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The hot month of August is a bit like a Sunday sermon--sometimes it seems to go on forever. But just when you think you'll spend eternity shuttered inside an air-conditioned room, September turns down the thermostat. It's fall outside, the days are cooler, and the flowers are simply killer. Asters, mums, sedums, and fall sunflowers. For these and many other perennials, now is their time to shine.

So why aren't you planting? Maybe you're not sure what a perennial is (it's a nonwoody plant that comes back every year, provided you don't subject it to polka music). Or perhaps you're worried that September is too late to start. Worry not. Garden centers know that instant color sells and are awash in blooming potted perennials. Give them sun, good soil, and enough water to get established, and they'll bloom for weeks this autumn and many autumns thereafter. Here are a few of my favorites.

Love Your Mum
Many of us grew up thinking mums were the autumn perennials. We bedded them out, enjoyed their color for a few weeks in fall, then felt ripped off when they didn't bloom again in spring like pansies. So we dismissed them as too much trouble. In the process, however, we forgot about the good garden mums--the abundant, mounding, durable types that bloom for decades with minimal care. I especially like daisy-type mums in the peachy-apricot-orange range. So I covet the peach-orange blooms of 'Pumpkin Harvest' and the apricot-pinks of old 'Sheffield Pink.' But I also tout the new My Favorite Mum Series, particularly 'Autumn Red.' Without the slightest pruning, it forms a solid mound 18 inches tall and 36 inches wide and bears thousands of showy red blossoms with yellow centers. It's a champ.

Master the Aster
New England asters sound as if they would melt in our Southern summers. Not so. In fact, they're tough, dependable, and trouble free. Their blossoms resemble daisy mums in form, but asters usually grow loose and tall (good for the back of the border) and offer the blue and purple colors mums lack. Favorites include 'Harrington's Pink,' 'Hella Lacy' (purple), 'September Ruby' (red), 'Alma Potschke' (salmon-rose), and 'Purple Dome.'