Photo courtesy of petrichor at Flickr.com.

If you’re looking for a perfectly natural way to keep your flower garden beautiful well into the late fall and early winter seasons, then consider planting some frost-tolerant species. Most of us are aware of the ability of pansies to spring back from a light frost, but other flowers can do so just as effectively, and make logical additions to any late-season garden. You can plant them as late as 2-3 weeks before the first frost date, and they’ll do just fine. Some varieties will even keep blooming after frosts, allowing you to enjoy fall color much later into the year than you might expect.

Viable cold weather flowers include coastal rosemary (an Australian native), many varieties of asters, calendulas, larkspurs, and snapdragons. Goldenrods, chrysanthemums, roses, and sweet alyssum also tend to do well in cool weather, as do marigolds. Be aware that most of the species listed here need cool air and cool soil to thrive — so with the exception of roses and marigolds, summer plantings of these species probably won’t do well.

Photo courtesy of Bienenwabe at Flickr.com.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 5:00 am and is filed under Gardening Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.