Best Hardy Perennials to Plant in Fall

Amsonia is a spring-flowering perennial that provides foliage and texture interest throughout summer. It's also known as Arkansas Blue Star.

In season, light periwinkle blue flowers twinkle above dark green, threadleaf leaves. It is heat tolerant and deer resistant.

In fall, amsonia foliage glows yellow. It’s a lovely understory plant for azaleas and hydrangeas and Japanese maples, but keep it in full sun. Amsonia is winter hardy to zone 4.

Baptisia is a native cultivar that’s hardy in zones 4 to 9. It loves full sun and average to poor well-drained soil. It’s deer-resistant and drought tolerant once established.

Its blue flowers earned it the common name false indigo. Baptisia blooms in late spring to early summer. Decorative seed pods follow in fall. Look for baptisia cultivars that form compact, upright mounds. Most reach 3 feet tall when mature.

Coneflower, also called echinacea, is a resilient plant that rewards with late summer blooms. The butterflies and bees love it, too.

Echinacea needs little to thrive. Just plant in average soil in a bed where it will get six or more hours of sun. Help it through hot, dry times with a blanket of mulch to retain moisture. Coneflower forms clumps that can be divided after a few years.

Look for coneflower seeds and seedlings in pink, red, orange, yellow and white. These beauties make excellent cut flowers. Deadhead spent blooms and keep the plant tidy. After a killing frost, leave the dried seed heads for birds to feed on through winter. In spring, prune back the dead stems and make way for new growth.

Coreopsis is a drought-friendly perennial with pretty blooms and wispy foliage. Commonly called tickseed, it grows in tough conditions like hellstrips. That's the tricky space between sidewalk and street.

You can grow coreopsis from seed or seedling. Be sure to transplant into well-draining soil in a full sun site. The blooms form in clumps and multiply to fill up your garden. Picking off dead blooms promotes an abundance of flowers.

Looking for sizzle in your garden this fall? Consider gaillardia or blanket flower. This hardy perennial looks like a daisy and boasts a long blooming season. The full sun beauty is notably pest and disease resistant.

Grow gaillardia from seed or seedling. Sow seeds in average, well-draining soil after all danger of frost in spring. In the garden, lightly blanket seedlings with mulch to help retain moisture. Blanket flower started from seed likely won't bloom its first season. Make sure it’s watered and in well-draining soil and enjoy blooms in its second year. This plant prefers poor soil, so you can save the fertilizer for needier plants.

Sometimes called wand flower, gaura is a shrubby herbaceous perennial. Gaura loves hot summer sun and adapts well to clay soils. Amend the soil with organic compost to improve drainage. Gaura is drought-tolerant when established, and is hardy in zones 5 to 9.

Gaura has graceful bending stems filled with pink or white blooms that open in early summer. The narrow leaves vary from green to burgundy. The plant forms a clump and cultivars can be very compact, from 12 to 18 inches to about 3 feet or taller. Check plant labels for mature size and save smaller varieties for the front of your garden.

Gaura is a pollinator favorite, as well. And if that’s not enough to make you love gaura, it’s deer resistant, as well.

Hellebores are well known as Lenten rose, for the time that they bloom in the arc between late winter and early spring. The flowers are like downward-facing roses. Hellebores are beautiful plants with lovely foliage and blooms at a time just when spring blooms emerge.

Hellebores like shade. They can handle partial shade on the edge of a woodland, for example. Well-draining soil is key. When established, hellebores can handle times of drought, but keep a watering can handy in times of extreme heat.

Lenten rose is low-growing. The clumps reach about 18 inches high. Hellebores are hardy in zones 5 to 9. In cold zones prone to snow, mulch hellebores before winter weather sets in.

Commonly called coral bells for its sweet, petite flowers, heuchera is a foliage star in the garden. Leaves can be emerald green or pink or burgundy, even peach. Newer varieties have ruffled or wavy leaves as well.

Like Lenten rose, heuchera likes shade or part shade, and is a good choice for woodland edges. Unlike hellebores, some heuchera varieties can handle full sun situations. You’ll often see them planted in cool season planters with pansies.

Heuchera thrives in rich, well-draining soil. It's drought resistant once established. Plant with shade favorites like hellebores and hosta, but keep in mind that coral bells don’t like wet feet. For this reason, heuchera is a solid choice for container plantings.

Heuchera thrives in zones 4 to 9. In spring, nurture with a thin layer of compost, or a slow-release organic fertilizer.

Hostas are the most popular perennial for shade gardens for many reasons. Among them, distinctive foliage in shades of green and blue-gray, and sweet petite flowers on long stems that emerge as summer kicks in. They’re easy to plant, easy to grow and care for, easy to divide and share. There is just one downside: deer love them almost as much as gardeners do.

You can protect your hosta garden by placing the plants close to your house. Hostas perform well in containers, and that’s a simple fix. Create a deer-proof cage around your hosta collection with thin nylon wire like fishing line between poles. For more info, check out our guide on deer control.

Hostas are hardy from zones 3 to 9, needing just 30 days of cold temps for dormancy. When the ground warms up in spring, hardy hostas are back at it again, unfurling their tender shoots. Plant hostas from early spring to late summer, up to a month before the first frost in fall. Hostas prefer well-drained, slightly acidic soil. Be sure to work plenty of organic compost into the bed prior to planting.

Sometimes called windflower, Japanese anemone is a fall-flowering perennial with white or pink blooms against dark green foliage. Japanese anemone likes well-draining, rich soil in a partial shade site. Most cultivars thrive in zones 4 to 8.

Japanese anemone seedlings need a year to establish in your garden before you’ll see blooms. But, after establishing roots, the plants are low-maintenance and pest resistant.

Chrysanthemums and asters are colorful beacons of fall in the garden. Mums are part of the aster family, so all mums are asters, but not all asters are mums. In stores, be sure to purchase hardy mums, not florist mums. Hardy mums are perennial in zones 4 to 9. Florist mums are more delicate and act like annuals.

For best results with mums and asters, choose plants with lots of unopened buds. When you bring them home, water them thoroughly from the bottom.

Garden mums need at least six hours of sun a day, and fertile, well-drained soil. Dig planting holes twice as deep and wide as the the nursery pot. Mix in a generous spadeful of compost or packaged garden soil to give your plants an easy start. Learn more about growing mums in your garden.

Ornamental grasses add motion and texture to your garden. They look good most of the year, but fall is when they shine.

Popular ornamental grasses include varieties like Muhly grass, purple fountain grass, carex, switchgrass, maiden grass and zebra grass. These grasses grow big and can be landscape fixtures all by themselves, like pampas grass. There are small varieties, too, like "Little Bunny," to plant in the front of your flower border. There is an ornamental grass for every garden zone. And many perform well in containers. See our guide on the best ornamental grasses for your region.

Ornamental grasses are drought tolerant and thrive in average soil. Keep a layer of mulch around the base of the plants to suppress weeds and retain moisture in extreme heat. Ornamental grasses are pest and disease resistant. Apply slow release organic fertilizer once a year and prune in late winter.

Phlox is a garden mainstay for its easy-growing nature and wide color range. Look for phlox paniculata, also called garden phlox or border phlox, and plant in late summer and fall.

This upright perennial grows in clumps that reach 2 to 4 feet tall and 2 to 3 feet wide.

Phlox paniculata is hardy in zones 4 to 8. The colorful panicles of flowers bloom July to September. Keep phlox watered during hot spells, and if you live in an area with high humidity, you may spot powdery mildew.

To prevent powdery mildew, look for mildew-resistant cultivars and give them room for air circulation. Healthy phlox plants will need dividing every few years. See how to divide perennials.

Known commonly as brown-eyed Susan, rudbeckia is a tough plant that you’ll always want growing in your garden. Brown-eyed Susans act like biennials or short-lived perennials. Take advantage of rudbeckia's self-sowing nature and spread the new seedlings throughout your garden.

The daisy-like flowers attract butterflies and thrive in zones 3 to 7. Rudbeckia is low-maintenance and drought tolerant. Plant in masses as a border or in a container with ornamental grasses.

The purple-blue plumes of perennial salvia look striking in gardens from zones 3 to 9. Hummingbirds and butterflies flock to salvia in late summer.

Aim for salvias that specify 'perennial' in the description. Plant in part sun to light shade on the edge of the border and deadhead spent blooms as needed.

Sedum is a category of tough, easygoing perennials that you can step on and they will still grow. “Autumn Joy” and related cultivars are easy to grow in full to part sun. Low-growing sedums like “Lemon Coral” make sturdy groundcovers or pot toppers for containers.

Sedums like average soil, but it must be well-draining. They’re pest resistant, drought-resistant and sharable. Sedum spreads and is simple to propagate by cutting a stem and replanting in a new location.

This hardy, sun-loving flower plays well in your garden with companions like daylily, rudbeckia and ornamental grasses. Daisies spread easily and make great border blooms for zone 5 to 9 gardens.

Plant daisies in full sun in well-drained soil. If deer are a problem, plant the daisies closer to your house. You can use deer repellents like sprays to protect the plants.

Some daisy varieties flop over from the weight of the blooms. When this happens, prune about a third of each branch in order to shape up the plant.