Fall is quickly approaching as kids head back to school (or at least log in to their Zoom classrooms). Is your garden prepared to continue its show into the cooler weather? Not only is it aesthetically nice to continue seasonal interest into fall, but for our birds, pollinators, and insects, they require that fuel to keep them going as they migrate and prepare for winter. Is your garden up to the challenge? If your fall color consists of boring mums and pansies, read on for some more fall ideas!

As the intro photo shows, I am a total sucker for Amsonia hubrichtii, or Bluestar, and Asters (in this photo, a nativar Aster oblongifolius ‘Raydon’s Favorite’, or Aromatic Aster)! The fall color combination is divine, and that’s not even mentioning Amsonia’s gorgeous spring flowers (a great source of pollen and nectar for butterflies) and lush summer foliage that provides fantastic groundcover and nesting ground cover for critters in your garden! If you leave stems and seedheads on until late winter/ early spring, you also get the winter interest of all those waving stems encrusted with glittering ice. I find that in addition to creating lovely color contrast, the Asters along the edges help keep weed pressure down in an area that could quickly be taken over by fall weeds otherwise (the Amsonia itself grows in a vase- shape to around 3’ tall and wide, leaving the bottom open). I would imagine that Amsonia tabernaemontana and other species and cultivars of Asters would perform similarly, though if you were going to use a taller, more upright Aster, I might use it toward the back or center of the Amsonia.

In this same bed, I also have some immature Ilex verticillata, Winterberry, who I look forward to seeing continue to pop up through the Amsonia. The red berries really pop against the yellow/ chartreuse foliage of the Amosonia. I also love to see Callicarpa americana, American Beautyberry, used in this way with its purple berries!

If I may add just a bit about the merits of these specific plants, Asters are a wonderful source of fall pollen and nectar for pollinators, particularly migrating Monarch butterflies, and they are also an important host plant to moths and butterflies – 109 species in North America (according to The Living Landscape by Rick Darke & Doug Tallamy)! Locally, according to the National Wildlife Federation, they are host to 12 butterfly and moth species in the Hampton Roads, VA area. I was also surprised to see that in addition to feeding local and migrating birds with their berries, Beautyberry also hosts 2 moth species, the Rustic Sphinx, and the Common Gray. Plants in the Ilex (holly) genus, like Winterberry host 46 moth and butterfly species locally!!! (The Ilex genus also includes the American Holly, Yaupon, and Inkberry to name a few other local species.)

Discover what plants best host your local pollinators at www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder.

Thanks for reading! This was intended to include more, but I had more to say about these particular plants than I thought, so… to be continued! What are your favorite fall plant combinations? List them in the comments below!