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27 Gorgeous Fall Flowers for Your Best Autumn Garden

27 Gorgeous Fall Flowers for Your Best Autumn Garden

By Michelle Darrisaw

July 15, 2019

Credit: Photo: Helen Norman

Who says you can only enjoy pretty flowers during spring and summer? When the temperature starts to drop, your garden may end up suffering from neglect and overgrown plants. However, just because the end of summer is near, it doesn’t mean it’s the end of your garden. As the days get shorter, it’s time to brighten up your landscaping, flower beds, and container gardens. All it takes is planting a few perennials and annuals to keep your garden alive through cold-weather season. Here, we’ve stuck to tradition and picked autumn beauties such as pansies, coneflowers, sedum, and mums in an array of textures and variant jewel-tone shades like red, gold, orange, and purple. But, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see a softer color palette represented in this blooming collection, too. We’d agree that spring garners the most attention for gardening enthusiasts. In all actuality, though, we think Southern gardens really show their true colors in fall. Don’t believe us? Scroll for a little growing inspiration and dose of autumnal whimsy.

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All Fired Up

Credit: Photo: Laurey W. Glenn

Highlight the bounty of autumn by packing your garden with a variety of plants, such as sedum, purple cabbage, ornamental peppers, Mexican bush sage, and cosmos. The fiery shades of orange and yellow are balanced by the cooler tones of purple of blue in this vibrant container mix. Add colorful stacked pumpkins to really take your garden to the next level.

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Stunning Marigold Container

Credit: Photo: Helen Norman

Marigolds add a splash of bright orange and yellow to container gardens. Enjoy these hardy blooms throughout summer and early fall.

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Tall Lavender Wands

Credit: Photo: White Oak Gardens

Russian sage makes a bold statement in any garden—both for its purple-silvery color and for its height, which can reach up to 5 feet, with a spread of 3 feet.

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Tough-As-Nails Perennials

Credit: Photo: Rob Cardillo

Perennials are plants that not only survive through early fall, but they also thrive. Here, viola, euphorbia, and variegated ivy are merged with pink Lenten rose to create a beautiful home container.

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Decorative Mums and Pumpkins

Credit: Photo: Laurey W. Glenn

The classic combination of mums and pumpkins will give your front entry a warm welcome this fall.

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Sun-Kissed Flower

Credit: Photo: High Country Gardens

While perennial sunflowers don't bear the large flowering heads like their annual counterparts, these long-blooming, daisy-like plants are still just as bright. Plant once and enjoy for years to come.

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Fire Up Fall With Color

Credit: Laurey W. Glenn

Lantana is a fall-blooming favorite that will reward you handsomely with abundant flowers and plenty of color this season. Thrill, fill, and spill your containers with it, as well as fountain grass and sweet potato vines.

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Edible Attraction

Credit: Photo: Southern Living

This container garden is both a feast for the eyes and the plate, since it contains leafy lettuce greens and colorful violas and mums.

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Cheery Chrysanthemums

Credit: Photo: Van Chaplin

If you could pick any plant for your garden's grand finale, it should be the official flower of autumn—chrysanthemum. Mix in a little coleus to really make your containers shine.

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All-Star Aster

Credit: Photo: King of Wallpapers

Plant asters in late summer, and you’ll enjoy a vivid display in a myriad of different shades, including blues, reds, pinks, and purples from mid-September through November.

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Mumkins

Credit: Photo: Hector Sanchez

This is the brilliant result when mums are packed inside pumpkins to add autumnal flair to your entryway.

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Stair-Step Violas

Credit: Southern Living

These red viola-filled containers have serious curb appeal. A display like this deserves to be front and center.

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A Fragrant Addition

Credit: Photo: Kathy Diemer/A Garden for All

If you haven't already, you'll fall in love with wispy anise hyssop. Not only is it a beautiful flower to plant, but it's also a medicinal herb and scented perennial that attracts bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies.

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Dramatic Pansy Container

Credit: Southern Living

When you grow tired of smaller-bloom violas, try their floral country cousin—pansies. These eye-catching flowers will liven up your garden through fall.

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Bright and Bold Foliage

Credit: Photo: Laurey W. Glenn

Bright colors and bold foliage lend themselves to an impressive container garden display.

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Stacked Violas

Credit: Photo: Laurey W. Glenn

Galvanized buckets filled with violas and creeping Jenny are true garden gems.

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Sunny Marigolds

Credit: Photo: Laurey W. Glenn

Say hello to this late-season beauty.

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Bursting Bulbs

Credit: Photo: Growing with Plants

Colchicum is a winter-grower with a major wow factor!

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Flame-Grower

Credit: Photo: Fleuroselect

For vertical height and tri-color impact, you can't go wrong with velvety heleniums. In addition, they're also a great deer and rabbit repeller.

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Heirloom Blooms

Credit: Photo: Ralph Lee Anderson

No fall garden should be without these petite Heirloom violas or, as they're often called, "Johnny Jump-Ups."

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Classic Mums

Credit: Photo: Ralph Anderson

Mum's the word.

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Autumn Joy

Credit: Photo: Gardening with Charlie Nardozzi

A late-blooming standout, sedums require very little attention and they’re drought tolerant. You can either plant the creeping, low-growers or tall, vertical sedums. Both types offer tiny, colorful clusters in pink, yellow, red, white, or purple.

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Versatile Fall Container

Credit: Hector Manuel Sanchez

Bring a little enchantment and excitement to a rustic planter with mums and foliage.

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Prolific Butterfly Magnet

Credit: Photo: Natural Living Ideas

By far, one of the longest-lasting bloomers and showiest plants that make up the perennial group. You and the butterflies will appreciate the purple coneflower's large, rose flowers and rust-colored central cone.

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A Monochromatic Container

Credit: Robbie Caponetto; Design: Mark Thompson

Move over, mums—there’s another colorful perennial that’s taking center stage in containers. Loosen things up with free-flowing asters. Mix purple ones with ornamental cabbage, Mexican bush sage, purple waffle plant, lamb’s ears, and ‘Purple Prince’ alternanthera to create this moody fall display. Blooming in late summer and early fall, asters can withstand the South’s fickle autumn temperatures.

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Tip-Top Shape

Credit: Robbie Caponetto; Produced by: Mark Thompson

An evergreen topiary like this ball-form spruce is also a hard worker, going strong through fall and winter. Pair it with ‘Orange Marmalade’ firecracker flower, and it will feel at home on the porch during the changing seasons. Firecracker flower (also called crossandra) is an MVP from late August through early fall as its colorful bloom spikes continue to shine even when most other summer flowers are dying off. If your area gets a final heat wave, firecracker flower will take it in stride as long as you keep it watered.

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Endless Color

Marigolds and coneflowers make a magnificent summer-to-fall transition.

Plant variegated sweet flag in the center, surround it with alternating plantings of bright coneflowers and marigolds. Fill in the outer edges with ivy, allowing it to spill over the sides. water regularly, particularly if the sweet flag and ivy are sitting in direct light. The flowers love full sun and will provide color for a long time (even until the first frost) if spent blooms are removed throughout the season.

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By Michelle Darrisaw

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27 Gorgeous Fall Flowers for Your Best Autumn Garden

1 of 27

All Fired Up

1 of 27

2 of 27

Stunning Marigold Container

2 of 27

3 of 27

Tall Lavender Wands

3 of 27

4 of 27

Tough-As-Nails Perennials

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5 of 27

Decorative Mums and Pumpkins

5 of 27

6 of 27

Sun-Kissed Flower

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7 of 27

Fire Up Fall With Color

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8 of 27

Edible Attraction

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9 of 27

Cheery Chrysanthemums

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10 of 27

All-Star Aster

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11 of 27

Mumkins

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Stair-Step Violas

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A Fragrant Addition

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14 of 27

Dramatic Pansy Container

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15 of 27

Bright and Bold Foliage

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Stacked Violas

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Sunny Marigolds

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Bursting Bulbs

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Flame-Grower

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Heirloom Blooms

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Classic Mums

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Autumn Joy

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Versatile Fall Container

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Prolific Butterfly Magnet

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A Monochromatic Container

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Tip-Top Shape