Festive fall color just a footstep away
Look low, not up in the trees, for vibrant autumn color in an Austin garden. Our trees tend not to turn until early December. But fall-flowering perennials provide plenty of pizzazz until then. Right now in my garden I’m enjoying golden thryallis (Galphimia gracilis), which blooms all summer but turns it up a notch with fall’s cooler temperatures.
Out front at curbside, my neighbor’s garden is a festive explosion of autumn sage (Salvia greggii), dwarf Mexican firebush (Hamelia patens ‘Compacta’), orange lantana, and Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha), all surrounding a young but fast-growing ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave (A. ovatifolia).
Purple-flowering Salvia leucantha and orange lantana make a classic fall combo in Austin.
Color can come from garden art too!
Mexican firebush (Hamelia patens) adds more orange blooms, along with handsome, orange-tinged leaves.
‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave (A. ovatifolia) and autumn sage (Salvia greggii)
‘Wendy’s Wish’ salvia is new to my garden this year. It bloomed beautifully all summer in dappled shade and proved completely deer resistant. It’s considered a tender perennial in Austin. Fingers crossed that it returns next spring.
All summer I anticipate the fall flowering of my ‘Pink Flamingos’ muhly, a cross between our native Gulf muhly and Lindheimer muhly grasses. Early this month the sparkling pink inflorescences appeared — and then they flopped in the heavy rains…
… and they’ve draped lazily across the hot-pink Salvia greggii ever since.
Still quite pretty, although not quite the effect I was going for.
Pale pavonia (Pavonia hastata), another tender perennial, would look pretty with the pinks of the muhly and salvia, but it’s growing in the island bed in the driveway, where it seeded itself from a mother plant long gone.
In the back garden, our native fall aster (A. oblongifolius) is in full bloom, along with summer-blooming plumbago (P. auriculata) that still has legs. A blue disappearing fountain adds permanent color to the scene.
Hmm, I sense a theme — vivid color — in my garden decor. Under the red-orange circle planter from Potted and a red Austin sign, the cobalt blooms of black-and-blue sage (Salvia guaranitica) feed migrating hummingbirds.
But it’s almost Halloween, and a little ghostly white is not unwelcome in the fall-flowering garden. One of the latest bloomers in my garden is shrubby white boneset, aka white mistflower (Ageratina havanensis), which is just opening its spicy-scented sprays. I like the way the white flowers look with the silver gleam of the culvert-pipe planters. Soon bees and butterflies will be drawn to the lure of the mistflower.
The garden is also quite spider friendly, and we have a big one on the front porch. Visitors, beware!
All material © 2006-2013 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Fun garden and decor. That spider found the perfect spot.
The front is pretty and looking well established now. Bright and colorful blooms show up best in our sunny fall weather. It’s always something with the garden, pink muhly here is holding its blooms down in the plant and I’m missing the tall wavy plumes from last year.
Crazy muhly grasses! You know, I have had zero success in my own garden with Gulf muhly. It seems to be one of those plants that doesn’t like me, which drives me crazy since I see it looking so lovely all over town. —Pam
The Agave (Jaws?) in the tire rim is looking so good. I loved seeing all your vibrant color. I’m sick of gray fog already.
Yes, ‘Jaws’ is growing by leaps and bounds and getting quite a set of teeth on him. Rawr! I’m sorry about your gray fog, Alison. I thought you were having an Indian summer in the PacNW? —Pam
Love the ‘Pink Flamingos’! That’s always the risk we take with fall-bloomers, isn’t it…them getting beaten down by rain. Still, it’s lovely…perhaps I will risk it too 🙂
Oh, you need this one, Scott! It’s big and bodacious in bloom, and has pretty, blue-green foliage spring-fall. —Pam
I frequently see plants I like and have never heard of, like the Galphimia and Pavonia here, in your posts. While many of these aren’t suited to our SoCal climate, a surprising number, like these 2, ostensibly fit my zone 10b garden. I think some of those Texas growers need to set their sites on the California market.
Kris, I wonder that these Central (Galphimia gracilis) and South American (Pavonia hastata) plants aren’t available in the SoCal market. They do seem very well suited to your region, arguably even more so than to central Texas, where the occasional sustained hard freeze may kill them. —Pam
The garden looks great. So much color. The pale pavonia is sold as Brazilian rock rose in Dallas. I found it to be fully winter hardy in this area, although it did not survive my wrath when it reseeded more freely than I wanted.
Pale pavonia is often sold under “Brazilian rock rose” here as well. Interesting that Dallas winters didn’t kill it off in your garden. It didn’t survive the hard freeze of 2011 in my garden. But it reseeds freely, so here it is again. —Pam
Love all of this late year color. The spider is so welcoming, especially at this time of year.
You’re a spider lover, I see! —Pam
I love how you always identify the plants because I have many of the same but am always forgetting their names! (working on making decent plant tags now) LOVE the spider!
I figure, you never know who’s reading — maybe someone new to gardening who doesn’t know all these plants yet — so I try to be diligent about identifying them. I’m glad it’s come in handy for you too, Cheryl. 🙂 —Pam
Gorgeous color Pam! I especially like your entrance “potted garden”….all the bronzes…and rusts….it is so calming….
I have been surprisingly restrained out front, Heather. 😉 —Pam
Yes, the garden is taking off this fall. I have planting fever and want to put a few new Salvias in the garden this fall.
I DID order them from California. And I got a notice from UPS that the train they were on was derailed. I have never had such a thing happen to a plant order before. I hope those Salvia are tough! They going to take a bit longer to get here.
That IS bizarre, Sharrie. Poor plants! —Pam
Hello Pam,
Great pics as always. I remember the last time you mentioned the hybrid muhly “pink flamingos” and have been looking for it at our local garden stores with no luck. Any idea where to find any of these for purchase this fall in Austin?
Thanks as always, and keep it up!
I’ve seen it in previous years at The Great Outdoors, Michael. You might check and see if they’re carrying it this fall. —Pam
The good news is the thryallis is 100% deer proof. I have a young one at the edge of the woods and the deer havent touched it.
The bad news is I read it would only get 5 ft tall, so I planted one in the front yard. Yours looks 7 ft tall..wow!!
Great pics, as usual.
It’s about 6 feet tall, I’d guess — bigger than I expected too. But with pruning it can be kept shorter, and a hard winter would knock it back, so don’t be too worried. —Pam