These plants add color to gardens and pots when summer flowers fade

The hanging planter on my porch has seen better days. And by better days, I mean the summer annuals have dried to a brown crisp that likely has the neighbors wondering if the Addams Family has moved in. I like to believe the extreme heat did them in, but I know neglect has also played a role.

I dug up some impatiens from the garden and plopped them in the basket to save face, but with September approaching, it’s time to freshen it up for a new season.

Pansies are my usual go-tos for fall. Their smiling faces of orange, purple and yellow brighten even the most faded of gardens. And fall-planted pansies will return in spring, ready to bloom for another season. That’s because, unlike most garden annuals, they're done in by the heat of summer, not the cold.

I’ve bordered most of the front garden bed with Sedum Autumn Joy, a perennial in horticultural zones 3-9 that changes with the seasons. Its green early-season flowers gradually take on a pinkish hue that darkens as summer progresses, landing on a fall-appropriate maroon by mid-September. It’s the only flowering plant I can think of that meets the seasons where they are every step of the way.

As summer annuals fade, consider replacing them with garden chrysanthemums, but don’t pull them out at the end of the season. Plant them at the front of beds, where their orange, rust, bronze, yellow, pink, purple or white flowers will obscure the fading plants behind them. Leave them be, and they’ll return year after year for effortless fall flair.

Firecracker plant (Cuphea) is an easy-care, heat-tolerant choice with striking, tubular orange flowers that attract hummingbirds. It’s hardy in zones 8-11 and used as an annual in cooler regions, where it blooms from spring through frost. But fall plantings work, too, and the plant makes a dramatic addition to containers alongside lantana, fountain grass (Pennisetum), coral bells (Heuchera), globe amaranth (Gomphrena) or calibrachoa.

Croton, a foliage plant with yellow- and orange-veined, large green leaves, is typically treated as a houseplant outside of the tropics, but I wouldn’t discount it as a container or bedding plant, especially in fall arrangements.

Reblooming azaleas like Encore and Perfecto Mundo bloom in spring, like their cousins, but make repeat performances straight through frost. Check specific varieties to ensure they are hardy in your zone.

Firecracker bush (Russelia equisetiformis) is unrelated to the firecracker plant above, but boasts similar weeping, arching stems, covered in bright red tubular flowers on 3- to 5-foot-tall (.9- to 1.5-meter) shrubs that hummingbirds and butterflies love. It’s hardy in zones 9-11.

Rainbow chard is an edible contender, its orange, red and green leaves perfectly suited to the season. After it has performed its aesthetic role, cut it down and sauté it with salt, pepper and garlic.

Miniature red, orange and purple ornamental peppers make interesting focal points, too, but they should be considered only decorative because of the pesticides used in the ornamental trade. They would taste awful, anyway.

Ornamental cabbages and kales are technically edible, but it’s best to limit their use to the garden for the same reasons. They’ll add texture and color, with their purple, green or cream leaves remaining fresh until temperatures well below freezing collapse their cell walls.

Then it’ll be time to start planning your spring garden.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for The Associated Press. She publishes the Weekly Dirt Newsletter. Sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

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