Tip: Once you know what you want to add, plant new perennials and shrubs in the fall, and you will have larger, stronger plants with better blossoms next spring.

(ARA) – As the crisp fall air ushers in a new season, many gardeners may be left wondering: what now? Garden experts from across the country weighed in with their tips on the best things you can do this fall for a fabulous garden next year.

Plant now, bloom later

Judy Nauseef, president of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD), suggests planning ahead for next spring. “Fall is the time to take stock of your garden and plan for next year,” she advises.“You can see what worked and what didn’t, where you have holes and what needs to be replaced or moved.”

If you need help assessing your garden, she recommends calling in a professional landscape designer for help. You can find one in your area at www.apld.org.

“Once you know what you want to add, plant new perennials and shrubs in the fall, and you will have larger, stronger plants with better blossoms next spring,” adds Nauseef.

Many perennials provide color through the end of the season, especially trendy grasses. For your shade garden, try Hakonechloa ‘Beni-kaze’ from Briggs Nursery for its attractive green foliage that turns brilliant red in the fall. This gorgeous flowing Japanese forest grass is stunning planted in mass with ferns, hostas or other shade-loving perennials.

Give your containers a fall facelift

By summer’s end, container plantings have often seen their day. Give your tired containers a fresh look by adding bright fall annuals and colorful foliage in bold fall colors of red, orange, deep purple and gold. There are still plenty of plants available at your local garden center that will see your containers through the cooler months of fall.

“There are plenty of pansies, mums and asters available, but don’t stop there,” says Ed Bemis, of the Massachusetts Flower Growers Association. “You can create wonderful unique fall flower pots using foliage and flowering plants in the colors of autumn.”

Some favorites are yellow, red and rust colored snapdragons that will keep blooming through a bit of frost, and orange and rust coleus.

Everything’s coming up roses

“Fall is an excellent time for planting, and roses are no exception,” says Steve Hutton, plantsman and president of Conard-Pyle Co.

“Establishing roses in the fall is easy,” adds Hutton. “The weather and soil conditions are better in the fall, as opposed to spring when it tends to be cold, muddy and wet.”

For fall color, Hutton recommends planting the new Drift groundcover roses. Continuously blooming from spring to early frost, they are naturally dwarf, with very attractive foliage. Just remember to give them plenty of water and lots of sun.

Frost protector

No matter what you’re growing, a sudden frost or freeze is deadly, spelling doom to your garden and landscape. Protect your lush flowering baskets, vegetables, herbs and favorite plants from Jack Frost with FreezePruf, new this year from The Liquid Fence Company. This non-toxic spray can increase a plant’s tolerance to cold and protect home gardens from damage caused by cold.

This means gardeners can get a couple more weeks of growing and harvesting – at least two weeks earlier in spring and two weeks later in the fall. Just imagine tomatoes in October and mums still blooming after Thanksgiving.

Deer-proof your garden

Winter months are some of the deadliest times for deer destruction in the garden. “Deer are creatures of habit and stay near a good food source – like your backyard,” says Dave Mizejewski, naturalist with the National Wildlife Association. “A lush garden or lawn is a magnet for hungry deer and rabbits, especially in the winter.”

To keep deer out, look for all-natural products, like Liquid Fence Deer & Rabbit Repellent, that use taste and scent aversion to turn animals off your plants and make them unappetizing to common garden-munchers.

Repellents should be applied monthly and should be reapplied after a heavy downpour of an inch or more.

Winterize your accessories
Mother Nature “naturalizes” cast stone and terra cotta garden accessories, but the harsh forces of winter can cause fine planters, birdbaths and statuary to crack and crumble.

According to the “garden accessory connoisseurs” at Campania International, a little care will help your garden “art” last for generations.

Cast stone planters and statuary should be raised off any surface which freezes and thaws. Terra cotta planters, which can absorb moisture and are subject to winter freeze-thaw cycles, should be stored indoors for winter.

If your planters are left planted outside over the winter, raise them off the ground so they will drain and not freeze to the surface. To winterize both cast stone and terra cotta accessories, simply place them on two pressure-treated wood strips, making sure not to block the drainage hole.

For birdbaths and fountains, bring tops in for the winter. All bases, bench legs and statuary should be raised up off the ground, so as not to freeze to the ground’s surface.

Remember, fall is for more than watching football games and raking leaves. It’s the best time to protect your investment, so you can have a glorious spring garden.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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Homeowners have always enjoyed looking out over their own well-manicured garden or landscape. Yet, creating such a pleasant atmosphere on one’s property can often become a difficult experience, whether updating a landscape’s design or starting from scratch with a new installation project.

“Today’s new crop of low-maintenance perennials, annuals and shrubs is making a big impact in the garden and on homeowners themselves,” says Linda Guy, new product development director of Novalis Plants that Work. “Bred to withstand heat and humidity, and thrive in challenging locales and conditions, these plants — like the ‘Pink Double Knock Out’ Rose — give homeowners confidence to experiment with design and installation creativity.” Easy-care plants also give people inspiration to take a more active role in the care and maintenance of outdoor spaces.

When undertaking a challenging garden or landscape task, completing the project successfully can be accomplished with simple solutions to three of the most common landscape issues facing homeowners. Hardworking plant breeders and growers like Novalis Plants that Work are turning out innovative new plant genetics and an ever-growing, wide array of plant offerings that solve these common landscape challenges.

Problem: Areas of the garden overwhelmed with sun, heat and humidity.

Solution: Plants bred for heat and/or humidity.
Due to varying sun exposure across a property, pockets of the landscape can become scorched by sun, heat and humidity, no matter in which region of the country or USDA Zone one lives. A southerner all her life, Guy understands the demanding environmental conditions for plants grown in sun, heat and humidity. Guy believes that the Novalis Plants that Work — Bring on the Heat program is a favorite because it addresses specific plant needs related to hot and humid conditions while delivering a robust group of plants that tolerate this type of challenging environment. The program, which can be found in independent garden centers across the country, was designed to provide gardeners with a wide variety of top-notch, heat- and humidity-tolerant plants with dark and variegated foliage, and lush bright flowers that are hardy in even the hottest, brightest zones of the country. As the names states, these plants are fitted for specific landscape needs and help to improve gardeners’ confidence in choosing, buying, and planting new as well as favorite varieties.

Problem: What to do with unique, small-scale areas of the garden.

Solution: Plantings for small spaces and special places
Whether rooftop gardens, pathways, walkways, patios, rock gardens, water gardens, terraces, cracks, or crevices, accent plantings embellish the garden area and add life, color, texture, detail, and harmony as well as a natural appearance to the landscape. Incorporating these kinds of plants into a creative garden design for areas that are small or unique in shape serves as garnish, the final decorative touch to the space. “Some cities are giving tax incentives to people willing to install rooftop gardens because it cuts down on the need for air conditioning and heating,” says Guy. “So, Novalis is growing plant material such as drought-tolerant groundcovers, little Hens and Chicks, and sedums from Mexico that gardeners seem to love having planted in these tiny places and distinctive applications.” Home gardeners can choose from a diverse palette of varying color and foliage with the Plants that Work in Nooks & Crannies line when creating their own artistic garden accents.

Problem: Short-lived, feeble annuals that will not last.

Solution: Finer, genetically superior, color bedding plantings.
When used in containers, garden beds and borders, annual color varieties are a bright, rich and vibrant outdoor design component. Yet, numerous annual plant selections cannot survive the first chilly night or burst of extended warmth that many regions of the country are experiencing from frequent spells of environmental instability. Guy says her Plants that Work by Color varieties are cultivated to address the need for more robust plant material. “They accentuate outdoor living, provide solutions for garden beds and borders, and address high-demand for new collections of unparalleled quality in every region of the country.” Ensuring plant selections for the lawn and garden stem from professional growers who trial each new variety provides superior-performing, garden-worthy, annual color plants with heat and cold tolerance.

Guy recommends seeking premium genetic plants in a rainbow of color and form at local independent garden centers to achieve year-round color and diversity for the lawn and garden. “With more than 150 delightful varieties in our program alone, such as Osteospermum Doris Daisy, finding plants for spectacular beds, borders and containers can be an easy and fun weekend pastime for homeowners and their kids.”

“We believe the Plants that Work name serves as a clear tell-tale for gardeners,” says Guy. “The name directly addresses homeowners’ primary fear — that plants won’t grow or perform well in their gardens — and assures them that the plants they purchase will work beautifully in their individual locales.”

To learn more about plants and gardening tips, log onto www.plantsthatwork.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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Landscape plants are very important. Before you start setting up your garden, you need to determine what types of plants are suitable for it. You need to observe harmony and balance in your garden, so you cannot just use any plants you fancy. To help you choose the right type of landscape plants for you, here are some tips.

Perennial Flowering Plants

When it comes to gardens, perennial flowing plants are always winners. These pants can live for several years, so you need not replant them so often. What is really more interesting about these types of plants is that they require less maintenance compared most other types of landscape plants. In fact, this type of plant can survive on just minimal amount of water. Since these types of plants are quite strong, they do not require constant application of fertilizer and pesticides. Planting perennial flowering plants in your garden will ensure that you have seasonal burst of lovely colors each year.

Most of these types of plants often take about one to two years before they bear flowers. Unlike when you plant those annual plants which bears flowers within the year of planting it, you may have to wait for a long time before you can hope to see some flowers from your perennials. Actually, this long wait for the landscape plants to bear flowers is just a small price that you have to pay for the seasonal blooms that you will enjoy in the future.  

Annual Plants

If you are in a hurry to bring some colors into your garden, you should buy what gardeners call the “annual landscape plants”. These so called “annual landscape plants” are usually planted during the spring and bear flowers within a short period of time after planting. Plants like cosmos and coreopsis are some of the annual plants that are very easy to grow. These types of plants also reseed themselves. This means that if you want to plant more of these types of flowers, you can just gather their seeds and then plant the seeds somewhere else.

However, the downside about planting annual landscape plants is that these types of plants have very short life span and they do not survive the frost. During the summer, the intense heat can also kill these types of plants. If you use these types of plants in your landscaping, be prepared to replant them ever so often.

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Perennials typically have less vibrant colors than annuals, which last only one year. But they are still often very beautiful. Pale pinks, subtle oranges, delicate yellows and gentle blues and purples can all be found among perennial species. Gardens composed of these flowers, at least in part, often have a very relaxing effect on the viewer.

Perennials come in much more than just flowering types as well. There are many perennials that have only very tiny or no flowers, but are nonetheless very attractive plants. They help to flesh out a garden, and provide the ability to design variety into the layout. Separating bright annuals with non-flowering perennials makes it possible to create an infinite variety of colored shapes and shapely colors.

Foxgloves are a perennial that have long rows of pale orange or pink, bell-shaped flowers along a thick green stalk. A few of these are a delightful addition to any garden, since they are easy to care for and give the garden variety in height and shape.

Hostas are another excellent perennial. Their large, light green leaves make for a beautiful display and, for a few weeks or longer, their lovely white flowers are a wonderful sight. They take very little care, since they get along on very little water. They do very well in partial shade, too.

In the Fall the blooms will die, and later the leaves will shrivel up to thin, light brown vegetation. The transformation is really astounding, considering the width of hosta leaves (nearly a foot) during the height of Summer. Just chop off the dead leaves at ground level before winter and you are all ready to go for the following Spring.

Thyme makes for great ground cover and requires almost no work at all. Sage, too, is terrific for adding not only a pleasant light green color to your garden, but a wonderful fragrance as well. Yarrow will work well interspersed between flowers and ground cover. Just be sure to keep it under control, since it can spread and take over large areas.

Irises have a lovely, large yellow flower on a tall green stalk. They come back year after year and only require a little tug once in a while to pull off the dead, wilted flowers as they bloom and re-bloom.

Bougainvillea bushes are an excellent addition and can be grown in a wide variety of zones. They thrive in the hot weather of California, but tolerate the winters in the Northwest equally well. Drought tolerant and easy to care for, their numerous bright red blossoms make them an excellent choice.

Though the colors are sometimes more muted, there are more perennials than any one garden could possible house. So you have lots of choices for low-effort, beautiful plants that will last year after year.

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