Fall Flowers: Best Autumn Blooms & Arrangements

When the summer heat finally breaks, the garden gets a second act. Fall flowers pick up right where summer blooms quit, and some of the best color of the year shows up between September and the first hard frost. This guide covers the fall blooming perennials and annual flowers worth planting, when each one hits peak bloom time, and which fall flowers actually hold up in a vase once you cut them. We arrange flowers for a living, and fall is the season our designers argue over the most. There is a lot to love.

What Counts as a Fall Flower?

Bloom time is the whole story. True fall flowers either begin in late summer and keep blooming until frost, or wait until September to open at all. Plenty of plants sold as summer color, like black eyed susans and dahlias, carry the transition from summer to fall better than anything planted in October ever could.

Most of the plants below are perennials that come back every year. A few are annuals that bloom continuously from mid-summer until a freeze finishes them off. Hardiness zones tell you whether a perennial survives winter where you live, so check the zone range before you plant. And if you want the look without the digging, a florist can hand you peak-season fall flowers in a vase the same day.

The Best Fall Blooming Perennials

These hardy plants are the backbone of a fall garden, filling beds and mixed borders every autumn with more to give.

1. Chrysanthemums (Mums)

Nothing says fall like a mound of mums on a porch step. Garden mums bloom in bronze, red, gold, purple, and white over dense green foliage, and a plant bought in tight bud will flower for six weeks or more. They are also November's birth flower. If you grow your own, pinch the stems back in early summer; they get leggy without it.

Bloom time: late summer through hard frost. Sun: full sun. Zones: 5 to 9. Height and habit: 1 to 3 feet, mounded and spreading.

2. Asters

Tall asters carry the autumn garden after almost everything else quits. Their daisy like flowers open in purple, lavender blue, pink, and white just as summer perennials fade, attracting butterflies by the dozen on warm afternoons. New England asters are native, tough, and happy in borders or meadows. The aster is the September birth flower, which feels right.

Bloom time: late summer to fall, often late fall. Sun: full sun to partial shade. Zones: 3 to 8. Height and habit: 1 to 4 feet, upright and slowly spreading.

3. Black Eyed Susans

Bright yellow, daisy like flowers around a dark center, blooming in sheets from mid-summer into October. Black eyed susans are native and drought tolerant once established, and they self-seed politely into borders and meadows. Goldfinches eat the seed heads all winter if you skip the fall cleanup.

Bloom time: mid-summer to mid fall. Sun: full sun. Zones: 3 to 9. Height and habit: 2 to 3 feet, upright clumps.

4. Japanese Anemones

Japanese anemones float cup shaped pink flowers and white flowers on tall, wiry stems that move with every breeze. They are among the few fall blooming perennials that prefer partial shade, which makes them the answer for the dim corner where mums sulk. Give them room; they spread by runners once settled.

Bloom time: late summer to mid fall. Sun: partial shade to gentle sun. Zones: 4 to 8. Height and habit: 2 to 4 feet, upright and spreading.

5. Sedum (Autumn Joy)

Sedum spends the summer as a tidy green succulent, then its clusters of tiny star shaped flowers open soft pink and deepen to rust as fall wears on. It is a drought tolerant plant through and through, and rich soil actually makes it flop, so skip the fertilizer. Few perennials work harder at attracting butterflies and bees this late in the season.

Bloom time: late summer to fall. Sun: full sun. Zones: 3 to 9. Height and habit: 18 to 24 inches, upright.

6. Goldenrod

Goldenrod throws showy blooms in bright yellow plumes across roadsides and native gardens in early fall, and it attracts pollinators better than nearly any other late bloomer. It gets blamed for fall allergies unfairly; ragweed blooms at the same time, and goldenrod pollen is too heavy to blow around. Newer varieties stay compact in a native garden bed instead of spreading wild.

Bloom time: late summer to fall. Sun: full sun. Zones: 3 to 9. Height and habit: 2 to 5 feet, upright, spreading.

7. Autumn Crocus

Autumn crocus cheats the calendar. Plant the corms in late summer and cup shaped purple flowers in soft pinks and lavender push up bare out of the ground within weeks, no leaves until spring. It reads like a spring flower blooming in the wrong season, which is exactly the charm. The corms are toxic, so site them away from curious pets.

Bloom time: September to October. Sun: full sun to partial shade. Zones: 4 to 8. Height and habit: 6 to 10 inches, low clumps.

8. Bee Balm

Bee balm's shaggy scarlet, pink, and purple flower heads sit on sturdy stems like fireworks caught mid-burst, and hummingbirds treat the tubular blossoms like a filling station. It is native, fragrant, and vigorous to a fault. Divide it every few years or it will quietly take the whole bed.

Bloom time: mid-summer into early fall. Sun: full sun. Zones: 4 to 9. Height and habit: 2 to 4 feet, upright, fast spreading.

9. Dahlias

Dahlias hit their stride just as summer ends, producing showy blooms from dinner-plate size down to tight little pompons in warm tones, deep burgundy, and nearly every color but blue, on tall stems that beg for staking. They keep going until the first frost cuts them down. In cold climates, lift the tubers after frost and store them dry for spring.

Bloom time: mid-summer to first frost. Sun: full sun. Zones: 8 to 10, grown as annuals elsewhere. Height and habit: 1 to 6 feet, upright.

10. Ornamental Grasses

Not flowers exactly, but no fall garden works without ornamental grasses. Fountain grass, switchgrass, and miscanthus send up feathery plumes in early fall that catch the low autumn light and keep moving all winter. Purple fountain grass earns its spot for the deep burgundy foliage alone. Deer walk right past grasses, which is more than most plants on this list can claim.

Bloom time: plumes from late summer through winter. Sun: full sun. Zones: 5 to 9; purple fountain grass 9 to 10, annual elsewhere. Height and habit: 2 to 6 feet, arching or upright.

More Fall Bloomers Worth a Look

A few less famous perennials round out the season. Mexican bush sage sends up tall spikes of velvet purple flowers with aromatic foliage from late summer to fall in zones 8 to 10. Blue mist shrub (caryopteris) hums with bees, its powder blue flower clusters covering slender stems in early fall. Helenium brings rich hues of copper and gold, and bugbane opens fragrant white flower spikes in part shade. None of them are hard to grow in well drained soil and full sun, and all of them stretch the fall blooming season another few weeks.

Annual Flowers for Nonstop Fall Color

Annual flowers do not care about zones. Plant them, and their colorful blooms run flat out until frost ends the party, making months of easy color from a few dollars of plants.

Celosia

Celosia's velvet plumes and rippled combs come in red, orange, and gold, the exact warm tones of the season. It blooms from summer to fall without a pause, shrugs off heat, and the flowers dry beautifully for wreaths.

Bloom time: summer to frost. Sun: full sun. Height and habit: 6 inches to 3 feet, upright.

African Daisies

African daisies are cool-season bloomers. Their daisy like flowers open heavy in spring, sulk through high summer, then come roaring back once nights turn crisp, in purple, white, orange, and moody metallic shades. Perennial only in zones 10 and 11, but worth replanting every year.

Bloom time: spring, then again early fall to frost. Sun: full sun. Height and habit: 1 to 2 feet, mounded.

Pansies and Violas

Plant pansies in early fall and they will bloom through the cool months, shrug off a light freeze, and in mild climates flower straight into winter. Their tiny flowers read cheerful in beds, window boxes, and hanging baskets when the rest of the garden is going to sleep.

Bloom time: fall through spring in mild climates. Sun: full sun to partial shade. Height and habit: 4 to 8 inches, low and tidy.

Marigolds

Marigolds bloom continuously in gold, rust, and orange from late spring until frost, ask for nothing, and grow easily from seed. Old-fashioned for a reason.

Bloom time: late spring to frost. Sun: full sun. Height and habit: 6 inches to 3 feet, bushy.

Using Fall Flowers in the Landscape

A good fall landscape leans on layers. Put the tall growers, dahlias, Mexican bush sage, and the taller ornamental grasses, at the back of borders, then let mid-height plants like asters, goldenrod, and helenium fill the middle. Low, mounding flowers, mums, pansies, and sedum, edge the front. Mixing flower shapes matters as much as height: daisies, plumes, spikes, and flat clusters give the eye variety even when the colors repeat.

Containers earn their keep in autumn, too. A big pot of mums flanked by pansies and trailing ivy will carry a doorstep from September to Thanksgiving, and window boxes planted with violas keep making color long after the beds fade. Fall is also when garden roses produce a late season flush, since cooler nights deepen their shades of pink, red, and yellow.

For structure, pair all those flowers with shrubs that turn: oakleaf hydrangea goes wine red, and itea burns orange. The shrubs hold the bones of the garden while the vibrant annuals and perennials do the flashy work. Plant in drifts of three or five rather than singles; fall color reads best in generous strokes.

Fall Flowers That Hold Up in a Vase

Cut flowers play by different rules. What thrives in borders does not always last in water, and a few garden divas fall apart the day after you cut them.

Mums are the workhorse of fall floral arrangements. Two weeks in a vase is normal if you change the water every couple of days. Asters, sunflowers, roses, and hypericum berries all give you a solid week or more, and dried wheat and grasses last indefinitely. Sunflowers anchor most fall bouquets for good reason; they are sturdy, they read instantly as autumn, and their meaning, loyalty and adoration, suits nearly any occasion. Dahlias are the trade-off. They are gorgeous and they die fast, dropping petals by day three. Enjoy them from your own garden tonight; do not build a gift around them.

Our designers build fall flower arrangements around exactly these stems. Expressions of Fall leads with big sunflower faces backed by chrysanthemums and daisies; Sunset Harvest mixes sunflowers with dried wheat and red hypericum berries for that gathered-from-the-field look. For a dinner table, low fall centerpieces like our mum-heavy Ember keep the sightlines clear across the food. And when a plant makes more sense than a bouquet, potted mums carry a porch clear through Thanksgiving.

Every arrangement is hand-delivered by a local florist, never boxed and shipped, and if a stem is out of season our designers substitute one of equal or greater value. Order by 2:00 PM Monday through Saturday, or noon on Sunday, in the recipient's local time zone, and same-day delivery is available in most areas.

Planting and Care Notes for a Fall Garden

Plant perennials at least six weeks before your first frost date so the roots establish before the ground cools. Water them in well, then mulch to hold moisture and buffer the freeze-thaw swings. Almost everything on this list wants well drained soil; soggy winter feet kill more fall flowers than cold does.

Most fall bloomers want full sun, six hours minimum. The drought tolerant natives, black eyed susans, goldenrod, and sedum among them, actually perform better without pampering. Deadhead asters and dahlias to keep new buds coming, but leave the ornamental grasses and sedum standing through winter; the seed heads feed birds and the structure looks good under frost.

Think about pollinators, too. Late summer and fall nectar is scarce, and a fall garden full of asters, sedum, and goldenrod keeps bees and butterflies fed right up to the hard freeze, long after the summer flowers are gone. If deer are the problem, lean on grasses, anemones, and bee balm; they walk past all three.

Keep Your Autumn Garden Going

The trick to a fall garden that never fizzles is overlap. Stagger bloom time so something new is always opening: black eyed susans and bee balm bridge the summer to fall gap, asters and mums peak mid-season, and autumn crocus plus ornamental grasses close out the year. Do that, and your borders carry real color from late summer to the first hard freeze.

If you are planning the other end of the calendar, our guide to the best summer flowers covers the hand-off in reverse. And when the garden finally goes quiet, you can shop all our flowers for hand-arranged fall color, designed and delivered by a family shop that has been doing this since 1903.