flowers can have feathery, plume-like or unusual crested forms.
Colors can include brilliant shades of:
Red
Orange
Yellow
Pink
Burgundy
Purple
While mums create traditional fall color, Celosia introduces something unexpected.
Use Celosia as an Accent
Rather than filling an entire container with Celosia, try using it as a focal point among plants with contrasting forms.
Celosia can look especially striking beside ornamental cabbage, kale, mums and darker foliage.
Ornamental Millet: Add Height to Fall Planters
One of the most common mistakes when creating a mixed planter is choosing plants that are all roughly the same height.
The result can look flat.
Ornamental millet solves that problem.
Its tall, upright growth creates a vertical centerpiece above lower-growing plants.
Depending on the variety, millet may also provide deep green, burgundy or purple-toned foliage and distinctive seed heads.
Build Around the Millet
For a larger fall planter or urn, think in layers:
Height: Ornamental millet
Color: Mums, asters or celosia
Texture: Ornamental cabbage and kale
Finishing plants: Lower-growing seasonal material around the edges
You don't need to follow an exact formula, but varying height, foliage and flower shape creates a much more interesting arrangement.
Cannas Can Carry Summer Color into Early Fall
Cannas aren't traditional cold-weather fall plants, but they can play an important role during the transition from summer into fall.
Their large leaves and bold flowers provide a dramatic backdrop while fall plants begin arriving.
Rather than immediately removing healthy summer plants, you can work fall color around them.
A large Canna surrounded by mums or other seasonal plants can create a display with significantly more height and impact than mums alone.
As temperatures eventually become colder, Cannas will respond differently than cold-tolerant fall plants, so they should be viewed primarily as part of that late-summer-to-fall transition.
Ornamental Grasses Are Made for Fall Landscapes
Fall is when many ornamental grasses really begin showing what they can do.
Throughout summer, their foliage provides movement and texture.
By late summer and fall, many develop plumes, seed heads and warm seasonal tones that work beautifully alongside flowering plants.
Depending on the landscape, grasses can provide:
Height
Movement
Texture
Fall color
Winter structure
A natural backdrop for flowering plants
They can be particularly effective when combined with Coneflowers, Black-Eyed Susans, Sedum, Asters and other late-season perennials.
Black-Eyed Susans Bring Golden Fall Color
Black-Eyed Susans are one of the most recognizable late-summer flowering perennials.
Their golden-yellow flowers and dark centers naturally work with an autumn color palette.
Rather than replacing every summer perennial when September arrives, plants like Black-Eyed Susan can help the existing landscape transition naturally into fall.
Native Rudbeckia species also have value for pollinators and wildlife.
Coneflowers Keep the Perennial Garden Interesting
Purple-pink is the classic Coneflower color, but cultivated varieties can offer additional colors.
Even after flowering, the distinctive seed heads can provide visual interest rather than requiring the entire plant to immediately disappear from the landscape.
Native Echinacea species are also valuable pollinator plants.
Sedum Is One of Our Favorite Late-Season Perennials
Upright Sedum is particularly useful as the season progresses.
Its thick foliage provides texture throughout the growing season, while flower clusters develop later and can continue providing interest into fall.
Depending on the variety, flowers can mature through shades of pink, rose, red and deeper autumn tones.
Sedum looks particularly good beside ornamental grasses because the two plants provide completely different shapes.
Hardy Hibiscus Can Still Put on a Show
Hardy Hibiscus produces some of the largest flowers you'll find on a perennial.
Depending on the variety, enormous flowers can appear in:
White
Pink
Red
Burgundy-toned combinations
Multicolored forms
It provides a dramatic late-summer display and helps bridge the gap between peak summer flowering and the beginning of traditional autumn color.
Don't Forget Coral Bells for Fall Foliage
Flowers aren't everything.
Coral Bells, or Heuchera, are particularly useful when we want foliage color closer to the ground.
Different cultivars can offer foliage ranging through:
Green
Lime
Burgundy
Purple
Bronze
Caramel
Silver-toned combinations
Their foliage can provide contrast beneath taller flowering plants and shrubs.
Fall Containers Look Better with Different Textures
One of the easiest ways to create a better fall planter is to stop thinking only about flower color.
Consider four things:
Height
Use something taller such as millet or another upright seasonal accent.
Flowers
Add mums, asters or celosia for concentrated color.
Foliage
Use ornamental cabbage, kale or another foliage plant to break up the flowers.
Shape
Allow some plants to stay low while others rise above them.
The goal isn't to cram as many plants as possible into one container.
The goal is contrast.
Don't Limit Fall Planting to Mums
Mums deserve their popularity, but a New Jersey fall landscape can include much more.
Consider combinations of:
Mums + Asters + Ornamental Cabbage
or
Millet + Celosia + Mums + Kale
or in a permanent landscape:
Ornamental Grasses + Sedum + Black-Eyed Susans + Coneflowers + Asters
Each combination provides different heights, textures, flowering periods and colors.
Fall Is Also an Important Time for Permanent Landscape Plants
When customers hear "fall plants," they often immediately think about mums.
But fall gardening in New Jersey extends well beyond seasonal flowers.
Appropriate conditions during fall can also make it a useful time for establishing many trees, shrubs, evergreens and perennials.
That means you can decorate the porch for autumn while also improving the permanent landscape.
You might visit Maple Leaf Farms for mums and realize that the empty area beside your house needs a Boxwood, Japanese Holly or Rhododendron.
You might come looking for a fall planter and finally decide to plant the privacy evergreens you've been considering.
Or you might add perennials and ornamental grasses that can return in future growing seasons.
How to Keep Fall Containers Looking Their Best
Fall weather is different from summer weather, and watering should change with it.
Check the Soil Before Watering
Don't automatically water a fall container every day simply because that was necessary during the hottest part of summer.
As temperatures cool, containers may dry more slowly.
Feel the soil.
If it is still damp below the surface, the plant may not need more water yet.
If it is becoming dry, water thoroughly and allow excess water to drain.
Make Sure Containers Drain
Drainage holes are important.
Cooler temperatures combined with constantly saturated soil can create problems around the roots.
Decorative containers and urns should allow excess water to escape.
Watch the Weather
A warm, sunny, windy September day can dry a container considerably faster than a cool cloudy October day.
Water according to actual conditions rather than following one fixed schedule for the entire fall season.
Sunlight Still Matters in Fall
Shorter days don't eliminate a plant's light requirements.
A sunny front porch and a heavily shaded porch can produce very different results with the same plants.
When choosing fall flowers, consider how much direct sunlight the location actually receives.
This is particularly important when combining multiple plants in the same container because they should have reasonably compatible growing requirements.
Fall Color Can Start Early
You don't have to wait until October to start decorating with fall plants.
Late August and September are when the transition begins.
Start with early mums, celosia, asters, Cannas and other colorful material.
Then introduce ornamental cabbage, kale, millet and additional seasonal plants as the weather and selection change.
The display can evolve with the season.
Visit Maple Leaf Farms for Fall Flowers & Plants in New Jersey
At Maple Leaf Farms Garden Center & Country Store, fall isn't represented by one flower.
It's an entire combination of plants, colors and textures.
Explore:
Garden Mums • Asters • Celosia • Cannas • Ornamental Cabbage • Ornamental Kale • Millet • Mixed Baskets • Fall Urns • Black-Eyed Susans • Coneflowers • Sedum • Hardy Hibiscus • Coral Bells • Ornamental Grasses • Perennials & More
Our inventory changes throughout the season, and specific plants, colors, varieties and sizes depend on current availability.
That changing selection is part of what makes visiting throughout fall worthwhile.
Maple Leaf Farms Garden Center & Country Store
525 Route 9 South
Manalapan, NJ 07726
Whether you're filling one planter, decorating an entire front porch or adding permanent plants to your landscape, come walk through our selection and see what fall looks like at Maple Leaf Farms.
Mums may be the classic fall favorite but they're only the beginning of what you can plant this season.
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