The best plants for fall color in our little slice of the Midwest

Last week’s column was all about mums, which are the most popular annual fall flowers. This week I would like to shine a light on other annual fall flowers.

My personal favorite flowers to plant in the fall are pansies. In past generations, pansies were the first flowers planted in the spring because they can tolerate frost and cooler temperatures. Pansies like cooler temperatures, but will stop growing and blooming when the heat starts to roll in. When you plant pansies in the fall, you have the potential to get two seasons of blooms.

Pansies planted at this time of the year last much longer than in the springtime because the season is cooling. They will continue to bloom throughout the fall and when winter arrives, they will go to sleep. When we hit warm spells in the winter they will wake up and pop open a few blooms. Then in the spring, pansies planted in the fall will start to grow and bloom again. They will keep growing until the hotter days start.

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Ornamental cabbage and kale are also very popular. These plants have a similar appearance to the cabbage and kale you grow to eat. These ornamental varieties are edible, but they are known to have a bitter taste. They do make their way onto the table, used as garnishes.

Ornamental cabbage and kale are also referred to as "flowering cabbage and kale." This description is a bit misleading. They do not flower. They do, however, become more colorful as the leaves change color as the temperatures get cooler. The change starts in the center of the plant and spreads out. They come in different varieties that can change to red, pink, rose, or white.

Also from the vegetable family, another great plant for fall is the ornamental pepper. The plant's peppers are edible but exceptionally hot. They are grown to be pretty and are very colorful, coming in shades of orange, yellow, red and purple, which are all great fall colors. You do need to take care with these plants if you have pets because the foliage is toxic for dogs and cats.

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Container gardening continues to grow in popularity. Container gardening allows us to add live flowers to our outdoor living areas, such as decks and patios. When we get into the fall, we can change out the flowers in our containers to match a fall theme.

When it comes to container gardening, the planters usually look best when you use combinations of different types of flowers. You can use mums as an anchor while having other plants to add some variety. There are ornamental grasses you can use to add some different color and texture. There are also ornamental millets, which is also a type of edible grass. Millets come in dark red or bright green with seed heads attached. They look great in pots.

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When shopping for fall flowers, you may also see some plants returning from the spring like Celosia, Calibrachoas, Snapdragons and a few others. We traditionally plant these plants in the spring heading into summer, but some varieties are now making encores because they can tolerate the cooler temperature. The growers will also select colors oriented with fall. All of these can add some spice to your containers.

Fall truly is a fresh new season for flowers. October will be arriving at the end of this week. If you want to add some of this fall color to your home, don’t delay. As we get into October the availability of many of these plants will disappear like the leaves on the trees.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Plant these fall flowers to add color to containers and beds