Henry Homeyer: Autumn isn’t just for orange leaves

By Henry Homeyer
©2026 Telegraph Publishing LLC

In baseball terms, this season is not the last inning for our gardens. It’s more like the seventh inning stretch. Many flowers have finished up and are dying back, but a few are yet to come.

Let’s take a look, starting with two bulb plants that have not come up yet in my garden, but will soon: Autumn crocus (Colchicum speciosum) and saffron crocus (Crocus sativus). The first are not true crocus, but resemble crocus on steroids.

They send up big leaves in the spring to provide the bulbs with the energy needed for fall blooming, then they die back and disappear. In September the blossoms appear, but without any leaves. Their blossoms resemble crocus blossoms, but are 4- to 5-inches long and appear on 5-inch stems. For me, these pink or white blossoms usually flop over but still look good. And they can last in a vase for a few days.

Planted in August, saffron crocus blooms that same year in October or November. Each beautiful little blue flower has 3 stamens, which when picked and dried, is used in cooking and is fabulously expensive.

The crocus bulb that blooms this fall produces several little bulbs around the “mother corm,” then dies. Those little corms may bloom the next year, but might not. I’ve grown them, but haven’t had luck getting blossoms in year two, probably because they need full sun and I planted mine in part sun.

But on to the reliable fall bloomers. Grocery stores and garden centers are selling pots of annual chrysanthemums many pots with 100 blossoms or more. They are a sure antidote for the end-of summer blues! They’re bright and colorful – good for the front steps or to replace annuals that melt after the first timid frost. Be sure to water them regularly if they’re on your front steps in a peat pot, as they dry out quickly.

Then there are the perennials, most of them tall and bold. Right now, in bloom, a few I have are white mugwort, goldenrod, Joe Pye weed, sneezeweed and black-eyed Susans,

Although its cousin, common mugwort (Artemesia vulgaris), is a pernicious weed that spreads vigorously by root and seeds, white mugwort (Artemesia lactiflora) stays in tidy clumps three-feet tall with masses of delicate white flowers. My mugwort is finishing up its bloom cycle now.

Goldenrod can be weedy, but there are certain species that are not. ‘Fireworks’ is a named variety that is a clumper, and is very lovely, 3- to 4- feet tall. Pollinators love goldenrod, so don’t dismiss it. Those sold at garden  centers are probably not weedy.

Most of you know Joe Pye Weed, a tall, spreading native plant that has been blooming since mid-August and still looks good and attracts pollinators. Last year a large flock of Monarchs stopped in one day to fill their gas tanks with nectar before the flight to Mexico! It does best with rich, moist soil in sun or part sun.

There are now shorter cultivars available for sale, though I haven’t tried any. ‘Little Joe’ sounds good, but is still 3- to 5-feet tall in 2- to 3-foot wide clumps. I have a full sized variety called Gateway that is 6-to 8-feet tall and has spread over the decades, to a 10-foot wide clump. Not for the small cottage garden!

Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) is a lovely 3- to 6-foot tall flower in the aster family that does not make you sneeze, though it was used as snuff long ago, hence the name. It comes with pure yellow flowers, or with orange, red or brown petals mixed in. It needs full or part sun and is best in the back of a perennial bed as it has “bad legs,” meaning the leaves on lower parts of the stem tend to brown up early.

You all know the Black-eyed Susans, so I will only mention a variety called ‘Henry Eilers,’ which is very tall and has petals separated by spaces like the teeth on a Jack-O-Lantern. Six-feet-tall in an ever-expanding clump, it needs to be staked.

Some shrubs and trees have leaves with wonderful fall color, a few even bloom in late fall. Of the bloomers there are many kinds of hydrangeas, seven-son flower tree (Heptacodium miconioides) and the witch hazel tree (Hamamelis virginiana), which blooms in October and November with ribbon-like flowers.

Of the hydrangeas, I like ‘Pink Diamond’ best for its big conical panicles on stiff, non-flopping stems. At age 20, mine is 15-feet tall and wide. But ‘Quick Fire’ is a great smaller one – I keep mine pruned to 4-feet tall and wide with an annual cutting back of last-year’s blossoms in the spring. That also stimulates more blossoms. They start out white in early summer, mature to pink and red in the fall – and look good all summer. And of course, the Pee-Gee hydrangea is an old favorite that does get big.

For foliage color, you can’t beat fothergilla (Fothergill major). A slow-growing native, fothergilla displays red, yellow, orange and purple leaves late in the fall. In spring it has early white bottlebrush flowers.

But if you lament the demise of burning bush, now on the invasive species list, look for a disanthus (Disanthus cercidifolius). The leaves turn a rich purple and holds on to them till late in October. It is hard to find in nurseries, so if you see one, grab it! It stays as a medium to large shrub that likes sun to part sun.

Enjoy the fall, and make sure you have some plants that will make you want to stroll your gardens, camera in hand.