Garden Guide: These summer plants look BETTER in Autumn
The News12 summer garden is looking better than ever because the summer loving plants we are growing love autumn just as much!
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Our long summer days are gone, but you wouldn’t guess it when you look at the warm weather plants in our garden. Here are a few that look great this time of the year.
Best of all? Many of them are easy to store inside over the winter so you can grow them again next year!
Cannas
These tropical perennials grow very quickly in hot and humid weather and by September they are huge and loaded with flower buds that will keep blooming right up until the first frost.
The canna plants in our garden are 8-10 feet tall, but if you’re looking for a smaller plant, there are dwarf canna varieties that will stay 3 feet tall or less.
Elephant ears
Who says you need flowers to have lots of color. These heart shaped leaves bring an instant tropical flair to any garden. They start off very small in spring, but grow massive leaves and can be quite large at the end of the season. Alocasia, also known as upright elephant ears, can grow larger but typically do not grow as quickly as Colocasia.
Elephant ears grow from underground tubers that can be dug up and stored in a cool garage during the winter. Just cut the leaves up right before the first freeze and dig the plant up! I store mine in the garage but they make great houseplants.
Brugmansia
These tropical shrubs, known as angel trumpets, don't look like much when they aren't in bloom, but the flowers will turn heads! The trumpet-shaped blooms are more than a foot long and have an incredible fragrance at night. Flowers develop when a Brugmansia is large enough, usually after it starts to branch out. Blooms happen sporadically during the summer, but are at their best in late summer and Autumn. Late in the season, the plant often has more blooms than leaves!
Marigolds
These tender annuals won't survive a freeze, but the orange colors are perfect for a fall color palette and they're very popular in Mexico for Día de los Muertos celebrations
September and October is one of the best months of the year to enjoy summer plants. They'll keep blooming, fueled by the energy they acquired from long summer days, and the typically dry weather we get in autumn helps the blooms survive for much longer than they otherwise would. Happy Gardening!
