Hardy asters, sedum, crocuses is stuff colorful fall gardens can be made of

Fall is an excellent time of year to be alive and out of doors. The quality of the air and sunlight is unique to the season, and it lends a certain poignancy to the last golden hours of the garden. Azure skies and flaming foliage provide exquisite backdrop to the garden’s last hurrahs.

But most Mainers have little to do with fall gardening, I find. Sales of potted mums in our area are just a fraction of what they are in southern New England. Flowering cabbage and kale, fast gaining in popularity elsewhere, are still uncommon around here. In the south, fall pansies are big business, but in Maine there is a general sense that winter is just around the corner, so why not surrender?

The inevitability of snowfall and endless cold is precisely why we owe it to ourselves to plant as much for fall color as possible. Extending the gardening season as late into autumn and as early in the spring as possible is our best defense against the harshness of Maine’s winters.

I haven’t done it yet, but I plan to assemble a fall garden with all my favorite autumn blooming perennials in one spot. I’ll add a bench and maybe a bird bath and then plan on enjoying as much of Indian summer there as I can. Fall, after all, is a separate season, with its own palate and aroma, to be enjoyed as fully and anticipated as eagerly as summer.

Asters head the list of fall perennials. American natives, these plants had to travel to Europe, like the potato and sunflower, for breeding and improvement. Now they are back to delight us. The great German breeder Ernst Benary (developer of Non Stop tuberous begonias, among many others) has recently introduced the aster series `Composition Mixture.’ The flower size and doubleness is superb, as are the many shades of blue, purple and pink. Foliage is darker than native types and less prone to blighting and rusting. Best of all, the plants are very full, well branched, and generally refined.

Other asters to look for include September Ruby and Alma Potschke, both reds. Marie Ballard is a highly double, lavender flowered gem. Companions with similar habit would be Boltonia Snowbank with white flowers and aster Golden Showers with clear yellow blooms.

Even taller than asters and in the same family is Helenium or sneezeweed. Four to five feet of clear yellow flowers (bronze or red have also been developed), these giants give abundant color to the back of the garden and are superb cut flowers as well.

Fall blooming sedum (Sedum spectabilie) is absolutely indispensable to the garden. Its succulent foliage grows in an expanding dome all summer, a cool grey-green. Then it explodes with large mid-pink inflorescences at this time of year. Autumn joy is the most commonly offered variety, but others are available in different flower shades.

Fall blooming crocuses (Colchicum autumnale) are all but unknown locally, it seems. They are absolutely hardy and the pink blooms are several times larger than spring crocuses. Many related species are available from specialty bulb houses. Grow them!

Anemone japonica is another fall blooming rarity. Prince Henry and Robustissima are two named varieties, pink and white respectively, that are true musts in the autumn border.

Add to these autumnal stalwarts any of the repeat blooming summer perennials (e.g. Trollius, Dicentra, Stella d’Oro daylily) and the garden will rival June in interest and diversity. A few mums, cabbages and pansies would fill in the foreground nicely.

I must plant that garden.

Michael Zuck of Bangor is a horticulturist and the NEWS garden columnist. Send inquiries to him at 2106 Essex St., Bangor, Maine 04401.