What to Plant This Fall?
What NOT to Plant!

Garden centers are crowded right before Mother's Day. Not only are people picking up those beautiful ferns andhanging baskets -- traditional gifts for mom -- but they fill up their vehicles with flats of bedding plants and shrubs for spring planting. But if that's the only time you visit a garden center -- and if you think spring is the only time to plant -- you don't know what you're missing. Autumn is actually the best time to plant perennials.

Why plant perennials, you ask, when you can have annuals blooming all summer? While it's true that most perennials bloom for only a few weeks, they're more economical because they come back and grow larger every year, and can be divided to obtain even more plants. You'll find more unusual plants among the perennials, and the foliage is beautiful even without flowers. But you don't have to choose either annuals or perennials -- most gardeners have both.

Then, why is autumn the best time to plant perennials? Well, when you remove a plant from its pot and put it in the ground, that's a shock to its root system, which takes a while to adapt to its new home. Perennials -- including shrubs and trees -- devote a lot of energy into producing more roots, and only when the roots are strong and healthy will the above-ground part of the plant start to grow. If you plant in September or October, the roots will have months to get established, so by next spring they'll have a huge head start on any perennial planted then. Newly planted perennials need a constant supply of water and not too drastic a fluctuation in temperature, both of which are more likely in the fall.

So which perennials should you plant? That depends on what you like, how much room you have, whether you want pink or yellow flowers, whether you want blooms in summer or fall, etc. Choose from the 10 we recommend on the next few pages. They all require little maintenance, no staking and suffer from few pests. And they're all beautiful.

Goldenrod (solidago): The common name of this member of the aster family describes its decorative appearance. It has arching sprays of small yellow flowers in autumn. You may be familiar with the tall wild variety growing by the roads, which is wrongly blamed for causing hay fever. (The real culprit is ragweed, which blooms at the same time.) There are about 130 species, ranging from 18 inches to 6 feet tall. It forms a nice clump with shallow roots and is easy to divide if the clump gets too big. It is attractive to bees and butterflies and makes an excellent cut flower. It prefers full sun.

Phlox David: This is the Perennial Plant of the Year for 2002, with good reason. It's about 4 feet tall, with five-lobed tubular white flowers from June until fall. The large flowers -- 6 to 9 inches long and 6 to 8 inches wide -- can been seen from a distance. The plant, which prefers full sun, is also mildew resistant.

Cranesbill geraniums: These cheerful flowers, in shades of pink and purple as well as white, make a beautiful display in spring, and some bloom occasionally all summer, but their crowning glory is the foliage, which forms a mound that is beautiful all summer. They prefer morning sun and afternoon shade, but will grow in dappled shade.

Rudbeckia Goldsturm: This type of black-eyed susan was the Perennial Plant of the Year for 1999. The plant reaches 4 feet tall with bright yellow-gold flowers with dark brown centers 3 or 4 inches in diameter. The blooms last for weeks, and new flowers appear from late June till frost. Put these beauties in full sun in the back of your garden because they can be seen from a distance.

Hostas: There are hundreds of varieties of this garden favorite. Most prefer shade, or just morning sun, but some will thrive in full sun if given enough water. Size ranges from tiny (rock garden size) to giant (6 to 9 feet in diameter with leaves 12 to 18 inches across). They send up tall spikes of purple or white flowers in mid-summer. To discourage slugs and snails, choose varieties with thicker leaves.

Sedums: Commonly called stonecrop, these plants are practically foolproof. Their thick, fleshy leaves make them drought tolerant, and they are bothered by few pests. There are sedums to use as ground covers and varieties such as the popular Autumn Joy that get almost 2 feet tall. Some varieties have small, insignificant flowers; others, like Autumn Joy, hold flat pinkish flowers aloft to attract bees and butterflies in August and September. They do best in full sun.

Balloon flowers (platycodon): These beauties are so named because the buds, right before they bloom, look like balloons. The flowers, either white or dark purple, look like five-pointed stars from June until frost if deadheaded. They range in height from 1 to 3 feet tall. These plants are among the last to appear in spring, so mark their location lest you mistakenly plant something else on top of them. They do best in full sun.

Lilies: What garden would be complete without lilies? Day lilies are among the most beautiful and cheerful of flowers in early summer -- and their numbers happily increase every year. Oriental and Asiatic lilies offer stunning blooms in mid-summer. They all like full sun. Some of the taller varieties may need to be staked, but they're worth the effort.

Heuchera: This plant grows equally well in sun or shade, but thrives in an area that receives both. The 1-foot mounds are noted for their foliage, which comes in shades of purple, green and silver, or combinations of those colors. A good companion to hostas. Tall spikes topped with bunches of small flowers wave in the breeze above the foliage.

Purple coneflower (echinacea): This native American plant, a type of rudbeckia, is in its glory in July and August, when it is covered with long-lasting pinkish-purple flowers which butterflies love. If you don't deadhead the flowers, you'll be rewarded with goldfinches eating the ripe seeds. The plant generally gets 3 or 4 feet high and wide and loves full sun. The foliage isn't very attractive, so put it in the back of the bed. But the flowers are so lovely it was named the Perennial Plant of the Year for 1998.