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We don’t hate chrysanthemums. Let’s just get that out of the way. There is a lot to be said for their instant, impulse-buy autumnal cheer. A pot on the stoop (with a pumpkin or two), as the clock ticks towards Halloween, is welcoming. But muffin-top mums, rounded and mounded in a way that nature did not intend—left to their own devices, naturally-elegant perennial chrysanthemums are leggy and loose—have saturated the market. Their inescapable presence as October unspools makes it very easy to forget how many other flowers relish autumn.
The list of fall flowers is long, so here is a choice (albeit biased) collection.
Photography by Marie Viljoen.
Celosia
In terms of commercial success, annual Celosia is beginning to nudge chrysanthemums off that front stoop. I see potfuls at my local deli in Brooklyn, at Whole Foods, at the market. Their rich, cockscomb colors are made for fall. These African annuals have taken off in the US. Aside from their tasseled ornamental appeal, the plants are in fact vegetables. They are eaten as cooked, leafy greens in their homeland and are reminiscent of amaranth greens, in flavor and texture.
Zinnia
Zinnias are a genus of annuals native to Mexico and Central America. They are one of the most rewarding cut flowers to enjoy as the weather cools. Available in a rainbow of colors (only blues are missing), more zinnia cultivars are being developed to withstand the mildew that sometimes bothers their leaves in humid climates. The blooms attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees.
Dahlia
Dahlias might be the queens of autumn bouquets. Ranging from compactly petite pom-poms to ruffled flowers the size of side plates, with colors from candy stripes to rich jewel hues, the long-stalked flowers are cut-and-come-again for weeks from late summer through frost. Dahlias are hardy from USDA zones 8 to 10.
Tithonia
After it begins to flower in late summer, Mexican and Southwestern native annual Tithonia continues to blaze with color as nights dip into the 50s. The plant grows tall (upwards of five feet) and the blooms are very attractive to bees and other pollinators.
Marigold
The assertive scent of marigolds is a floral signal that the season has changed. Days are losing light, and the year’s end is approaching, staved off by celebrations that honor souls that have passed. Garlands of marigolds are a necessity for the Day of the Dead, and have a place at Halloween tables, too: The flowers are long-lasting in a vase, and marigold petals are edible. The plants have long been valued in companion planting traditions, and science bears this out: They secrete chemicals that deter nematodes and other pathogens.
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