With a clever arrangement of perennials, grasses, etc., a small garden is created in the pot. A permanently planted and therefore very easy-care small garden that transforms the balcony and terrace into green and flowering spaces, very individual spaces, because perennials, grasses etc. (ferns, lianas) have an incredible variety to offer:
Autumn perennials: “Versatility in plants”
If you either have spacious wintering quarters in which the pots can soon disappear, or have so much time that you would like to dig up tubers again soon to store them for next year, you can actually use any plant Plant in a container in autumn. So that can't be the point here, and the list of flowering perennials among the 40,000 varieties of ornamental plants in our world would really be too long. That's why the perennials that (still) bloom when they are planted in the pot in autumn are presented here. As perennial winter-hardy plants, these perennials stay in the pot and will show their flowers again next year; the flowering usually starts much earlier in the year:
The most beautiful autumn blossoms
found on perennials:
Smooth-leaf asters, wild and blue forest asters, autumn daisies, false chamomile (pseudo aster) and perennial sunflowers develop rich, colorful flower carpets. Asters and chrysanthemums, autumn anemones and coneflowers produce one blossom after another in every color that suits autumn (and many other colors too). Broom heather and heather bring a basic autumnal mood, panicle after panicle, autumn monkshoods, lily hostas, torch lilies, columnar gold bulbs and toad lilies display exceptionally beautiful and eye-catching flowers. They all either bloom in their original form until deep into autumn or have cultivated varieties that bloom until the end of October or longer; you can find many variety names in other articles in this series about autumn blooms.
A rainbow of colors
the autumn perennials also have to offer:
- Purple: mountain forest cranesbill, lily cluster, toadflax
- Violet: scarlet fuchsia, smooth-leaf aster,
- Light purple: Many varieties of asters such as Aster laevis and novi-belgii
- Light blue: Aster cordifolius, false lobelia
- Deep blue: autumn monkshood, bearded flower
- (Light) green: mountain mint, silver candle
- Light yellow: coneflower, evening primrose
- Golden yellow: Aster linosyris, perennial sunflower
- Orange: torch lily, marigold
- Orange yellow: golden cob, sun bride
- Red-brown: Rough Coneflower, Sedum
- Wine red: autumn saxifrage, candleweed
- Red: penstemon, snake knotweed
- Light red: purple stonecrop, chrysanthemum
- Pink: Autumn Anemone, Bell Knotweed
- Pink: Japanese anemone, myrtle aster
Of all these perennials there are varieties in the colors mentioned that bloom in autumn. Of the autumn perennials mentioned, there are usually varieties in completely different colors, and if you are still missing a color: you can cover all the other colors in the world with autumn bloomers, right up to “light purple with purple dots” or “yellow with brown dots”, both found in toad lilies.
Extravagant beauties among the autumn bloomers
You guessed it – they can be found among the perennials, here is a selection:
- Ageratumdost with dark purple-brown foliage
- Artemisia lactiflora, Chinese mugwort, white feathery flowers, close together above pretty feathery foliage
- Artemisia ludoviciana, silver perennial wormwood, silver-gray foliage with delicate flowers
- Aster ericoides 'Golden Spray', autumn myrtle aster with gilded buds
- Aster ericoides subsp. pansus 'Snowflurry', September herb aster, whose low cushions show countless small white flower stars until November
- Aster laevis, wild aster with black foliage and colorful flowers
- Aster oblongifolius 'Raydon`s Favorite', aromatic aster, shows flower clouds the color of the October sky
- Cynara scolymus, artichoke, can be eaten, but it also develops a really great thistle flower
- Bistorta amplexicaulis 'Dikke Floskes', columnar knotweed with striking dark wine-red flower spikes
- Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, Chinese leadwort with wonderful blue flowers until November and red foliage from autumn onwards
- Heuchera brizoides 'Mocha', purple bells with cream-colored flowers and brown-black leaves
- Hieracium umbellatum, umbellate hawkweed, candelabra-like yellow flowers, which are followed in winter by an interesting fruit cluster, a kind of dandelion in cream
- Hosta gracillima 'Wogon', delicate rock hosta, rosette-shaped leaves bring interesting leaf decoration to the pot
- Zhi Mu lily with thin long light purple flower threads
The newest cultivars with flowering until October, November
New, beautifully flowering varieties are constantly being grown, which bring even more variety to the autumn pot:
- Arctanthemum arcticum 'Stella', Greenland daisy with white flowers on branched stems and winter hardiness down to -45 °C
- Aster ageratoides 'Eleven Purple', ageratum aster with light purple flowers until November
- Aster azureus, sky blue aster with really sky blue autumn flowers
- Coreopsis verticillata 'Bengal Tiger', garden beauty eye, yellow flower with red inner ring
- Delosperma sutherlandii 'Peach Star', perennial ice plant with peach-colored flowers
- Gentiana makinoi 'Little Pinkie', Japanese garden gentian with flowers in bright pink
- Potentilla fruticosa 'Abbotswood', cinquefoil, white flowers with greenish yellow stamens
Gentle relaxation with grasses: The new trend plants
Grasses are very trendy right now, which is really not surprising given the stunning effect of these relaxing beauties. Grasses are as diverse as perennials, some of which have flowers in autumn are also presented below:
- Achnatherum brachytrichum, silver spike grass, silver rough grass
- Calamagrostis arundinacea var. brachytricha, diamond grass, ornamental riding grass
- Chasmanthium latifolium, flat ear grass
- Cimicifuga acerina ‘Compacta’, Cimicifuga acerina
- Cimicifuga racemosa 'Atropurpurea', September silver candle
- Cimicifuga simplex 'Candelabrum', October silver candle
- Cortaderia selloana 'Pumila', pampas grass
- Imperata cylindrica 'Red Baron', Japanese blood grass, blooms until December
- Miscanthus giganteus, giant miscanthus, also the variety 'Aksel Olsen'
- Miscanthus sinensis, silver miscanthus, varieties 'Adagio', 'Cabaret', 'Cornet', 'Cosmopolitan', 'Etincelle', 'Flamingo', 'Giraffe', 'Goerings Goldfeder', 'Gold Bar', 'Gracillimus', 'Graziella', 'Little Fountain', 'Little Silver Spider', 'Leopard', 'Little Zebra', 'Malepartus', 'Morning Light', 'Poseidon', 'Pünktchen', 'Roland', ' Silver Feather', 'Silver Arrow', 'Silver Spider', 'Strictus', 'Summer Breeze', 'Undine', 'Variegatus', 'Yaku Jima', 'Zebrinus'
- Miscanthus sinensis 'Morning Light', a white variegated variety of miscanthus that flowers until November
- Molinia caerulea 'Variegata', Moor Pipe Grass
- Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’, Pennisetum
- Pennisetum orientale, Oriental Pennisetum
- Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum', African Pennisetum
- Pleioblastus pygmaeus var. distichus, dwarf bamboo
- Shibataea kumasasa, butcher's broom bamboo
- Spartina pectinata 'Aureomarginata', crested mudgrass
- Spiranthes cernua, golden bar grass
And Co: Great addition with ferns and climbing plants
Blooming autumn perennials and grasses are excellently complemented by hardy ferns that love shady places when planting in containers:
- Matteuccia orientalis, Japanese ostrich fern, with its bright green leathery shiny fronds exceptionally attractive, but needs a protective cover on the pot soil
- Matteuccia struthiopteris, Central European ostrich fern, has lighter leaves and is completely hardy
- Phyllitis scolopendrium, curly deer tongue, in the variety 'Undulata' with particularly curly fronds, tolerates deep shade
- Polygonatum hybrid 'Striatum', striped Solomon's seal, very attractive with the white striped leaves, suitable for containers, slow growing
- Polygonatum odoratum var. pluriflorum 'Variegatum', variegated Solomon's seal, white-edged leaves and fragrant white flowers with a green throat
- Polystichum setiferum 'Plumosum Densum', downy filigree fern, with triple pinnate fronds that look a little velvety
If there is still room in the bucket, you can let it climb:
- Clematis flammula, clematis with great white flowers that can withstand down to around -15 degrees C
- Clematis heracleifolia, large-leaved clematis, blue-purple flowers, very hardy
- Hedera helix, common ivy, grows everywhere and fills all the gaps up to the top, the white winter flowers are as unusually beautiful as they are unknown
- Passiflora caerulea, blue passionflower, only hardy on a warm house wall, but beautiful
There is room for arrangements in the bucket
The larger the container you give a plant, the better that plant will perform in the long run. That's why you should put some thought into the selection of your pots, there are many options: from pots with an integrated trellis to pots stacked like terraces with several levels, and for balconies with limited space, also as tailor-made self-builds with wheels underneath. These containers should not only be planted with a single container plant, but deep-rooted plants can and should share the soil volume with medium-deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants. This way you can create beautiful arrangements that each look like their own little landscapes. By the time you've tried all the options with the plants listed above, you'll have had a lot of variety when planting in containers.
Conclusion
There are many ideas for planting in containers in autumn, but it will be easy to care for if you choose perennial plants. The perennials include very beautiful and very extravagant autumn bloomers, which can be created into entire container landscapes with gentle grasses, shade-loving ferns and fast-growing climbing plants.
