Usually, we don't think of herbaceous perennials as having fall color. However, there is a select group of perennials that might surprise you with their brilliant foliage colors in fall.
Those perennials listed here have notable yellows, reds, oranges, and purples in their late-season foliage providing at least a couple of weeks of good fall color every year.
Garden Trivia
What word describes the sound of rustling leaves or wind in the trees?
In order to obtain the highest quality fruit, apples must be harvested at the proper stage of maturity. Once harvested, proper storage is necessary to maximize storage life.
Learn about the proper time and method to harvest apples, how to know when apples are ripe, and how to store apples so you can enjoy all the tasty apples you grow in your garden.
The first frost of fall marks the unofficial end of the growing season. But when will the first frost arrive? You can find the likely first frost date for your area on the newly updated Frost Dates in Iowa page. This page includes averages calculated from the last 70 years and is now available by county.
The fall months are a great time to select and plant spring-flowering bulbs for next year. Gardeners can choose from traditional spring-flowering bulbs, such as daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths, or the more uncommon like winter aconite, crown imperial, giant onion, or guinea-hen. A small investment of time and money in fall will reward you with beautiful flowers next spring.
All-America Selections has been trialing edible and ornamental plants for over 90 years, presenting awards to entries that will impress home gardeners with their performance regionally or nationally. There have been plenty of exciting new winners that merit a place in your garden that will be highlighted in this series.
Other Items of Interest
Garden Trivia Answer
Psithurism. Next time you are enjoying the colors of the fall foliage, you can also enjoy the quiet psithurism as the breeze lightly blows.
Wondering what those other words mean? Marcescence refers to leaves that don’t fall off after they die in the fall, such as with many oaks. Hysteranthous describes a plant that has leaves that emerge after the flowers have opened such as redbud and witch hazel. Ventusus is a completely made-up word - although ventus is Latin for wind!
