I plant garden mums and Texas asters every September. What can you recommend for
companion plants that will look good when I plant my pansies?
September can be a tricky month for planting seasonal color. It is still too hot
to plant most of our cool season annuals but will be cold soon enough that it
hardly seems worth it to plant summer annuals. Here are a few suggestions:
Croton – I think God may have had fall combination plantings in mind when He created
crotons. I just wish they were more cold tolerant. The colorful red, yellow,
orange and green hues of the variegated glossy foliage are like harbingers of
autumn when planted this time of year. Foliage color looks best when planted in
more light, which makes it a good companion for your mums. If you are concerned
about losing crotons to cold weather, they can be replaced with cool season
annuals and repotted as houseplants for the winter.
Rudbeckia – There are many new varieties of this garden classic. The best standard
black-eyed susan cultivar is Goldsturm for ease of growing and performance, but
I prefer cultivars like Radiance and Irish Spring because of the increased
flower size. The seed head on Irish Spring is green instead of brown and you
would be hard pressed to find a larger flowered cultivar. If deadheaded,
rudbeckia will continue to bloom until our first freeze and is perennial.
Chrysocephalum – I wish I had an easier name for this plant, but there is not a good common
name. I have heard it referred to as strawflower, but that name is used most
commonly for bracteantha (another good fall plant). It is hard to pronounce but
easy to grow. This heat and drought tolerant plant has orange or yellow flowers
(Flambe is the best variety) and is vastly underutilized in landscapes in our
area. It is a tough summer plant that looks great in a fall landscape because
it is loaded with blooms right up until we get a hard freeze. It is hardy to
USDA Zone 9 so even if it gets knocked back by a freeze, it is likely to come
back in the spring. You
’ll like it in the fall but you’ll love it in the summer!
Erysimum Citrona – Not all erysimum are as hardy as the Citrona series, but this cultivar will
bloom throughout the winter until around May. Growing 18-24 inches tall, this
erysimum not only provides excellent fall color, it is also very fragrant. You
may not be able to find this plant until late September, but it will look great
with mums and can be used with pansies in the winter. It will usually survive
our summer heat, but I prefer to use it as a winter annual since it will not
bloom in the heat.
Gaillardia Torch – So many of the newest gaillardia (blanket flower) cultivars have been a
disappointment in Texas. They look great in plant catalogs but do not hold up
well in our heat and humidity. It is not uncommon for these weak cultivars to
get powdery mildew and crash after one good cycle of blooms. The reason for
this disappointment is that plant breeders have been using a species that does
well in the northern U.S. instead of the Texas native species. Torch is bred
from the same species of blanket flower that covers fields and roadsides in
Texas summers. Torch Yellow and Torch Red Embers have a mounding growth habit
and bloom throughout the summer until our first hard freeze. Like the Texas
wildflower, Torch Gaillardia is not a true perennial. While it may survive our
mild winters, reseeding is usually what brings it back the next year.
Other good fall options for seasonal color include dusty miller, petunias,
marigolds and African daisies.
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