As summer begins to draw to a close, many flower gardens will begin to fade as the cooler seasons arrive. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t keep your garden still blooming with colour. There are many autumn bedding plants that are ideal for planting in autumn and will produce eye-catching colour through to winter.
If you’re unsure what to plant in autumn, our guide on the best bedding plants for autumn contains excellent varieties of autumn-planting flower plants and autumn-sowing flower seeds to have your garden thriving throughout the year.
Why Plant Autumn Bedding Plants?
While you may have prepared your garden to produce beautiful spring and summer flowers, it’s worthwhile to keep your green fingers active in autumn for a variety of reasons:
- Keeping your garden colourful: The end of summer means there will be many flowers in your garden that will begin to lose the vivid blooms they once had. As a result, growing autumn bedding plants can help to prolong the colour of your garden for longer.
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Low maintenance: Autumn bedding plants are often particularly hardy. They are low-maintenance choices that make for easy, hassle-free growing.
- Attracting wildlife: Autumn bedding plants can attract late-season pollinators that are looking for food sources in preparation for winter. So, planting them can be a big help for your local ecosystem.
When to Plant Autumn Bedding Plants
Autumn bedding plants do better the earlier they’re planted. As a result, we recommend planting them between late summer and early autumn for best results, ensuring that they receive enough warmth and sunlight before the weather becomes too cold.
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What to Plant in Autumn – Our Top Choices
There are many different bedding plants for autumn that you can take your pick from. To make things simple, we’ve assembled our best choices which will deliver on looks, dependable growth, and hardiness. The best bedding plants that we recommend are:
- Pansies
- Violas
- Wallflowers
- Ornamental cabbage
- Cyclamen (hardy)
Pansies
Perfect for adding a diverse range of colour to your garden throughout the cooler seasons, pansies make for great autumn bedding plants. You can find pansy plants at D.T. Brown in an array of hues to have your garden flourishing beautifully. Pansies range from deep purples to warm yellows and are reliable choices, with many cultivars being bred for hardiness.
Care tip: Deadheading your pansies will encourage more blooms and keep your garden tidy.
Violas
As especially hardy flower plants, violas are a great choice for autumn bedding plants and are superb for filling gaps in flower beds or softening the edges of containers. Flowering even through frosts, these delicate yet impressive flowers resemble smaller versions of pansies. By growing viola plants, you can appreciate their cheerful faces through autumn and winter.
Care tip: Water your violas during dry autumn spells, and make sure to deadhead them to keep them flowering for longer.
Wallflowers
Though they won’t produce colour immediately, wallflowers are a worthwhile investment in your garden when autumn planting, as they will produce vibrant blooms with a wonderful fragrance come spring. Wallflower plants are available in many different shades, with mellow yellows, fiery reds, and rich purples to decorate your garden with.
Care tip:Water your wallflowers well when you plant them, and firm the soil to prevent their roots from being disturbed over winter.
Ornamental Cabbage
Polyanthus plants are an excellent choice for adding flourishes of colour to the garden when little else is in bloom. Being closely related to primroses, these hardy hybrids produce lovely clusters of blooms in vibrant shades of yellow, pink, red, blue and white. Their compact nature and upright flower stems create a neat display that works well alongside other autumn bedding plants, such as violas, pansies, and wallflowers.
Care tip: Feed your polyanthus every few weeks with a balanced liquid fertiliser once buds start to form to produce a longer, more vibrant display of flowers.
Cyclamen (Hardy)
Hardy varieties of cyclamen are a fantastic choice for autumn bedding, with wonderful colours and intricate marble-like markings on their upswept leaves.
A great variety to choose is Cyclamen coum, adding some colour to your garden through autumn and winter. Though their flowers are smaller than some other flower plants, their unique look and distinct colours make them an excellent addition.
Care tip: Plant your cyclamen plants in free-draining soil to prevent rot and water sparingly, as cyclamen don’t do well in wet soil.
Frequently Asked Questions About Autumn Bedding Plants
Can I Leave My Autumn Bedding Plants In for Next Year?
This will depend on the types of plants you have grown. Many of these plants are annuals and biennials; they may carry on until spring but are best removed once they begin to fade. However, perennial plants will continue to bloom year after year.
How Do I Protect My Autumn Bedding From Frost?
Autumn bedding plants are chosen for their hardiness, so they shouldn’t need a lot of protection. However, a sudden hard frost can affect newer plants. If your plants do need protection from a frost, fleece for plants or a garden cloche can be used.
Is It Too Late to Plant Autumn Bedding in October?
Planting in October is a less preferable time for autumn bedding plants but is fine if the weather is milder and the soil is workable. You can try planting varieties such as pansies, violas, and hardy cyclamen during. They may take a little longer to settle in, but it is still possible to have success.
Shop Autumn Bedding Plants at D.T. Brown
Now that you know what to plant in autumn to have your garden looking its best, you can choose your favourite varieties from our recommendations for a thriving garden through to winter.
At D.T. Brown, we have a wide range of quality autumn bedding plants that you can rely on for dependable growth and brilliant colours. This includes our selections of pansy plants, viola plants, wallflower plants, and many more choices.
To find out more about our range of flower plants, flower seeds, garden accessories, or anything else in our collection, get in touch today, and we’ll be more than happy to help you.
