Put a plant ring around the sedum when it's young and it won't flop.

I have asters, sunflowers (perennial ones that smell like cocoa...forgot the name), mums, rudbeckia of all kinds, tall flowering grasses, verbascum, and various annuals that steal the show right now.

Oh I forgot euonymous, hydrangea, pjm rhododendrons, kolkwitzia, and rugosa roses look great as well as tiarella leaves and the new rosettes of next year's foxgloves.

This post was edited by susanzone5 on Mon, Sep 16, 13 at 8:37

The first 2 plants that pop into my mind (I know there are others) are Peonies and Heuchera 'Crimson Curls'.

Even though Peonies foliage is a bit boring in color, the plants stay nice and neat and mounded throughout the season and the leaf shape is kind of interesting. I'm starting to get some mildew, but not very much.

Heuchera 'Crimson Curls' is one of those Heuchera that just seems to get better as the season progresses. So many Heuchera bleach out or get tired looking by the end of summer. This one doesn't. In fact, I think the colors intensify.

Kevin

Wow, Kevin, my peonies look like cr*p by the end of July!

My creeping sedum looks great, as always. Hydrangeas are looking good, ferns, tiarellas, calycarpa & caryopteris, pieris, azaleas - and obviously the fall bloomers look good - mums, montauk daisies, etc. My ever-spreading swath of native goldenrod is looking gorgeous

My hostas are starting to fade, but most likely more from my neglect than the end of the season - they really needed some water the last few weeks and I just wasn't there for them.

Normally my fothergilla would be doing well, but I moved it in the spring and it never recovered. I hope it will make it through the winter and rebound.

Dee

Where we live: asters, especially New England asters

Picture, front, Oct 5, 2012.
'Alma Pötschke'; other is smooth aster 'Bluebird'

They're just coming into bloom this year.

I like those colors with the brick!
Mums are starting to make buds here and the not quite hardy salvias are looking great. My sedums look real nice too, they were divided midsummer and seem to like the elbow room. Limelight hydrangea and tiger eyes sumac are also nice. One is winding down the other keeps getting better.
I'm not looking forward to frost.

Good point, Kato.

Must admit I initially look to magenta in the garden because Gertrude Jekyll preached against it.

Not big on garden gurus; tend to identify with the actual gardeners whose skills make things possible.

This post was edited by SunnyBorders on Sat, Sep 14, 13 at 15:35

PM2, the question here is what doesn't look good! The garden is just hitting its stride. There are a handful of perennials that are spent, but so many still going, and the shrubs and trees will soon be putting on their fall show. I LOVE this time of year on the garden!

My favorite is aromatic aster. I winter sowed some seeds of this aster a few years ago and managed to get two seedlings to survive into full grown plants (the seeds have a very low germination rate) and I'm glad that I was able to. Beautiful plants when in full bloom, covered in small blue flowers, and the scent of the foliage reminds me of lavender and hay combined when slightly crushed. I shear them back a couple of times early in the summer until the first week of July like I do with mums to keep them tidy otherwise they look scraggly.

Karen

Picture from last year on October 15th.

Daphne 'Carol Mackie' foliage is spectacular (I'm guessing thanks to all the rain we've had this year). Many of my designer hostas are also putting on a show I hope never to see again--they're half-again the size they normally grow thanks to all the rain this season. It wouldn't be an issue except I only allotted them their maximum amount of space when I first planted them a number of years ago in accordance with my carefully designed garden plan. It's a bit disconcerting to have a hosta grow to twice its normal size when you didn't plan or allow space for it!

Heuchera are going to take up much more real estate in my garden beds hereafter since they provide such carefree contrast to other perennials. What's not to like about them when they require nothing and give so much? The pollinators love them and I'm inclined to let them stake their claim. I planted three 'Palace Purple' heucheras in my part-sun bed several years ago and I've not had to do a thing since other than enjoy them along with the bees.

Put a plant ring around the sedum when it's young and it won't flop.

Sorry... that's not been my experience with either 'Autumn Joy' or 'Blackjack' sedum--both plants flop in full sun as well as part sun in my own as well as a friend's garden. I haven't found that peony rings solve the problem. It's discouraging but nonetheless I'll grow them for the pollinators.

My ornamental grasses are spectacular this year--Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster' and Alopecuroides 'Hameln' generally put on a lovely, graceful show but this year they've been such a reward thanks to the frequent winds that send their fronds swaying.

Toad lily is just coming into bloom looking delicate & pretty. NOID hydrangea continues to look awesome even with no blooms to speak of.

The foliage of Fleeceflower/Persicaria virginiana has turned brown in recent days but up until then was putting on its annual variegated show. The chevrons on each leaf provide an interesting contrast to hosta, pulmonaria/lungwort & Lenten rose.

The leaves of oakleaf hydrangea turn a burgundy and persist. Winterberry holly, unlike other hollies, loses its leaves but the large bright berries remain well into spring. Although I have no personal experience with witch hazel (I know, it's not a shrub so it doesn't belong here ... still...) but its spider like flowers in January and Feburary would be an eye opener.

Susan, I might have to use a ring. I am wondering though if it might help to divide the plants. I noticed they are huge this year. Verbascums are one of my favorites, have yours been blooming all season or are you getting rebloom? Another plant that flopped for me this year.

Kevin, no Peonies here, but, like Dee, when I did have them, the foliage was awful by August. My heucheras do okay, but I havenâÂÂt had one that got better as the season progressed. IâÂÂll have to look for that one.

Dee, most of my Hostas look pretty good still, but have a couple that are ratty. One I can think of, didnâÂÂt get enough water, so maybe that is the reason.

SBorders, another very colorful shot of your garden. Great! I love that mass of asters you have blooming and whoever chose the colors did a great job. Really looks nice with the house.

Kato, my Mums are still in bud stage too.

Thyme2dig, well, your garden is just one amazing season after another, and having seen your fall color, I am quite jealous! :-)

Tepelus, thatâÂÂs a very sweet aster!

Gardenweed, Hostas did have a very good year and still have plenty of room here. Heucheras like more moisture than I usually have, I want to love them, but they donâÂÂt love me as much. Sounds like your garden is having a great year!

Terratoma, I do enjoy the foliage on Oakleaf Hydrangea, unfortunately, all my flowers have turned dead brown, which is very annoying and not attractive at all. Witch Hazel is a shrub IâÂÂve wanted for awhile, maybe next spring.

Thanksâ¦.lots of nice Fall gardens here!

The Beauty Berry Bush is a first year one for me. Actually, it is in year three, but this is the first year it has really been full of berries. I love the shape of it.

Has anyone propagated it or started one from seed?

PM2, I started the verbascum from seed, so they have just started to bloom. I've never divided my autumn joy sedum. I bet the new plants would still grow tall and try to flop.

PM2, I started the verbascum from seed, so they have just started to bloom. I've never divided my autumn joy sedum. I bet the new plants would still grow tall and try to flop.

RyseRyse, I haven't tried that Beautyberry bush yet. It has very unusual colored berries!

Susan, I haven't tried Verbascum from seed, do they have different varieties available from seed? I've had 'Violette' and 'Southern Comfort' which were very pretty. 'Violette' has been short lived for me, I've tried them twice. 'Southern Comfort' has come back but I've lost some plants. This year this is the one that wouldn't stay erect. I wonder if my soil is not lean enough, as I do seem to have more flopping than I would have expected.

This is the season for blooms on the Blue Beard - Caryopteris Longwood Blue- and Fairy Snow Caryopteris. And of course the usual fall plants are showing their colors here in western PA:
Mums
Asters
Sedum

Both Rozanne and Jolly Bee Cranesbill are still in full bloom. My Orkney Cherry has been blooming since spring and is still also blooming.

Linda

This is the season for blooms on the Blue Beard - Caryopteris Longwood Blue- and Fairy Snow Caryopteris. And of course the usual fall plants are showing their colors here in western PA:
Mums
Asters
Sedum

Both Rozanne and Jolly Bee Cranesbill are still in full bloom. My Orkney Cherry has been blooming since spring and is still also blooming.

Linda

During the past decade, I have made a very conscious
effort to expand my Fall garden display, so that right
now, today, my garden has 30+ perennials in bloom!
The roses continue - three different "Knockouts",
"Claire Austin", "Europeana", "The Fairy" - as do the
two abelias, "Edward Goucher" and "Little Richard",
and the two different hypericums and delosperma.
Along with all the lovely grasses and plants that others have already mentioned - and some surprising reblooms from the monarda "Raspberry Wine",
geranium "New Hampshire Purple" and hemerocallis "Happy Reurns" - some of my Fall favorites blooming now are: kirengashomas, ceratostigma, leucoseptrum,
solidago "Fireworks", numerous sedums (but especially
the cascading "Lidakense") chelone "Hot Lips", gentiana,
eupatorium "Chocolate", anemone "Honorine Jobert".

Full of buds and still to come: aster oblongifolius "Raydon's Favorite", aconitum carmichaeli, and many species chrysanthemums.

Non-flowering, but looking great: callicarpa "Early
Amethyst, and the white-berried sibling,"Duet"; all the
bright red seed pods on the Cornus kousa; clusters
of berries on all the viburnums and ilex verticillata,
as well as the aronia "Brilliantisima".

Most years, I still manage to have some things still
blooming right up to Thanksgiving. . .did I mention that
Fall is my favorite season in the garden ?

Carl

You know Carl, I just realized - I don't think you've ever posted photos of your garden. How bout it? ;)

I forgot about anemones. Yes, mine look good too. My poor monkshood got trampled last week. Its at the base of a triple-trunked oak tree, which had to be cabled because I noticed a month ago that the trunk was split to the ground! So to save the tree, the monkshood was sacrificed... hopefully just for this year!

Dee

Linlily, I just planted 'fairy snow' this year and I really like how the flowers are so different than any other caryopteris I have.

RyseRyse, your beautyberry will propagate itself when it's ready. I get an abundance of seedlings, but it took about 5 years before I saw any. Give it a couple more years and you should see some.

Carl, fall is great, isn't it! I look around the garden and drool about the fall foliage that is about to come on all the trees and shrubs. We had friends over today and I had so much fun showing the the red, orange, black, pink, purple and other berries.
I planted a 'duet' this year because I love callicarpa and I really liked the variegated foliage. I never looked into it though and until you posted had no idea it will have white berries. None this year. It's still a pipsqueak.

Anyone use aster 'snow flurry' in the fall garden? I love it. It's a very low, white aster. Doesn't look like much most of the season and I always threaten them with the shovel, but in a couple weeks they'll show me why they're worth staying in the garden.

The sweet autumn clematis is soooooo loud right now. The bees are going nuts!

One I forgot to mention in my earlier post is Gaura lindheimeri/wandflower. I thought it didn't come back this year even though I grew it from seed via winter sowing + it's supposed to be hardy in my zone but lo and behold it's not only growing & blooming, it's doing so with gusto. Since the bees love it I was bummed when I didn't see it earlier in the season. Now I'm thrilled it's blooming in all the beds where I originally planted it.

Liatris aspera started blooming in mid-Aug and has 2 more sections yet to bloom, over 5 ft tall. Otherwise, summer flowers that just keep on truckin' such as Miss Huff lantana, salvias and my new passionflower. Salvia 'Amistad' on either side, ready for fall migration.

{{gwi:268530}}

Sunnyborders, excuse this newbie, but what is that magenta flower you have in your front beds? LOVE that color (may need some! ha)

If you trim the Sedum back in June or July, it makes it shorter and bushier and will help with flopping (blooms may be a little smaller). Or grow in a super lean dry location.

My peony foliage looks pretty good except for Duchess de Nemours. She gets brown foliage and looks crappy while the ones growing 4 feet away are fine!

Asters are just coming in, and Alma Potschke has lots of buds this year, but the lower foliage looks terrible. Aster cordifolius has the nicest foliage of all my asters.

Many hostas look good. Geranium Rozanne is a workhorse. Blooms and foliage still look great. What a long bloomer.

PG79, it's a fast growing New England aster, of medium height, called 'Alma Pötschke', the cultivar name.

Agree with you. It's my favourite aster and one of my favourite perennials!

The full cultivar name could be taken as 'Andenken an Alma Pötschke' (Royal Horticultural Society). That translates from German as "Memory of Alma Pötschke".