It is the fall season and time to get those containers full of your favorite fall flowers. Plants like mums and asters look beautiful and give a classic look in a fall container garden but don’t limit your choices to just these two, there are lots of other fall plants that usually last well beyond the first frost. (photo courtesy: Park Seed)

While most of us go crazy in the summer planting flowering annuals, hardy perennials are a great choice to plant in your container gardens during the fall season. Experiment with different color combinations that you usually will not consider during the summer months like orange and purple mixed in with greens and deep reds for a dramatic look. You can try some of these hardy perennials in your fall garden containers.

Sedum
Sedum is a late blooming and hardy plant that will grow well in any garden or container. In late summer, beautiful pink blooms appear and it continues blooming into fall. It has big leaves in creamy-ivory and edged in deep green. Sedum usually grows 20 inches high and about 24 inches wide. It is perfect for containers or even looks great as a border plant in your garden. The blooms attract butterflies and Sedum is also great as cut fresh flowers or even for dried arrangements. It is truly carefree and tolerates heat, drought and even gardener’s neglect and grows well in zones 3-10. (photo courtesy: Park Seed)

Lambs Ear
Lambs Ear is great as a groundcover growing just 2 inches high or it can be planted in containers. This plant is covered with very fine silky silver hairs that almost glisten. You can plant lambs ear in those bear areas left from the annuals and it will form a beautiful groundcover spreading 12 inches wide. Bees and butterflies love this plant and there is very little maintenance. Watering in periods of drought is all that is needed and it grows well in zones 5-8. (photo courtesy: Park Seed)

Creeping Jenny
Creeping Jenny is ideal for planting in walkways, use it as edging in your garden, or as hanging baskets and window boxes. It will also look great in containers. The golden yellow leaves of creeping jenny can truly add some much needed color to any garden during the fall season. It is recommended that creeping jenny be planted in full sun in order to get the best golden yellow color leaves. Creeping jenny grows well in zones 3-9. (photo courtesy: Park Seed)

Hens and Chicks
Hens and Chicks is a very hardy plant that grows well even in hot and dry gardens. You can plant hens and chicks in your garden or containers. It forms a bright rosette of foliage that spreads freely and creates a colorful display in almost any setting. The foliage can vary from gray-green to a deep magenta, and almost mahogany tones. The blooms can vary from yellow to pink shades color. (photo courtesy: Park Seed)

Coral Bells
Coral Bells is in the heuchera family and considered the last to bloom in the garden. It will start blooming late summer and continues until frost. It delivers masses of white blooms that look like snowflakes giving it almost a gentle beauty. Coral bells grow 18 inches high and about 19 inches wide making this plant a comfortable size for a container. It tolerates heat and sun and grows well in zones 3-8. (photo courtesy: Park Seed)

It is October and cooler temperatures are in the horizon signaling the end of busy summer gardening chores. There are no set standards to winterize your garden because it really depends on where you live and weather conditions in your area. But there are some things you can do now without much effort. Start by taking inventory of what worked well in your garden during the summer and what you would like to change. (photo courtesy: Breck’s)

Remove all the annual plants that should be just about gone by now and figure out if you want to plant fall flowering plants in the bare areas left by the annuals. Choose your fall flowering plants carefully as not all do well in cold weather. But it is still early enough for you to have a beautiful fall garden. Also, the fall season is the time when perennial plants need to be pruned and trimmed before these go dormant for the winter months.

There are lots of branches that need to be cut from trees and bushes and this is actually good for the plants in the coming spring season. Most gardeners agree that pruning and trimming at this time of the year is good for the dormant plants as these will support new growth during the spring.

If you need to trim some trees of branches that can be easily removed, be sure that you have the right tool for the job. In general, big tree trimming should be done by a professional arborist. However, if a pole pruner is all you need, then be sure to remove no more than a third of the total bud and leaf-bud bearing branches. (photo courtesy: hometips.com)

Avoid scalping a tree and be sure to cut to the tree’s natural shape. Remove dead branches but make sure these are not dormant ones that can stay on the tree. One way to find out is if the branch looked dead and had no leaves in the summer, it is time to remove it. Take a look and prune out diseased limbs and cut below the diseased areas. If you see branches that are in your way where you walk or mow, trim them. Branches should be cut next to the branch collar which is the area that the bark and trunk meet.

If you have dogwood, walnut, birches and maple trees, these should be pruned in the summer or fall because these will bleed sap when pruned in early spring or late winter. Use caution when pruning evergreens that have needles such as pine or spruce because these will not bounce back from a bad pruning. My recommendation is to only remove diseased or dead branches from evergreens.

And don’t forget your roses. If you have a rose garden, be sure to prune them in the fall or winter if you live in northern regions. Somehow, roses do benefit from fall and winter pruning and will come back stronger in the spring. Climbing roses should be pruned right before the leaf buds break and in colder climates this should be done late winter or early spring when danger of frost has passed. If you live in southern regions, chances are that you will have roses all year round and pruning can be done several times a year. (photo courtesy: missouri.edu)