8 Favorite Plants for Fall

Lots of plants offer golden blooms or leaves in autumn, and they can make any garden glow. Here are eight of our favorites.

Swamp Sunflower
Ralph Anderson

Swamp Sunflower

Helianthus angustifolius
Fields of sunshine may be the best way to describe the beautiful blooms of this prolific perennial. You will need to give this plant, one of the first flowers of fall, a bit of room. A single plant can grow up to 12 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Place it toward the back of your perennial or shrub border in a sunny location. It can take average soil that’s moist. Selections such as ‘Gold Lace’ grow smaller, around 5 feet tall and wide. ‘Mellow Yellow’ offers pale yellow blossoms on a plant around 9 feet tall and 4 feet wide. An added bonus: Butterflies and birds love this plant.

Editor’s tip: You can control the size by simply cutting it back by half in midsummer. It will then grow, set flowerbuds, and stay a more reasonable size when it blooms in your fall border. Swamp sunflowers grow in the Upper, Middle, Lower, and Coastal South.


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