Want to have colorful plants in your garden from September to November? Fall-flowering perennials and plants with colorful fall foliage can extend the life of your garden past the summer growing season and to the first icy days of winter.

Fall-Flowering Perennials

For fall-flowering perennials, you have more choices than you might think! There are fall-flowering options among shrubs, smaller plants, and even ornamental grasses.

Fall-flowering shrubs include:

• Butterfly Bushes
• Hydrangeas
• Rose of Sharon Shrubs
• Crape Myrtles
• And more!

Smaller fall-flowering perennials include summer bloomers with long seasons that extend into fall, along with plants that only start blooming once the days get shorter.

Some perennials with autumn-blooming varieties include:

• Lavender plants
• Irises
• Coneflowers
• Delosperma (Ice Plant)
• Agastache

Or, if you're looking for flowering plants to fill a specific need this autumn, you have options there as well:

• Container gardening plants for colorful container gardening even in autumn.
• Drought-tolerant plants for areas that don't get much rain in the fall.
• Native plants for easy autumn plant care.
• Winter interest plants for plants that will bloom in fall and still look great in the garden during winter.

Ornamental grasses are used in landscaping for their foliage more than their blooms, but flowers add late-season interest to these fall-blooming ornamental grasses.

And if you grow a culinary garden, there are even some herb plants that bloom in fall!

Plants With Colorful Fall Foliage

Flowers aren't the only garden stars, especially in the fall. Add these plants with unique or colorful fall foliage to your garden for visual interest that doesn't rely on blooms.

Heucheras

Heucheras, commonly called Coral Bells, are shade plants with evergreen foliage. Their leaves have an oakleaf-like shape and come in a wide variety of colors, including many shades of green, yellow, and red, as well as variegated varieties.

Sedums

Succulent plants that do best in dry soil and full sun, sedums have interesting foliage in shades ranging from greens to coppers to silvers. The foliage often changes colors with the seasons. Sedums work especially well as ground covers or in rock gardens.

Evergreen Perennials

Perennials with evergreen foliage keep their leaves all year, though they may change color throughout the seasons. Some plants are evergreen in certain planting zones and semi-evergreen in others, so be sure to check how a plant performs in your zone for optimal fall interest.

Semi-Evergreen Perennials

Semi-evergreen perennials typically lose their foliage for just a short time in colder months. Many keep their leaves throughout the fall. Examples of semi-evergreen perennials with fall interest include Variegated Liriope and Blue Moon Woodland Phlox. 

In addition to the plants mentioned here, there are even more plants with great fall color to add to your garden this autumn!