Organic Gardening News

September is the ideal time to add a bug hotel to your garden, offering beneficial insects a safe place to escape the winter weather. But don’t just head to the store and buy an insect hotel because it’s so easy to make one yourself, and you can tailor it to suit the exact style and needs of your yard. From sleek towers made from gabion cages to simple log stacks, oh-so-pretty garden sculptures of dried hydrangea blooms to robust back-of-the-border shelters, all the inspiration you need to DIY a dream bug house is right here.

Offering beneficial insects a home helps control pests in your garden, so you'll be well rewarded for your efforts. Insects are a vital part of a garden ecosystem with bugs such as ladybugs hoovering up pests like aphids, and becoming food themselves for other welcome creatures like birds. What’s more, you’ve probably already got most of what you need to DIY a bug hotel stashed in your shed already.

And if you're making one, why not make a few? While insects don’t hibernate, most enter a dormant state called diapause, when their metabolism slows right down. Insects can enter diapause at a variety of life stages from eggs to larvae, pupae or adults, which is why they need such a diverse range of habitats such as dry nooks or leaf litter. It’s estimated that an average garden accommodates over 2,000 different insect species, too, so you can understand why providing these valuable creatures with all sorts of different accommodation options is vital, whether yours is a wildlife garden or not.

Which of these creative DIY bug hotels will suit your garden best?

1. Hydrangea-Flower Hotel

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Dried hydrangea flowers last well over winter and have lots of little nooks and crannies for beneficial insects to hibernate. This bug hotel was created by pushing three sticks into the soil and tying near the top to create a stable tripod, which was stuffed with twigs, teasel stems and hydrangea flowers, all left to dry in place. If you want a wildlife-friendly garden that doesn't compromise a jot on style, this statement bug hotel is the one for you.

2. Highrise Gabion Critter Condos

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

These striking border bug hotels are similarly stylish, made with vertical gabion baskets such as this set of three Gabion Cages from Amazon, usually used to build retaining walls. Look carefully and you’ll see that as well as pinecones and sticks, slate squares have been fitted into the gabions to make the structures more weatherproof.

3. Cute Under-Bench Crib

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

How adorable is this little bug house, created by packing split logs and a little imagination under an existing garden bench? This idea would be so beautiful in a cottage garden and you could easily recreate it in an existing log pile, too, by adding in a wooden frame around the bug house to keep the fuel store functional.

4. Border B&B

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Here’s a neat wildlife-friendly idea that looks great at the back of a border as well as giving critters a safe spot to hibernate. It’s made from an old wooden crate filled with broken pots, seedheads, straw and airbricks, all held in place with a square of ½ inch fencer mesh such as this Steel Hardware Cloth from The Home Depot stapled to the crate walls. Bark and pinecones form a textured roof, and a stake fixed to the back and pushed into the soil keeps the lot stable. Those bright curves of the broken ceramic pot look so stylish!

5. Gabion Bug-Hotel Benches

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Providing both a home for hibernating insects and a perch for tired gardeners in need of a cup of tea, gabion bug hotel benches are easy to DIY. Fill a gabion basket such as this Galvanized Steel Wire Cage from Amazon with reclaimed airbricks, pinecones, sticks and bits of bark. Then fix pressure-treated plywood, available from The Home Depot, treated with an exterior waterproofing wood sealant such as Seal-Once, also available from The Home Depot, to the top.

6. Pretty Critter Crate

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Doubling up as a side table next to a favorite garden seat, this bug hotel is simply put together but all the more appealing for it. It’s made from a sturdy old wooden crate positioned on its side with stacks of old terracotta pots creating sheltered nooks for beneficial bugs. An evergreen fern flourishes in the shady conditions and adds natural beauty. A great fern to use in this spot would be the marginal wood fern Dryopteris marginalis, available from Nature Hills, as it has tough green fronds that stay vibrant in shade, only grows to a manageable 2 feet high, and is hardy in zones 3-8.

7. Stick-Stack Shack

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Surely the simplest of bug hotels to construct, this criss-cross stack of sticks takes moments to make and is a welcome mid-border shelter. This is a super project if you have kids as it's so straightforward to create, and you could add a stick-foraging walk to the fun. Lay a slate or flat stone to the top of the stack and this simple shelter would be even better.

8. Flowery Flats

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Using dried flowers, stems and seedheads within a metal frame, you can create a decorative garden feature that doubles as accommodation for overwintering critters. As long as all the stems are pushed in so they criss-cross in the center to form a strong, durable structure, the dried flowers and seedheads around the outside can be as pretty as you like, and some blooms such as yarrow will even dry in place for an initial burst of bright color.

This bug hotel has an old garden ornament as its frame, but you can recreate the same idea using cheap metal garden spheres such as these on Amazon fixed to a bamboo cane or stake pushed into the ground. A narrow metal obelisk such as this design from Wayfair would also make a robust frame if you wrapped wire tightly around it before pushing in all your garden-grown stems.

9. Reclaimed Brick Bug Resort

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

This low wall makes a textural backdrop for a drought-tolerant border and offers all sorts of safe spaces for insects to shelter. As well as the holes in airbricks, gaps of all shapes and sizes created by broken brick edges accommodate a variety of creatures. Slate chips, available in 5-pound bags from Lowe’s, have been used to plug gaps. Squeezing small balls of moistened soil spiked with creeping thyme seeds, available from Eden Brothers, into the bigger gaps would add nectar-rich flowers for pollinators too.

10. Cozy Critter Cube

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

This insect hotel has been made using offcuts of wood screwed together to create a box with partially open sides and filled with layers of dried leaves, pinecones and dry grass. Additional bamboo canes means it also serves as a bee hotel. A layer of reclaimed roof slates tops the layers, angled so rain runs out from the sides, keeps the critter cube dry.

For a final touch, a shallow wooden tray lined with landscape fabric and planted with low-maintenance sedum forms a living roof to feed pollinators. Using a mat of mixed hardy sedums such as this Landscaping Succulents Tray from Plants for Pets via Amazon gives a pretty mix at a good-value price point.

11. Terracotta Towers

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

A stack of old clay roof tiles and drainage pipes creates an attractive garden feature full of gaps for beneficial garden critters. Because clay is porous, this material will hold moisture, creating damp conditions that toads – who are voracious eaters of slugs and snails – will love, as well as drier nooks for bugs higher up. Find your nearest reclamation yard at the Salvo architectural salvage directory.

12. Modern Critter Castle

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

This statement bug hotel has been made using rolls of thatching reed stacked against a row of Corten steel rods, but you could easily make a smaller version using tied-up bundles of garden stems and cheap metal rebar rods, available from The Home Depot. A plethora of hibernation spots will be created between the stalks, and many stems that you may be clearing from the garden in fall are hollow, such as coneflowers, sunflowers, hydrangea, fennel and raspberry.

13. Dead Hedge Bug Hotel

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

A dead hedge is simply a stack of pruned branches and twigs stacked to form a dense habitat to shelter wildlife. By stacking them between pairs of fenceposts or bigger vertical branches, you create a strong structure that can be extended to form a wildlife-friendly garden boundary.

14. Artful Apartments

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Create a showstopping garden-feature bug hotel by wrapping flexible stems of willow or hazel into a bowl shape, fixed to a fencepost secured in the ground and filled with smaller wrapped bundles of whatever plant matter you’ve got to hand.

15. Log-Pile Lodgings

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

There really isn’t an easier way to make a bug hotel than by stacking a bunch of logs in a quiet, sheltered corner of your garden. This log pile sits against a metal shed wall for stability and shelter, and has a few old terracotta pipes mixed in for aesthetics as well as extra accommodation options.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Whatever bug hotel you choose to construct, it will be a welcome addition to your garden and one of the best beautiful but budget-friendly ideas to carry your backyard into fall.

September might be one of the most underrated months in the gardening calendar – almost as underrated as the flowers you've never heard of, quite frankly!

Yes, the worst of summer's heat is beginning to fade, but the soil can still be warm enough to encourage new roots, making early fall a particularly useful time to add hardy perennials to your yard.

And if you're tired of seeing the same coneflowers, daylilies and hydrangeas everywhere, there's another reason to plant now: there are plenty of unusual flowers that can give your garden a completely different look next year.

7 Stunning Flowers You've Never Heard Of

From fluffy blue blooms that attract butterflies to strange-looking spikes that resemble something from a woodland fairy garden, these are seven flowers you've never have heard of before (probably) but will definitely want to know about.

One caveat before we begin, though; September planting isn't suitable for every plant in every part of the US. Your ideal planting window depends on your USDA Hardiness Zone, local temperatures and whether you're planting an established potted perennial or starting from seed.

Now, then, let's dive on in...

1. Blue Mistflower

If you've never come across blue mistflower before, its fluffy blue-purple flowers (as seen at the top of this article) may make you wonder why it isn't more widely planted.

Also known as hardy ageratum, blue mistflower is a North American native perennial that produces clusters of tiny, fuzzy-looking flowers from late summer into fall

It's particularly useful if your garden is looking a little tired by September, because this is when blue mistflower really starts to earn its place. It can bloom from summer into fall, with flowers continuing until frost in suitable conditions... and butterflies, moths and other pollinators love it! More than enough reason to bag yourself a Blue Mistflower from Nature Hills, right?

2. 'Glowstick' Kniphofia

Burpee.com Glowstick Kniphofia - 1 Plant

You've probably seen red-hot poker plants before, but 'Glowstick' kniphofia (available at Burpee) is a particularly striking version, and its electric-looking yellow flower spikes are almost impossible to miss.

Instead of blending quietly into a perennial border, this plant sends up tall, upright flower spikes that look almost like they're glowing in the sunshine. And that's exactly what makes it such a good choice for anyone looking for a flower that feels a little different!

3. Toad Lily

(Image credit: Rusana Fairclough / Shutterstock)

If you want a flower that genuinely makes people stop and ask "What is that?", plant a toad lily. These unusual perennials produce small, orchid-like flowers covered in spots, and they have a distinctly exotic appearance, despite being surprisingly useful in the late-season garden.

With flowering extending into the fall, toad lilies are a great option for a shadier part of the garden; just give them part shade and moist soil. They're particularly useful beneath trees or along woodland-style borders where many sun-loving perennials struggle.

Consider them proof that September doesn't have to mean planting yet another sun-loving flower, I guess!

Shop Toad Lilies:

Carpet Creeping Wonder Toad Lily Flower Seeds

Generic 40 Tricyrtis (toad Lily) Hirta Seeds

Emerald Goddess Gardens Variegated Toad Lily

4. 'Rosy Jane' Gaura

Burpee.com Rosy Jane Gaura - 1 Plant

I know, I know; at first glance, 'Rosy Jane' gaura (available at Burpee) looks almost too delicate to be a tough perennial. Its slender stems carry masses of small white flowers edged in pink, creating the impression of tiny butterflies hovering above the foliage.

It's a particularly good choice if you want something that feels romantic and informal though; just be sure to give it plenty of sunshine and well-drained soil, as it doesn't appreciate sitting in wet conditions, especially through winter.

And don't worry if it looks a little sparse at first. Gaura has a wonderfully airy habit and can become a surprisingly floriferous addition to a sunny border.

5. Rattlesnake Master

(Image credit: bgwalker/Getty Images)

Rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) may have one of the strangest names in the perennial world, but the plant itself is even more unusual. Instead of traditional flower heads, this underrated prairie native produces rounded globes surrounded by spiky foliage.

Now, don't be put off by the name, because those strange little flower heads are packed with tiny blooms, providing pollen and nectar for an impressive range of pollinators, from bees to butterflies to birth month bugs.

What it does offer is unusual form, late-season interest and a native perennial that can bring a completely different texture to the garden. What more can you ask for, eh? Time to bag yourself a Rattlesnake Master from CZ Grain, maybe.

6. Thalictrum

(Image credit: 2235906588/Getty Images)

When it comes to stunning flowers you've never heard of, thalictrum ‘nimbus’ definitely deserves a place on your list.

This unusual meadow rue produces clouds of fluffy flowers, giving it a wonderfully light and airy appearance, and September is a good time to get hardy perennials like this one into the ground (so long as your growing zone gives the plant enough time to establish before winter).

For showy cloudbursts of lavender-pink flowers float above masses of fern-like green leaves, bag yourself some Thalictrum (Meadow Rue) NIMBUS Pink Plant seeds from Burpee and plant them in partial shade. Just be sure not to let it dry out during warm spells, and give it a little shelter from strong winds if possible.

7. Culver's Root

If you prefer your flowers tall and elegant rather than bright and showy, Culver's root is a North American native that produces exactly that; think slender spikes of tiny flowers that look almost candelabra-like!

To help it work its magic, just give it full sun and soil that doesn't dry out too quickly. It can reach several feet tall, too, so be sure to place it toward the back of a border where its height can be appreciated.

It's particularly effective planted among other prairie-style perennials (like the rattlesnake master of earlier), and don't worry, because the flower spikes and seed heads can continue to provide interest after the blooms have faded.

Shop Culver's Root:

Sherwoods Seeds Culver's Root Seeds for Planting

RedCrocus Culver's Root

Everwilde Farms Culver's Root Native Wildflower Seeds

The best thing about these flowers isn't just that they're unusual (although that is always a fun flex!); blue mistflower can extend pollinator-friendly color into fall. Toad lily can bring flowers to shade. And... well, you get the picture; each is as useful as the last.

Honestly, that's exactly why September can be such a good time to experiment. So, instead of filling your garden with the same plants everyone else has, why not use the quieter planting season to add one or two underrated beauties?

Hey, anything that makes visitors ask, "I've never seen that before, what is it?"

Fencing contractors throw away chain-link by the roll. Torn-out panels stack up behind shops and sit rusting along property lines where nobody has gotten around to hauling them off. Ask your local fencing company and you can often walk off with a section for nothing. Then turn that free piece of mesh into one of the most useful tools in your lawn care arsenal.

You can easily turn a piece of old chain-link fence into a drag harrow that makes your lawn care routine easier and your lawn look better than ever. A lawn drag harrow is a common tool of professional groundskeepers. They pull a piece of weighted mesh across the playing fields to clean up after aerating, aid in overseeding, leveling, and topdressing. You can make your own lawn drag that does all the same tasks and keeps your lawn looking like a professionally-manicured field.

Here’s how to turn an old piece of chain-link fencing into a handy tool that helps your lawn thrive.

Benefits of a DIY Lawn Drag

The diamond pattern of the chainlink fence is the secret behind this DIY trick. Where the wires cross, each junction sits slightly proud of the mesh around it. Dragging the panel presents a few hundred blunt knuckles that catch and shear whatever they pass over, like bumps in your lawn.

The fencing flexes over dips and rises instead of scraping them, which is why it spreads material rather than shoving it into a pile ahead of the tool. Galvanized wire holds up outside between uses, though every cut you make exposes bare steel that can rust.

The weight of the drag determines how aggressive the lawn leveling is. Bare mesh skips across the surface and does close to nothing. Wire a length of pipe or an old fence post along the leading edge and it starts to bite into the lawn more. Add a cinder block on top and it bites even harder.

A round edge tends to crumble clods better than a straight edge, since material rolls under it instead of getting shoved along. Start light. You can always pile on more weight as needed.

(Image credit: Miljan Živković / Getty Images)How to Turn Fencing Into a Lawn Drag

A panel of chain-link fencing around 4x6 feet (1.2x1.8 m) covers ground quickly. Anything larger gets awkward at the corners of your lawn. Home Depot's Anvil 24-inch bolt cutters go through chain-link wire without much effort. A cheap pair of cutters is fine here since the fence gauge is soft compared to a padlock shackle. Cut ends of the fencing leave sharp spurs, so bend each one back on itself with pliers or wrap the whole edge in a strip of old garden hose.

Handle the panel carefully so you don’t accidentally poke or scrape yourself. A pair of cowhide palm work gloves from Walmart saves a lot of grief here because fresh-cut galvanized wire catches skin easily. For the tow, run a rope or light chain to two corners and keep the attachment point low.

A high hitch lifts the front of the mat and cuts its contact with the ground. Behind a riding mower it works at a walking pace, though a strong person can pull a smaller panel across a modest lawn by hand.

Use It After Core Aeration

(Image credit: Catherine Ledner / Getty Images)

Core aeration leaves your lawn covered in plugs, each one roughly three-quarters of an inch (2 cm) wide and up to 3 inches (8 cm) long, and a well-aerated lawn carries 20 to 40 holes per square foot.

Plenty of people rake away the plugs or leave them to weather down over the course of a few months. Using your lawn drag to break down aeration plugs returns that soil and organic matter to your lawn, where it belongs. If the underlying soil is decent, there's no real reason to haul away the plugs.

Timing matters more than technique here. Wet plugs smear. Let them dry out until they crumble between your fingers, usually a day or two after aeration depending on weather, then drag in one direction and then perpendicular to the first pass.

The lawn will look scruffy for a few days afterward with a fuzz of loosened stems and old clippings sitting on top, but it will settle. Mow the lawn at a normal height one week later to tidy up whatever the drag left behind.

Use It for Seeding, Topdressing & Leveling

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Broadcast seed has a habit of sitting on top of the grass canopy, where it dries out and feeds birds rather than germinating. A pass with the drag knocks a good share of it down to soil level, and seed-to-soil contact is what a thick overseeding tends to rely on.

Aerate first, if you can, so some of that seed drops into the open holes instead of resting on the soil surface. Early fall is the window for this in most cool-season regions while soil is still warm and once weed pressure has eased off.

Topdressing your lawn with extra soil works the same way, in reverse. Compost goes on thinly, about a quarter inch (0.6 cm) at a time, and the drag spreads it and works it into the soil instead of leaving it in windrows where the shovel dumped it. Resist the urge to topdress any thicker. Burying the crowns of the grass plants to save a second round of topdressing is how people smother the lawn they were trying to improve.

Leveling your lawn follows the same routine. Material settles into the hollows first, so a low corner takes a heavier hand while the drag pulls the surplus off the humps. It is slow going, next to stripping sod and regrading, and a bumpy lawn may require three or four rounds across as many seasons. Nothing dramatic happens in only one round of leveling. The lawn is flatter each fall than the one before.

What This Tool Can’t Do

(Image credit: Tosh Lubek / Getty Images)

A lawn drag is not a dethatcher, so it can't do that. It lifts loose surface debris and stirs up dead material sitting on top, which helps, but true lawn thatch is a dense mat knitted below the green blades of grass. Once that layer passes roughly half an inch (1.3 cm), a power rake or vertical mower is usually the tool for the job. Anything less aggressive just combs the surface.

Skip the whole process on soggy ground, since dragging saturated turf tears the crowns of the grass plants and compacts what you just opened up. If you're not able to find a scrap piece of chain-link fencing for free, Amazon carries a Yard Tuff steel mesh drag mat with a tow rope that does the same job. The homemade version has one clear advantage, though. You won't mind when it gets bent and replacing it only costs a phone call to a fencing company or a trip to the junkyard.

There’s a much-overlooked flower that I always plant in September because it withstands winter and brings blooms through the darkest days of the year. It has rich, velvety petals and vibrant tones. It’s ridiculously easy to grow, and remarkably cheap. What is this wondrous fall flower, I hear you cry? The humble pansy.

There’s a little trick you need to know if you want this hard-working plant to produce abundant flowers in fall and carry on producing pretty petals all through winter and into spring, and that’s to plant it in September. While most folk wait until late fall before putting pansies in the ground to enjoy early spring blooms, by planting them earlier while the soil is still warm enough to encourage strong growth, plants will get busy flowering. They’ll also grow bigger root systems, making them better able to withstand harsh winter conditions. And hey presto, you have hard-working plants that last for months from fall through winter.

While sub-zero temperatures will cause even winter-flowering pansies to temporarily pause blooming, as soon as a milder period of winter weather arrives, they’ll produce plenty more petals, fast. They’ll keep on flowering into spring, too.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Part of the Weekend Wins series, planting pansies is a 10-minute job that brings a big reward, warding off winter blues with months of easy-breezy blooms. So, if you're wondering what to plant in September, start right here.

Which Pansies Survive Winter Best?

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Pansies are shoulder-season plants, preferring cooler spring and fall temperatures to summer heat. If you want pansies that will flower on and off all through winter, too, you need to look for varieties that are particularly cold-hardy.

Cool Wave Pansies

4 Cool Wave Morpho Pansy Plants

Cool Wave pansies have been bred specifically for cold weather, and Morpho's contrasting yellow and purple tones shift as the temperature falls. The purple tones become more intense in the cold, shifting to a lighter blue in warmer periods when the yellow parts of its bicolor blooms become more prominent. Exceptionally hardy in zones 5-9, Cool Wave plants grow fast, reaching a height of 8 inches high and 14 inches wide, so they make a colorful groundcover or will cascade over the sides of windowboxes and hanging baskets.

Plentifall Pansies

4 Plentifall Frost Pansy Plants

Blooming from October to May in zones 5 to 9, Pentifall pansies also grow to 8 inches tall but spread further, making their trailing stems perfect for spilling over the rims of hanging baskets and patio containers. Plentiful Frost brings the longest stems, spreading to 2 feet, with flowers in shades of white and pale purple with striking central markers, known as whiskers to many gardeners.

This tough-cookie series is also available in darker purple Plentifall Lavender Blue from Burpee, and elegant Plentifall White, also from Burpee, with stems trailing to 18 inches.

Delta Pro Pansies

Delta Pro Red With Blotch Pansy Plant

Hardy in zones 4-9, the Delta Pro series was bred for commercial use with bigger, more uniform flowers, strong stems and reliable performance through fall and winter. While plants are a little more expensive, you won’t be disappointed as the colors are intense, in particular the Delta Pro Red with Blotch (it does what it says on the tin!). Though they only grow to 4-6 inches high and spread to 6-8 inches wide, the well-branched stems produce abundant flowers so use these to color-drench porch planters and patio pots.

Delta Pro True Blue pansies, available from Trees (formerly Fast Growing Trees) is indeed a brilliant blue, while Delta Pro Clear Yellow pansies, also available from Trees, are a vivid yellow.

Ocean Breeze Pansies

4 Ocean Breeze Mix Pansy Plants

The series has extra large flowers in a serene palette of lavender, white, soft blues and rich purples, so a mix produces a harmonious drift of cool colors that are a vivid contrast to fiery fall tones and blend for a beautiful winter border.

Ocean Breeze copes in zones 3-8, and is naturally compact, growing in a neat mound, growing to 8 inches high and 10 inches wide. This series handles wild and windy weather particularly well, despite its bigger-than-usual pansy flowers, so its resilient nature alongside its mounding habit make it a great choice for windowboxes and border edges.

How to Plant Pansies in September

(Image credit: Future Publishing Ltd)

Wondering when to plant pansies? The answer is straight away! The sooner you get their roots into soil, the stronger plants will be before the weather turns – so add planting pansies to your list of September gardening jobs, pronto. At this time of year, you'll need to buy young plants, not seeds.

Pansy plants need fertile, well draining soil so use an enriched potting mix for containers such as Miracle-Gro Potting Mix, available from Walmart. In the ground, mix a couple of handfuls of homemade or prepared compost such as Back to the Roots Organic Compost, available from The Home Depot, into the soil before planting.

Give this winter flowering plant full sun or part shade, and remove fading flowers to keep them blooming. Don’t worry if they stop flowering when the temperature dips below zero, they’ll soon bounce back. To keep pots and hanging baskets flowering, it helps to move them to a sheltered spot in prolonged cold snaps.

Creative Ideas with Pansies

(Image credit: Future Publishing Ltd)

These cheery blooms are so easy-going and eager to grow, you can get creative and use them to make all sorts of fun cool-season decor. For a start, trailing pansies make fall hanging baskets full of color and charm. From planting upcycled gardening equipment to creating a cascading flower tower, there are all sorts of other clever ideas to turn cheap plants into unique garden centerpieces. I like to make pansy kokedama, and they survive remarkably well in my exposed garden.

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If you’re filling up planters with beautiful bulbs to plant in fall then add a top layer of pansies so they look good straight away. The bulbs will grow right up between the plants in spring, and the pansies will help stop hungry squirrels from digging up the bulbs. And honestly, whatever quick and clever container gardening ideas you dream up, pansies will fit the bill perfectly.

More Weekend Wins

This feature is part of the Weekend Wins series, packed with quick and easy 10-minute gardening tasks that bring a big reward.

Add lawn bulbs

Plant fast-growing bulbs in your lawn and enjoy drifts of lavender-hued blooms in a few weeks.

Revive Pots

Treat tired flowering plants in pots to some tomato feed and fuel another flush of fresh blooms.

Boost Roses

Remove suckers that are stealing energy from your rose shrubs and enjoy bigger blooms next summer.

Groom Grasses

Use a $4 dog comb to give ornamental grasses a quick groom and save yourself hours weeding in spring.

Trim Lavender

Prune spent lavender stems so your plant has time to grow a duvet of dense foliage to survive winter well.

When I get ready to create container gardens – whether in spring or fall – I keep in mind my go-to plants that I know will perform well for the long haul. I want vibrant color, fast growers, and multi-season interest.

I start with something new and eye-catching then fill in with the tried-and-true heroes. To structure the container, I follow the traditional thriller-filler-spiller method, which incorporates a vertical plant with medium filler plants and cascading plants spilling over the edge. To liven up a front porch stairway, try three colorful containers in decreasing sizes.

Once you pick your pots, it’s time to choose plants to fill them. Here are some of the best container plants that provide maximum multi-season interest and fill in fast for pots that look amazing in only a few weeks.

Container Gardening Tips

Before putting together a luscious container, check the bottom of the intended pot for several drainage holes. It is important the container drains well, or the plants could suffer root rot. If you are using a favorite ceramic pot that doesn’t have holes, use it as a cachepot or an outside container. Then line it with a nursery pot that you can remove to water and drain.

Choose a light, organic fast-draining potting soil like this one from Miracle-Gro. I often add additional perlite to the mix. Do not use ordinary garden soil, which is heavy and may be infested with bugs. Incorporate a slow-release fertilizer, such as 10-10-10 formula like this Garden Food from Espoma, into the potting mix at planting time. This should feed plants for about two months.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

When purchasing plants, look for those with similar light and water needs for your container’s location. A covered porch needs plants for part to full shade whereas plants for sunny areas should thrive in full to part sun.

Plants that require moist soil should be planted with other moisture-loving plants. Succulents, for example, need less water and should be planted with other low moisture plants. The plant tags specify the light, space, water, as well as the hardiness zone. Check the soil daily in midsummer by sticking a finger into the soil. If it is dry, water the soil till water comes out the drainage holes.

Fast-Growing, High-Impact Container Plants

Here are some of the best high-impact plants to quickly create striking container gardens with long-lasting appeal.

1. Coral Bells

(Image credit: UA Visions / Shutterstock)

Coral bells (Heuchera spp.) are a clumping perennial groundcover that come in so many foliage colors you can easily find one or two that fit your container theme. Popular hybrid shades include burgundy, chartreuse, orange, pink, copper, almost black, purple, silver, and reds. Coral bells work as a filler or as a spiller if planted close to the edge of the container.

They do best in part sun, but tolerate full sun to shade in USDA growing zones 3-9. The leaf colors are more vibrant if they get some sun, however, too much sun can scorch the leaves of certain selections. If the leaves get a little ragged or sunburned, just remove them and new leaves will fill in the clump.

The tiny, bell-shaped flowers on airy stems attract hummingbirds and bees and continue to bloom all summer if the faded flowers are removed. Their height stays around 1 foot (0.3 m), with leaf colors transitioning to different shades depending on the season. Coral bells look stunning with taller plants such as a dwarf canna lily or ‘Red Star’ cordyline. Fill in with plants such as calibrachoa, salvia, and bacopa.

Explore a wide variety of coral bells for sale online from Wayside Gardens.

2. Coleus

(Image credit: Emer1940 / Getty Images)

Coleus plants (Coleus x hybridus) have come a long way since the days they were confined to shady environments. Today, many colorful cultivars tolerate full sun, part sun, or shade. So you can find selections that fit wherever your container sits. Leaf colors include combinations of lime green, chartreuse, red, burgundy, purple, pink, white, and orange.

I grow coleus every year in a porch container that is filled mostly with different coleus cultivars, as well as a pop of coral impatiens. Beloved for its foliage, coleus grows fast and benefits from lightly pinching the tips and lateral stems for a fuller and more robust plant. Pinching off the flower stalks benefits the foliage health.

Coleus pairs well with tall thrillers such as dwarf canna lily, Red Star cordyline, or taller coleus. You also can feature coleus as the thriller and pair it with Supertunias that serve as the filler and spiller. Or just fill the entire container with different coleus plants for a striking ensemble. Coleus is hardy in USDA zones 10 and 11, but is typically grown as an annual.

These 'Rustic Orange' coleus plants from Home Depot would look perfect in fall containers alongside scarlet mums.

3. Million Bells

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Million bells (Calibrachoa x hybrida) boast non-stop color for containers and baskets. The cheery, bell-shaped flowers in vibrant single or double blooms awaken our senses with names like ‘Magic Pink Lemonade,’ ‘Blackcurrant Punch,’ ‘Plum Cobbler,’ and ‘Good Night Kiss.’

The bright colors add pizzazz to any container planting and work as a filler or a spiller. Million bells are hardy in USDA zones 7-11 but are usually treated as annuals. Calibrachoa stay under 6 inches (15 cm) tall but can spread 2 feet (0.6 m) wide, so they make for good spiller plants.

They are prolific bloomers, but you must keep them fertilized regularly. At planting time incorporate a balanced fertilizer such as 10-10-10. Then use a water soluble fertilizer every two weeks thereafter. Give them full sun and acidic soil for the best performance. The good news is they don’t need deadheading to keep the flowers coming.

You can find colorful calibrachoa for sale in many nurseries or online from Lowe's.

4. Petunias

(Image credit: Sommthink / Shutterstock)

Petunias, especially Petunia x hybrida series such as Wave Petunias, Supertunia, and Supertunia Vista do double duty as a filler and a spiller plant. Just plant them near the edge of the container for a burst of color that fills in as well as cascades over the edge as the season progresses.

Large, trumpet-shaped petunias come in every color of the rainbow and fill the container with constant color. They prefer full sun to part shade with consistent moisture.

Petunias are heavy feeders so give them a continuous-release fertilizer at planting time and repeat in about two months. Also feed them water-soluble fertilizer every two weeks to keep them blooming. They are self-cleaning plants, so you do not need to deadhead. Usually treated as annuals, they are hardy in USDA zones 10-11.

Explore a huge array of colorful petunias from the Home Depot.

5. Salvia

(Image credit: Molly Shannon / Shutterstock)

There are many types of perennial and annual salvias, but if you’re looking for a plant that fills in containers fast and makes a big statement then look no further than mealycup sage (Salvia farinacea). Two of my favorite cultivars are 'Unplugged White' and 'Sallyfum Blue' from the Home Depot. This salvia variety grows upright – just what you need for a vertical, thriller accent – and reaches up to 2 feet (0.6 m) tall.

The elegant flower spikes and gray-green foliage pair well with double petunias, begonias, verbena, and sweet alyssum. Mealycup sage thrives in heat, does not need deadheading, and blooms from spring to frost in part to full sun. Regular watering and feeding keep it looking its best. This type of salvia is hardy in USDA zones 8-10, but is most often grown as an annual.

6. Japanese Sedge

(Image credit: Future Publishing Ltd)

Japanese sedges such as Carex oshimensis ‘Feather Falls’ and ‘Evergold’ serve as wonderful fillers or spillers in a container. Feather Falls, which is evergreen, features green and cream variegation on 18-inch (46 cm) arching stems, and Evergold showcases green with yellow variegation on 12-inch (30 cm) stems.

The clump-forming perennials look nice in containers alone or contrast well tucked in among yellow and purple flowering plants such as marigolds, angelonia, and petunias. Hardy in USDA zones 5-9, plant them in part shade to shady containers. Foliage that looks untidy can be trimmed to encourage new growth.

You can find Evergold carex plants online from Garden Goods Direct.

7. Bacopa

(Image credit: Andrey Nikitin / Getty Images)

Bacopa (Sutera cordata) is a trailing annual (except in USDA zones 9-11) with small green leaves and dainty white flowers that bloom until the first frost date. It grows 8 inches (20 cm) tall and 36 inches wide (91 cm) creating a show-stopping spiller for container arrangements.

This low-maintenance plant takes full to part sun and needs no deadheading. Pair it with colorful Supertunias and Unplugged White salvia for a dazzling, crisp display.

Shop elegant white bacopa plants online from the Home Depot.

Planting bulbs now is one of the best ways to enjoy beautiful spring flowers, but this year, why not try some less obvious choices? Tulips and daffodils are gorgeous and long associated with spring, but there are plenty of other flowers you could enjoy in your colorful spring garden.

Try adding some lesser-known spring flowering bulbs for a more unique mix. Some of these provide earlier flowers, unusual shapes, different heights and textures, and added pollinator value. September is generally a good time to get these bulbs in the ground, but be sure to check the proper planting time based on your growing zone before you get started. If you want to install new beds before you get digging, consider these all-in-one beds from Garden in Minutes, which have an irrigation system already built in.

1. Crocus

(Image credit: Kabar / Shutterstock)

Crocuses are among the first flowers to bloom in spring, so choose these if you want early color. You might even see these cheerful white or purple flowers come up from the snow in late winter or early spring.

Depending on variety, crocuses are generally suitable for zones 3 through 8 and should be planted in September. Plant them pointy end up three to four inches (8 to 10 cm) deep and in soil that drains well. After the blooms fade, let the leaves stay in place and die back naturally, so they can supply the corms with energy for the next year’s blooms.

Giant Mix Crocus Bulbs - 12 Bulbs

2. Allium

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Ornamental alliums are part of the onion and garlic family and grow from bulbs planted in September or October. They flower in late spring and early summer, so combine them with spring-blooming bulbs for continuous color. Alliums are notable for their globe-like flower clusters in shades of purple on tall, sturdy stems.

You can grow alliums in zones 3 through 8, but check the specific hardiness zones for the variety you buy. They are generally untouched by critters who like to nibble other bulbs, so alliums are a good choice for yards with a lot of deer or squirrels. Plant each bulb about three to four times as deep as it is long.

Rosenbachianum Mix Allium Bulbs - 3 Bulbs

3. Ranunculus

(Image credit: Vilasini Viswanathan / Getty Images)

Ranunculus blooms in early and mid-spring with beautiful, rose-like flowers. These look pretty in mixed beds and in areas where you want a lot of showy color for spring.

Ranunculus are perennials in zones 8 through 10 and annuals in colder climates. Plant these bulbs in September in warmer climates. In cooler climates, you might want to wait until spring or grow them in containers you can protect from winter cold. Plant the bulbs with the “claws” pointing down, about one to two inches (2.5 to 5.0 cm) deep.

Ranunculus Asiaticus Mix Bulbs - 20 Bulbs

4. Fritillaria

(Image credit: Knelson20 / Shutterstock)

Fritillaria blooms with unique, hanging, bell-shaped flowers. They come in a variety of colors, including a checkerboard pattern. They bloom in mid- to late-spring, so pair with early spring and early summer flowers.

In general, you can grow fritillaria in zones 4 through 8, but it depends on the variety. Follow instructions for planting depth specific to the type. Fritillaria bulbs are usually planted to a depth several times their length. Good drainage is essential, including in winter.

Holland Bulb Farms Lutea Yellow Fritillaria Flower Bulbs

5. Snowdrops

(Image credit: Vinbergv / Shutterstock)

For the earliest of all spring flowers, choose snowdrops. They bloom with delicate, white, bell-shaped flowers, often emerging when snow is still on the ground. Plant snowdrops in wooded areas, as they prefer some shade.

You can grow snowdrops in zones 3 to 8. Plant the bulbs in early fall two to three inches deep in soil that is moist but still drains well. During the growing season, they prefer moist soil and will naturalize readily in areas that provide the right conditions.

Snowdrops - 25 Bulbs

6. Camassia

(Image credit: Alex Manders / Getty Images)

Camassia is also called wild hyacinth and is native to North America. It blooms with multiple star-shaped flowers in blue, purple, or white on tall stems. Camassia flowers in late spring and looks nice in naturalized areas, in meadows, or in informal beds alongside perennials.

Camassia tolerates more moisture in the soil than most bulbs, so you can use this in soggier areas like rain gardens or low areas of the garden. These bulbs are suitable for zones 4 through 8 and should be planted in September or October to a depth of four to six inches (5 to 8 cm).

Camassia Quamash Bulbs

7. Spring Starflower

(Image credit: sarahdoow)

Spring starflower (Ipheion uniflorum) is a tough, low-growing South American native that has more or less naturalized in North America. Reaching just 3-6 inches (5-10 cm) in height, its star-shaped blossoms come in shades of blue, purple, and white.

Hardy in USDA zones 5-9, spring starflower is an excellent ground cover that forms dense, weed-suppressing mats and smells amazing while doing it.

Starflower Jessie - 10 Bulbs

Welcome to Garden Mythbusters, a new series with a simple premise: plenty of garden advice gets repeated for decades without anyone checking whether it really holds up. Well, some of it does, but some turns out to be half-remembered folklore wearing a lab coat. Fall bulb planting comes with one rule many gardeners know by heart, and September is the perfect time to give it a closer look.

The one rule you’ll hear a lot with bulb planting is this one: pointy end up. The majority of guides to planting fall bulbs lead with this stern instruction, but few explain what really happens when a bulb goes in sideways or upside down, or what to do if the bulb sitting in your palm has no discernible point at all. That last situation comes up surprisingly often, stalling an otherwise productive fall afternoon for no reason.

If you’ve ever fretted about whether a bulb might be growing “the wrong way” or not at all, or how to plant that funny-shaped object the best way, you’ve come to the right place. Understanding this advice (and when you can ignore it) is the key to planting with confidence. And the truth is that mother nature is more forgiving than the rule suggests. In the first of our series, I explain why nature’s underground guidance system throws this old rule into question, and why depth and drainage matter more.

How the Pointy End Myth Began

Many packages for spring flowering bulbs carry the same line printed on the back: point up, flat side down. That flat side is known as the basal plate, the compressed stem tissue from which roots emerge. On the other end, the pointed nose holds the embryonic shoot. For a traditional tulip or a classic daffodil, the anatomy reads well enough. One end tapers into a point, while the other is scuffed and concave, maybe bearing a few root hairs. The instruction makes intuitive sense for those species.

The trouble starts when this blanket rule gets applied to everything else in your fall order box. A seasonal shipment rarely holds tulips alone. Corms, tubers, and rhizomes often arrive in the exact same box, sold under the catch-all of bulbs, yet they possess different shapes. Let’s break it down:

• True Bulbs: Concentric shapes with the basal plate and a growing tip. Think tulips, daffodils and alliums. For daffodil lovers after bold sunshine trumpets, Dutch Master Daffodils from Eden Brothers are a classic of this distinctive “pointy end” true bulb variety.
• Corms: Solid stem tissue flattened on top and bottom, often lacking a single clear point. Crocus and gladiolus are examples of corms.
• Tubers: These are dried root masses that resemble wrinkled pebbles or claw-like fists, with no obvious top or bottom. Think Grecian windflower, anemone, or ranunculus. Grab some lovely Van Zyverden Windflowers from Walmart and you can see how these bargain bloomers arrive as these nobbly masses.

(Image credit: AndreaObzerova / Getty Images)

Where the pointy end rule came from is no mystery. It’s easy to see why commercial growers and catalogs settled on a single sentence for dozens of species, and "pointy end up" did the job. Over time, though, this simple guideline has hardened into a rigid warning. So growers can now fear that a bulb set the wrong way might sit and rot, or drive its flower down into the subsoil never to be seen again. Nurseries repeat it, garden clubs repeat it, and so that bulb planting rule persists…

Why the Myth Sticks: Gravitropism

(Image credit: CJP / Getty Images)

Part of the reason this myth sticks around is simple: it works. Pointy end up is technically correct for most of what shows up in a standard fall bulb order, so the rule rarely gets stress-tested. Depending on bulb variety, there is certainly some appeal to a rule with a clean right and a clean wrong. The rule also flatters the gardener, suggesting the plant is completely dependent on careful human hands to get started. This is a pleasant thought, but in real terms it’s far from true.

The plant has its own system, and it goes by the name of gravitropism (or geotropism). You could say this is the bulb’s own internal GPS. Dense starch granules (called statoliths) inside certain cells settle to the low side, which is how the tissue registers the direction that gravity pulls in. This cellular settling signals to the plant exactly which way is down:

• Shoots grow against gravity: A bulb planted upside down pushes its first shoot out, quickly senses the gravitational pull, and executes an underground U-turn, curving upward toward the soil surface. This is negative gravitropism.
• Roots grow with gravity: Roots emerging from an inverted basal plate automatically curve downward, anchoring the plant securely into the subsoil regardless of orientation. This is positive gravitropism.

Problems with this Myth

(Image credit: Lucentius / Getty Images)

Taken as gospel, the "pointy end" rule costs us valuable time, and occasionally some healthy blooms. Anxious gardeners can dig up beds they planted 3 weeks earlier just to check bulb orientation. By that time, tender root systems have begun emerging, and digging them up inflicts far more damage than inverted orientation could. Other gardeners slow to a crawl, inspecting every nobbly arrival when a hundred could be tucked into the ground before sunset. Bags of corms get set aside for being confusing, which is how a bargain sack of crocus sits in the shed until March.

There is a quieter cost as well. Fixing on orientation as the make-or-break detail tends to skate past the things that really can determine the success of your spring displays: planting depth, drainage, and getting bulbs settled while soil holds enough warmth. Planting a bulb too shallow exposes it to temperature swings and hungry squirrels, while planting too deep exhausts its stored energy before the shoot hits light. Using a bulb planter with depth measurements added, such as the excellent Fiskars Steel Bulb Transplanter with Depth Marks from Amazon, can help with this, so you don’t have to rely purely on guesswork.

(Image credit: AndreaObzerova / Getty Images)

Soggy, waterlogged soil deprives roots of oxygen and invites fungal rot. A tulip planted perfectly upright in standing water will rot long before spring. If you’re worried about your soil at planting time, adding a handful of Plantonix Perlite Bliss, available from Walmart, can make the world of difference to clay beds. It can also boost aeration and help prevent waterlogging and rot (which is often the real bulb killer). And getting bulbs settled while September soil still holds warm ambient heat allows the roots to establish before winter freezes the ground. Adding a sprinkle of Espoma Organic Bone Meal, from The Home Depot, to the ground helps to boost bulb production in a gentle way during the early stages, so your favorite blooms stay healthy over winter.

Beyond the Myth: Thinking Sideways

(Image credit: AndreaObzerova / Getty Images)

While gravity ensures an inverted bulb eventually finds the sky, planting orientation is not completely irrelevant. An upside-down daffodil buried 8 inches (20cm) deep must expend extra energy executing that underground U-turn. So a shoot pointing the wrong way has a longer trip to the surface than one aimed correctly from the start. This can result in slightly shorter stems or delayed flowering during its first season.

Furthermore, some bulbs carry clever visual shortcuts and handy quirks. Many tulip bulb varieties, for example, feature a noticeably flattened side on their outer tunic. The largest first leaf always emerges from this flat side. This is why some growers pot them with that side turned toward the rim of a pot or along the front edge of a bed. For specimens with no discernible top, try this checklist instead:

• Crocus: Often flattened on both sides, crocus corms sprout roots around their lower perimeter. If you cannot spot the slight dimple of the top shoot, simply plant them on their side.
• Grecian windflower: These dried tubers look like irregular pebbles. Trying to find a top is nearly impossible. Soaking them in lukewarm water for 3-4 hours before planting plumps the tissue, after which you can drop them into the soil in any orientation. Sideways works brilliantly.
• Ranunculus and anemone: Tubers with finger-like claws should be planted with those claws pointing down, as these are the root structures.

When in doubt, plant any uncertain bulb or corm on its side. It might not be ideal, but planting sideways will shorten the distance an upside-down shoot must travel to turn upward, while allowing roots immediate access to lower soil moisture. Planting on the side is the standard fallback for anything uncertain, and most will right themselves as they grow.

Layered Planting & Containers

(Image credit: Evgenia Tuzinska / Shutterstock)

If you want to maximize flower impact in tight spaces or patio pots, worrying about strict orientation becomes even less necessary. Container growing allows you to practice the popular bulb lasagna technique, layering different species at varying soil depths in a single deep pot to achieve a continuous, multi-week spring display.

• Bottom layer: Plant late-blooming alliums like Purple Sensation from Amazon and late-season tulips, 8-10 inches (20-25cm) deep.
• Middle layer: Place mid-season bloomers, like trumpet daffodils and fragrant hyacinths, in the middle, 5-6 inches (12-15cm) deep.
• Top layer: Plant early spring dwarf species, like crocus and muscari, about 2-3 inches (5-8cm) deep. Pretty pale Blue Marlin Crocus Bulbs from Eden Brothers are perfect for container bulb planting without the hassles about which way is up.

Container growing offers a massive advantage for upside-down bulbs. High-quality potting soil mixes tend to be lighter, looser, and more aerated. In a pot, an upside-down or sideways bulb encounters almost zero physical soil resistance. Its embryonic shoot can execute a U-turn effortlessly as it heads for the surface.

That said, you can help your bulbs along with a little rocket boost of bulb feed. A gentle, slow-release nutrient boost from Espoma Organic Bulb-tone Plant Food, available from Lowe's, ensures that even sideways-planted corms develop thick root networks before winter freezes the container core.

Take Action – Plant Bulbs Now!

(Image credit: Lena_Zajchikova / Getty Images)

September opens bulb planting season across much of the country, though colder northern regions can continue through October as long as the ground remains workable. So grab your favorite bulb planter, your bag of bulbs, and of course your kneeling mat. Something thick, like the Garden Guru Extra Thick Kneeling Mat from Walmart, is ultra kind to knees and brilliant for happy bulb planting.

For classic impact without the hassles, narcissus (daffodils) and alliums are the most forgiving options. Both want a planting depth of roughly 6-8 inches (15-20cm) in full sun to partial shade. Their large size makes them easy to read at a glance, and both are naturally toxic to deer, rabbits, and burrowing voles. For lawn edges and rock gardens, crocus corms and Grecian windflowers are easygoing. Crocus corms sit 3-4 inches (8-10cm) deep, while windflower tubers nestle 2-3 inches (5-8cm) down.

Rather than stressing over which way up is right, aim for proper depth, amend heavy soil with organic material or perlite for drainage, and press the soil firmly. Fall bulb planting rewards whoever just gets on with it. Tuck in more than seems reasonable this month, close enough to correct, and then let spring settle the argument.

If you’d like to check out some more mythbusting, read my guide to companion planting myths to make sure you aren’t making a few common mistakes planting some well-loved vegetables side by side.

(Image credit: Keikona / Getty Images)

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A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. A rose in September, though? That's when even experienced gardeners start second-guessing themselves.

Your plants may still be flowering beautifully, so it's tempting to keep deadheading, feeding and tidying them exactly as you have all summer. As fall settles in, though, you'll quickly discover that roses have surprisingly different needs to those they displayed even just a few weeks ago.

This means that there is one simple job to do this month that might just have a much bigger impact on next year's flowers than anything you do in spring. And, on the flipside, there's also one common mistake that can leave roses more vulnerable over winter and set them back before the new growing season has even begun. Eek.

The September Rose Job That Pays Off Next Spring

Whether you have a garden full of your birth month rose, have been growing Pamela Anderson's favorite rose, or have a rose garden inspired by something entirely different, be sure to show them some love this fall.

Think about it: after a long summer of blooming like mad, many roses have a tendency to pick up common fungal diseases such as black spot. And, even if the leaves have already fallen, they're best not left lying beneath your plants.

(Image credit: Mariia Siurtukova / Getty Images)

Yes, those infected leaves can harbor fungal spores over winter, ready to reinfect fresh growth when temperatures warm up in spring, which is why your September job should be to gather and dispose of any diseased leaves from both the plant and the ground beneath it.

It takes five minutes, and it works wonders. While you're down there, too, remember that cleaning up old petals, weeds and other garden debris around the base of the plant can also improve air circulation and reduce places where pests and diseases may linger.

If you spot badly infected stems, though, fair warning: be sure to only remove small and obviously diseased sections if needed, and take care to save any major pruning for later in the dormant season.

Shop Black Spot-Resistant Roses:

The Red Double Knock Out Rose

Perfect Plants Pink Apricot Drift Rose

Proven Winners Oso Easy Peasy Rose

As tempting as it is to tidy everything up before fall, don't give your roses a hard prune in September.

Heavy pruning encourages fresh growth at exactly the wrong time of year. As temperatures begin to cool, those new and very tender shoots likely won't have time to harden off before the first frosts arrive, leaving them vulnerable to cold damage.

Instead, limit yourself to the Three Ds, and focus on removing dead, damaged or clearly diseased growth (and only then if it's really necessary). Save the major pruning jobs for late winter or early spring, when your roses are still dormant and ready to produce vigorous new growth.

(Image credit: Jacky Parker Photography / Getty Images)

Of course, if your roses are continuing to bloom, you can still deadhead spent flowers to keep plants looking tidy and encourage repeat-flowering varieties to produce more blooms this fall.

However, as the season draws to a close, many gardeners choose to stop deadheading and allow rose hips to form instead, as this can a) help signal to the plant that it's time to slow down naturally ahead of winter, and b) prove a boon for local wildlife.

Whether you continue deadheading or not, take care to stop applying high-nitrogen fertilizers as this can, again, stimulate soft new growth that's more susceptible to cold damage. Instead, focus your energy on those few minutes it takes to clear diseased leaves from the base of your plants.

It might not seem like it's doing much, but it really can spell healthier foliage, less disease pressure and, ultimately, a better display of blooms when spring arrives. Hey, sometimes the smallest jobs really do make the biggest difference, right?

Every week, our experts at Gardening Know How are scouring the shopping aisles to bring you the very best deals on gardening goods we can find. These aren't simply the cheapest or most discounted garden deals, but products that are worth having and offer excellent value for money.

This week, heading up our top 10 deals of the week is Miracle-Gro Potting Mix, with a $4.49 saving on a $12.49 sack at Walmart. That's $8 for 25 quarts of great-quality potting soil, which is enough to fill around three 10-inch containers. Suitable for indoor and outdoor container-grown plants, this enriched potting mix feeds for up to 6 months for bigger, better-colored flowers and harvests. So, if you're adding cheery planters of chrysanthemums or pansies to your garden, switching up containers with cool-season plants that last from fall into winter or planting a fall hanging basket, this nutrient-rich mix will fuel abundant blooms.

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An enriched potting mix is also ideal for refreshing containers in early spring. This is a job that should be done every year just as plants awaken, scraping away the top 3 inches of soil and replacing with fresh to replenish nutrients for strong growth. Potted plants across the nation are tired after this heatwave summer, so refreshing planters will be a vital step in next year's gardening schedule.

As Miracle-Gro Potting Mix is also suitable for indoor use, you can use it to repot houseplants for a season of lush growth. Early spring is also the best time for this task, so stock up now while this potting soil is on sale.

Best of the Rest! More Great Garden Deals

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If you don’t have room for a lemon tree, Citrus x meyeri ‘Improved’ fruits in 1-2 years with good-sized juicy, mild-flavored lemons. Grow outdoors year-round in zones 9-11, this needs to overwinter indoors in zones 3-8.

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We'll be back with more great garden deals next week!

Geraniums (Pelargonium spp.) are one of the most popular summer flowers, and though they’re technically perennials, most people grow them as annuals. But if you take a few simple steps this month, you can overwinter your geraniums and grow them again next summer.

Overwintering geraniums is a great option if you’re looking to save money. Instead of having to buy new plants at the nursery every year, you can keep on growing the same plants year after year. As autumn approaches, now is the ideal time to start prepping your geraniums for the cold season.

Here’s what you need to do with geraniums in September to help them survive and thrive in your garden again next summer.

1. Remove Dead Flowers & Foliage

(Image credit: JulieAlexK / Getty Images)

The first step in preparing your geraniums for winter is cleaning up any dead foliage or faded flowers. Use a pair of sharp, clean pruners – Editor-in-Chief Melanie loves her Felco pruners from Amazon – to cut off any dead flower heads or brown leaves and stems.

You can also deadhead faded geranium flowers by hand. The spent blooms are easy to snap off with your fingers. Just find where the stem holding up the flower meets the main stem of the plant and gently snap it off. You can put the dead flowers and foliage into your compost bin as long as it doesn’t show any signs of disease or pests.

2. Take Cuttings to Propagate

(Image credit: TShum / Getty Images)

September is a great time to take cuttings to propagate geranium plants and expand your collection next summer. Even if you overwinter your existing plants, it’s nice to have backup plants that you can either share with friends and neighbors or fill bare spots in your garden next year.

To propagate geraniums, use a sharp, clean pair of pruners to cut a 4-5 inch (10-12 cm) section from a non-flowering stem. Be sure to cut just below a leaf node to encourage new root growth. You can also encourage roots by using a rooting hormone powder like this one from Walmart.

Stick the cuttings into potting mix or perlite in a container with drainage holes. Keep the potting mix moist and place the container in a frost-free location over winter – a greenhouse is an ideal spot. In spring, after the last chance of frost, plant your new geraniums in individual containers or in the garden.

3. Move Plants Indoors

(Image credit: EyeEm Mobile GmbH/Getty Images)

Before the first frost arrives in fall, move your geraniums indoors or into a greenhouse. Before taking plants inside, though, check for any signs of pests or diseases to prevent spreading them to your other indoor plants. If you find pests on your geraniums, use a neem oil or insecticidal soap spray – both of which are available on Amazon – to kill them before bringing plants indoors.

Choose a location indoors that has bright indirect sunlight and is away from heating vents. Hot, dry air from indoor heating can cause geraniums to crisp up and turn brown over winter. Clustering multiple potted plants together can help raise the relative humidity in the area and prevent geraniums from drying out too much.

4. Reduce Watering & Fertilizing

(Image credit: miljko / Getty Images)

As the season draws to a close and geraniums move towards winter dormancy, it’s time to reduce watering and fertilizing. Feeding geraniums at this point in the year can stimulate new growth when plants should instead begin hunkering down and saving energy for next spring and summer.

Watering geraniums too much in September can also spur on new growth, but it can cause root rot as well. Potted geranium plants need less water during fall and winter than they did during the heat of summer. The temperatures are more mild, which means moisture remains in the soil longer.

Only water plants once soil has completely dried out. If you’re in doubt about whether or not your plant needs more water, a soil moisture meter like this one from Amazon, gets rid of the guesswork.

September is where a peace lily stops coasting on summer conditions. Light drops off fast indoors, and what worked in July starts working against the plant. Seven small jobs this month keep winter from getting rough.

Peace lilies are forgiving houseplants right up until conditions shift on them. September is one of those shifts. Daylight shortens and the sun drops lower, so less light reaches whatever corner the plant has been parked in all summer. Most of what goes wrong over winter traces back to a warm-weather routine that didn’t get adjusted.

None of this needs a dramatic overhaul. Solid peace lily care in fall is mostly subtraction, since the plant needs less of nearly everything it got in July. What it does need is a bit more attention to detail. The list below covers seven jobs worth handling before the furnace kicks on.

7 September Peace Lily Tasks

A few of these take around five minutes. The ones that matter most are also the easiest to skip on accident, and they get skipped every year.

1. Ease Off the Watering

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The dramatic droop is what trains people to overwater. A wilting peace lily looks like an emergency, so it gets a drink it often doesn't need in September. Cooler rooms and weaker light keep the potting mix wet longer, and roots sitting in soggy media are the fastest route to rot.

Before your water your peace lily, push a finger in about two inches (5cm) before reaching for the can. If it comes out damp, wait. This long-probe moisture meter from Amazon reads deeper than a fingertip can, which helps with a heavy pot you can't lift to judge by weight.

2. Bring the Summer Vacationers In

(Image credit: satura86 / Getty Images)

Anything that summered on a shaded porch should come back inside before nights dip under 60F (16C). Peace lilies stall in the cold and take weeks to recover. Check the undersides of the leaves first, though. Mealybugs (Pseudococcidae) and two-spotted spider mites (Tetranychus urticae) hitchhike indoors constantly this time of year, and a plant that looked clean out in the shade often isn't.

Home Depot carries Garden Safe insecticidal soap cleared for indoor use, and a thorough pass before the plant crosses the threshold is cheap insurance. Evicting mealybugs from a warm living room in January is not.

3. Give it One Last Feeding

One diluted feeding early in the month, then nothing much until spring. That's the whole schedule. Growth slows way down as light fades, and fertilizer the roots can't take up builds in the mix as salt, showing up later as crispy brown leaf tips that get blamed on dry air alone. 1/4 strength is plenty.

A gentle balanced liquid like Espoma organic indoor plant food, available on Amazon, is perfectly suitable. Peace lilies were never heavy feeders, and skipping the feeding won't hurt a plant that went into fresh mix this year.

4. Wipe the Dust Off

(Image credit: Kinga Krzeminska / Getty Images)

Those broad glossy leaves collect dust, and it costs the plant more now than it did in June. Weaker autumn light has to get through whatever film has settled on the surface. Clean your houseplants with a damp cloth, with the other hand supporting the leaf from underneath so it doesn't crease, handles the job in a couple of minutes.

Skip leaf shine products, since they can clog the stomata a leaf breathes through. Lukewarm water on a soft rag works better anyway, and it doubles as a pest check.

5. Cut Off Spent Blooms and Tired Leaves

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Green flowers are aging flowers. The white spathe fades to a dull chartreuse as it ages, and past that point the plant is pouring energy into something already done. To prune your peace lily, follow the stalk down to the base and cut there instead of partway up, since a stub just browns off.

Clean, sharp snips matter more than the timing here, and a Fiskars micro-tip pruning snip from the Home Depot garden aisle gets into a crowded crown without mangling what sits next to it. Yellowing outer leaves get the same treatment. One or two in fall is normal.

6. Get Ahead of the Heating Season

(Image credit: Dmitrii Marchenko / Getty Images)

Furnaces are rough on tropicals. Indoor humidity can drop quite significantly once the heat starts running, and peace lilies evolved on forest floors where the air stays thick. September is the window to set something up.

Plants clustered together hold moisture around each other, and a pebble tray buys a bit more. A 4L cool mist humidifier off Walmart's shelf does the actual work, though, and anything holding the room near 50 percent keeps leaf tips from browning by December.

7. Leave the Repotting for Spring

(Image credit: Galina Tolochko / Getty Images)

Roots circling the drainage holes are tempting to deal with now. Resist that urge. Repotting a peace lily in fall means it has to rebuild under low light and very little active growth. Slightly cramped roots are fine, and peace lilies tend to bloom better when a bit snug in the pot. Note the pot size, then mark it down for assessment in March. The exception is a plant sitting in a mix that has broken down to sludge and stays soggy.

Peace lilies have a long history of surviving neglect, so none of this has to happen on a strict schedule. Get to it sometime this month and the plant should look considerably better come February.

When a house is built on stone, it seems only natural to call its community Stonehaven.

Situated in the Garibaldi Highlands area of Squamish, this five-bedroom, four-bathroom two-storey home sits “on a boulder so the foundation is very solid,” says listing agent Angie Vazquez of Engel & Völkers Squamish-Whistler.

“And because it’s in the highest point of Squamish, there are spectacular panoramic views of ocean and mountains from nearly every window.”

Vazquez says the home, one of six in Squamish’s only gated community, at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, backs onto biking and hiking trails that lead into the forest and to Alice Lake Provincial Park with its four freshwater lakes for swimming and fishing.

The home’s large, wraparound patios and decks feature a barrel sauna with an ice-water plunge, a hot tub and pool. The owners didn’t want an overly large pool, but they still wanted a watery workout. So they installed a countercurrent system that lets them swim against the current while remaining stationary.

“Construction of the foundation for the pool was a small engineering marvel as it’s built aside a steep granite cliff,” says Vazquez. “Geotechnical and structural engineers solved the problem via a cantilever design. The landscaping, too, was a sizable investment along with redoing the entire decks and patios with flex stone. Given the property has a full 360- deck, that was a significant undertaking.”

The yard is braced by retaining walls built with a gabion system using locally sourced rocks. The yard also includes a four-tiered vegetable garden along with mixed fruit trees, blueberry bushes, raspberry canes and a variety of herbs, all on an irrigation system.

Although there’s a double-car garage, there’s also parking for five other vehicles, as well as a space big enough for the current owners to store their Airstream.

Vazquez, who also lives in the area, says the community gets regular visits by deer, bears and eagles. “I was showing the property one day when a bear cub wandered by.”

What’s inside

Wide-plank white oak flooring covers the main areas of the home, while the door, posts, beams and window frames are made of Douglas fir. Vaulted, 16-feet high ceilings with an oversized wood-burning fireplace give the home a feeling of grandeur, says Vazquez.

The current owners, who invested roughly $500,000 in renovations for the decks, kitchen and bathrooms, say it was important to honour the home’s original design and retain the warmth of the exposed wood and slate while bringing in the modern elements of today’s homes.

Italian-made Scudo Saraceno gold classic glass lamps with metal ring by Fortuny infuse the living and dining rooms with extra warmth.

Kitchen appliances are by Fisher & Paykel while the dishwasher is Bosch. Composition quartz countertops ensure high durability and uniform colour and pattern, with ample wine storage below. Lower cabinets are solid wood while upper cabinets are laminate.

Bathroom fixtures are from German designers Duravit and Blanco, with slate countertops in two bathrooms.

Stairs leading to the lower level feature maple leaf etchings commissioned by former owners that enhance the West Coast mountain feel of the home.

Part of the media room sits on exposed granite. “The foundation was built atop the granite and instead of blasting the entire property flat, some of the granite formations were preserved as a visual feature,” says Vazquez.

A unique swinging daybed, designed for the room, stays with the house, as does, possibly, the gym equipment. “The installation of the Hoist fitness system, with all its cables and weights, was one of the most complex undertakings,” says Vazquez. “It has a good home here and I don’t think it wants to be moved.”

The home uses eco-friendly geothermal in its heating and cooling.

“Though this is a small detail, the backyard lighting that surrounds the pool, barrel sauna and hot tub, truly comes to life when it snows,” says Vazquez. “Looking up from the hot tub with the snow falling and seeing the lights strewn throughout the branches of the trees makes it feel truly magical.”

In the neighbourhood

A variety of schools — elementary, secondary and private — are a five-minute drive away, as is Capilano University. Shopping and restaurants, including a very good Mexican restaurant, according to Vazquez, who admits she could be biased, are a 10-minute drive away in downtown Squamish. A handful of golf courses are in the area, including the Squamish Valley Golf Club, five minutes away. Britannia Beach is 10 minutes away, the popular eagle gathering community of Brackendale is 11 minutes away and, of course, in 40 minutes you’re in Whistler.

“In the Highlands, you feel like you’re somewhere else, with views of the mountains and ocean, which is rare,” says Vazquez. “Where else, other than the Swiss Alps, can you go skiing, swimming, kite boarding and biking all in the same day?”

She says the median age of residents in the area is 38 with young families. “Many are entrepreneurs of startups who sold their company and want to call Squamish or the Sea to Sky corridor home,” says Vazquez.

Location:4-40781 Thunderbird Ridge, Squamish

Listed for: $3,495,000

Year built: 2003

Type: Five bedrooms, four bathrooms

Size: 4,635 square feet

Realtor: Listed by Angie Vazquez, Engel & Völkers Squamish-Whistler

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For 11 days this month, Vancouver’s design community will open its doors, inviting visitors inside studios, buildings and spaces usually inaccessible to the public.

Running Sept. 17 to 27, Design Vancouver Festival (DVF) brings together 43 Open Studios and more than 50 events spanning architecture, interiors, landscape, furniture, product design, craft, food and public space.

It’s aimed not only at architects and designers, but students, design enthusiasts and anyone curious about how the design scene in Vancouver comes together.

“Vancouver is a design city. DVF is about making that more visible and more accessible to the public,” says festival director Becki Chan.

Launched in 2024 through Open Format Arts & Culture, the festival grew out of the community surrounding PechaKucha Vancouver. This year’s theme, BUILD, looks at how Vancouver can build more sustainably, reuse what it already has and create places that adapt as the city changes.

Open Studios remain at the heart of this festival, says Chan.

Visitors can step inside architecture, interior, landscape, furniture, ceramics, photography and multidisciplinary studios rarely open to the public. Some include Patkau Architects and Patkau Studio, Revery Architecture, Measured Architecture, Propellor Studio, Studio Roslyn, Hapa Collaborative, Janaki Larsen Studios and Bocci.

“They are the easiest way to see Vancouver differently because they let people step inside the places where design actually happens,” says Chan.

Design Districts offers people the chance to view studios and events by neighbourhood, such as the Armoury District, Granville Island, Gastown and Mount Pleasant.

Chan recommends choosing a neighbourhood rather than racing across the city.

“Pick a neighbourhood, walk between studios, talk to people, and leave room for surprise,” she says.

One space open to visitors this year is Addapt, a prefabricated prototype home by Leckie Studio.

Addapt asks what happens if a home can change as the people living there do. The project explores adaptable, resilient and high-performance housing that can evolve with different stages of life, household structures and urban needs.

Housing is one of several future-facing threads running through this year’s festival, alongside mass timber, adaptive reuse and material innovation.

“The future of Vancouver design is not only about beautiful work. It’s about care, repair, public participation, and a stronger relationship between design and everyday life,” says Chan.

The AFBC Downtown Walking Tour and AFBC False Creek Walking Tour encourage visitors to slow down and look more closely at familiar buildings, streets and public spaces.

For those interested in how the city may be built in future, TWIG Tours: Mass Timber — Design to Occupancy explores mass timber through completed buildings and active construction sites, connecting architecture with engineering, sustainability and material innovation.

Reuse, Don’t Build, presented by Dialog and UBC SALA, asks what designers can achieve by intelligently working with buildings that already exist rather than automatically building something new.

For those who love architecture, Chan highlights the Arthur Erickson Home and Garden, along with Behind the Design of the Chinese Canadian Museum and Merrick Architecture Ltd: Four Decades. Multiple Landmarks. One Legacy.

“These are the moments where the festival becomes more than a schedule. It becomes an invitation to enter the city through design,” she says.

Here for Now transforms an unexpected Vancouver space into a temporary destination combining installation, dinner and social experiment.

“These kinds of events remind us that design is not only in building. It is also in how we gather, how we move through space, and how an atmosphere is created,” says Chan.

Beyond the Menu: The Making of Touski explores how food, interiors and graphic design combine to create a restaurant experience, while Architecture of Dessert invites participants to apply principles of form, function, colour and composition with award-winning pastry chef Kenta Takahashi.

For students, design lovers and the public, Chan recommends Saturday, Sept. 19 in the Armoury District. Start with Open Studios and walk between architecture, landscape, interiors, furniture and craft spaces before continuing east for more events.

Industry visitors might choose Friday, Sept. 25, combining Interior Design Show Trade Day with Downtown and Gastown Open Studios before the OBJ: OBJ Opening Night Party.

Or begin with DVF Opening Night — PechaKucha at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Sept. 17, bringing together voices from architecture, jewelry, ceramics, photography, type design, food and First Nations art.

Design Vancouver Festival runs Sept. 17 to 27, 2026, at locations across Vancouver. Many events are free or low-cost.

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Still-warm days paired with cooler humid nights create the ideal environment for powdery mildew, a fungal disease that rapidly spreads in September. And yes, if you spot leaves turning white in your yard right now, you do need to do something about it – and as part of our Garden ER series, we’re here with straightforward solutions to treat this season’s biggest backyard problems.

Powdery mildew is one of the most widespread plant diseases in the world and affects many trees, shrubs, perennial and annual plants. While this fungal disease rarely kills plants, because it coats the upper leaf surfaces, it restricts the leaves’ ability to absorb sunlight and so create energy. If the affected plant is producing veggies, that means a less bountiful crop; if it’s a fall bloomer, expect a shorter, lighter flowering period; and for all the rest, a plant starved of nutrients going into the winter is likely to be far less resilient.

Powdery mildew is easily sorted, however, so the prognosis is good. Come on into Garden ER and let’s diagnose and treat your plant patients suffering from powdery mildew.

Triage: What are the Symptoms of Powdery Mildew?

(Image credit: Getty Images)

• Powdery mildew affects the tops of leaves, starting with small white or light gray spots that merge together to discolor the entire leaf. You might also see powdery mildew on stems and flowerbuds.
• The dry, dusty white powder on plant leaves looks like ash or fine flour, and it won’t brush off as it’s rooted into the leaf tissues.
• Different strains of the disease affect various species so powdery mildew can vary slightly from plant to plant.
• Fresh growth is particularly vulnerable to fungal infection so plants particularly at risk in September include roses, chrysanthemums, asters and dahlias, and squashes, pumpkins and peppers.
• Later in fall, you might see darker specks in the white dust and these are cleistothecia, tiny survival capsules that the fungus creates to hide out through winter.

(Image credit: Getty Images)Treatment: How to Care for Plants with Powdery Mildew

Diagnosis complete? Here’s exactly how to restore your plants back to full health.

1. Remove Heavily Infected Leaves

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Powdery mildew is a fungal disease spread by microscopic wind-blown spores. While there’s typically a different strain for each plant species, so powdery mildew won’t spread from your dahlias to your winter squash, it will infect the rest of the plant and travel between plants of the same family. So, your first task is to use bypass pruners such as these Corona ComfortGET pruners from Lowe's to remove infected leaves and reduce the risk of transmission.

Put pruned leaves straight into a garbage bag and then into your trash cart, and not into your compost bin, as spores will survive the composting process. Rake up any fallen infected leaves too – a small handheld rake such as Fiskars Xact Hand Rake, available from Amazon, makes this easier.

Add keeping an eye on plants for signs of any more white spots developing to your list of September garden jobs, and keep removing leaves with fresh outbreaks.

2. Treat With a Natural Fungicidal Spray

(Image credit: Getty Images)

There’s no need to use chemical sprays to kill this fungal disease. Instead, create a far less welcoming environment with a natural treatment that raises the pH level of the leaf surfaces, making it difficult for fungal spores to thrive. Organic sprays based on food-grade citric acid such as Grower’s Ally Fungicide Concentrate for Plants, available from Amazon, are effective, safe for use on cropping plants and unlike copper-based sprays, don’t accumulate in soil over time.

Another option is to make your own anti-fungal spray using baking soda, which is so effective that it’s recommended as a preventative by the US Department of Agriculture. Mix a heaped tablespoon of baking soda (available in good-value 8oz baking soda packs at Walmart) with a level teaspoon of vegetable oil, stir in a scant squirt of liquid dish soap and dilute in a gallon of water and transfer to a mister such as these 16oz spray bottles on Amazon.

Spray dry leaves early in the morning and repeat every 1-2 weeks.

3. Mulch the Soil

(Image credit: Alamy)

Finally, lay a 2-inch layer of mulch over the soil to create a physical barrier that stops fallen spores splashing up onto leaves in heavy rainfall. A mulch also helps to keep moisture in the soil, meaning you can water less often – and how you irrigate can leave plants more vulnerable to powdery mildew, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

Use any mulch made of natural material such as homemade compost or a bagged organic product such as Miracle-Gro All Natural Mulch, available from The Home Depot.

Prescription: Banish Damp Pockets Where Spores Thrive

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Going forwards, the very best way to protect your plants from powdery mildew is to increase airflow around them as this will keep leaves drier and less hospitable to fungal disease. Think about this when you next prune and snip accordingly. The less air movement and more shade there is in an environment – for example, if you have a rose climbing up a north-west-facing brick wall – the more you need to prune to ensure your plants don't sit damp.

Think about airflow when positioning and spacing plants, too. So, if this summer's zinnias are suffering from powdery mildew right now, sow them less densely next year. If you have lots of white zucchini leaves in your veg bed right now, give this crop a sunnier, breezier position next spring.

How you water your plants can also affect how damp the environment is. So, water the ground beneath your plants rather than the plant itself so leaves don’t get wet, and irrigate in early morning so any splashed foliage quickly dries.

Patient Notes: Review Mildew-Resistance

If you live in a zone with regularly warm, humid weather, it’s worth looking at plants that have been bred to have better resistance to powdery mildew, and consider a transplant. For example, there are modern black-eyed Susan varieties that are practically immune to fungal disease, while powdery mildew remains a common issue for older varieties. So, if you have a perennial plant that regularly succumbs, it’s worth replacing it with a more resistant cultivar.

Aster Raydon's Favorite

Aromatic asters (Symphyotrichum oblongifolum) are significantly more resistant to powdery mildew than other aster types, and ‘Raydon’s Favorite’ particularly so. Zones 3-8.

The Lark Ascending Rose

The Lark Ascending English Rose bred by David Austin is widely considered to be one of the healthiest, disease-free varieties and rarely succumbs to powdery mildew. Zones 4-11.

Pardon My Bee Balm

Bee-balm is notorious for suffering from powdery mildew but the ‘Pardon My’ Monarda didyma series by Proven Winners has been bred to be highly resistant. Zones 4-8.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) is a very popular and practical hedging plant, and because of its dense growth habit it is also great for topiary. Indeed, it has been admired for centuries for its stunning shaping in European knot gardens and low border edging. But for some of us, boxwood can seem a little dull. Worse still is the spread of boxwood blight and boxwood leaf miners. Because of these potential perils, many of us are looking for resilient substitutes.

While buxus is undeniably easy on the eye, particularly when trimmed into funky shapes, there are a few great evergreen options that work just as well. They can be easily cultivated into exciting lollipop shrub types, create lively interest in smaller yards and patio containers, and offer plenty of other benefits such as added color and pollinator appeal.

These lollipop evergreens have plenty of personality while retaining the same level of whimsy. Trimmed into single-stem standards, they add easy structure and elegance, and even the smallest specimens can make a big impact curbside. So if you fancy something that can bring the wow factor in small spaces with year-round appeal, it's high time you got acquainted with these cute new kids on the block.

Growing Lollipops Beyond Box

Lollipop evergreens are topiary plants that look like…well, you guessed it, lollipops. These plants are pruned so they have a bare, straight trunk topped with dense, rounded balls of green leaves. Transforming a standard multi-stemmed shrub into a high-impact lollipop topiary requires a blend of site selection, regional awareness, and precision tools. Because boxwood challenges vary wildly across the country (from humid southern fungal pressure to harsh northern winter desiccation) selecting the right shrub for your specific USDA hardiness zone is the crucial first step.

Before planting your new standard, prep the planting hole with organic soil amendments to establish deep, strong root systems that are capable of supporting top-heavy foliage canopies. Sprinkle a little organic compost into the planting site. If you are planting hollies, a gentle layer of pine needles helps maintain regular moisture levels.

(Image credit: Fotolinchen / Getty Images)

Once planted, keeping your lollipops in good shape relies on sharp blades and good hygiene. Dull blades crush plant stems, creating jagged wounds that invite disease. Investing in razor-sharp, bypass shears is worth every penny. You can’t go wrong with Fiskars Bypass Pruning Shears from Amazon for efficient, clean cuts on stems up to an inch (2.5cm) thick. When trimming your lollipops, wipe blades down with rubbing alcohol between plants to prevent any cross-contamination. With yard space and cutting tools ready, it’s time to meet the shrubs that can bring you that pop!

1. Photinia Red Robin

(Image credit: Anna Nelidova / Getty Images)

'Red Robin' (Photinia × fraseri 'Red Robin') is a hybrid evergreen shrub that makes a striking lollipop standard. Its claim to fame is its vivid red new growth which matures into a glossy green. These coppery red or magenta tints are present in the youngest leaves before the chlorophyll develops. But beyond its visual drama, 'Red Robin' brings robust vigor, quickly forming a dense, woody stem that is more than capable of holding a heavy, spherical head. If you’re looking for an option that can quickly make an impactful privacy hedge, try Red Tip Photinia from Nature Hills.

To maintain a formal lollipop habit, strip away side shoots along the bottom 2-3 feet (60-90cm) of the main trunk. Most gardeners prune photinia in late spring and late summer. Over time, you should find it easily trains into a lollipop standard. And each time you trim, you’ll get new growth that includes those pretty red flushes. Position this sun-lover in fertile, well-draining soil sheltered from harsh winter winds, which can scorch tender new growth. Lightly shaping the canopy after the initial spring flush encourages a second coppery-red display by early fall, ensuring your topiary remains a vivid focal point across multiple seasons in zones 7-9.

Ring of Fire Nature Hills Nursery Red Tip Photinia

2. Bay Laurel

(Image credit: Jacky Parker Photography / Getty Images)

Bay laurel or sweet bay (Laurus nobilis) is beloved by gardeners and cooks. This fragrant evergreen offers shiny leaves and tiny clusters of baby yellow flowers that turn into berries by fall. It is perhaps best known as the source of bay leaves, commonly used in cooking for sauces, curries and as part of a bouquet garni. But it is also one of the oldest recorded topiary subjects around. Its naturally upright growth habit and thick, leathery foliage make it exceptionally forgiving for eager snippers. For aromatic screening that holds its shape beautifully, DMOH Starter Bay Laurel Plants from Walmart are well priced and grow surprisingly fast.

You can transform this shrub into an elegant lollipop shape quite easily in zones 8-11. It’s a matter of systematically clearing the lower branches. At the same time, you train the upper canopy into a ball shape. When grown in cooler northern climates, sweet bay can overwinter indoors near a sunny window. Just ensure your potting mix includes some coarse sand or perlite. Regular pinching terminal buds encourages a packed, aromatic canopy for fresh kitchen treasures year-round.

Fragrant Pops DMOH Starter Bay Leaf Tree Live Plant, Sweet Bay Live Plant

3. Japanese Holly

(Image credit: Mtreasure / Getty Images)

If you are searching for a plant that deceives the eye as a true boxwood double, Japanese holly (Ilex crenata 'Sky Pencil' or 'Helleri') is the gold standard. Unlike boxwood, Japanese holly is immune to boxwood blight and leafminer damage. Its rounded leaves mimic box foliage perfectly, making it ideal for crisp, manicured shaping. Along with a neat formal shape, you can enjoy some dazzling variations of color. If you fancy a splash of gold on your lollipop, you can buy Drops of Gold Japanese Holly from Nature Hills.

Its small, compact leaves enable you to create some highly precise shaping. Holly standards thrive in slightly acidic, moist, well-drained soil. Growing female cultivars near a male pollinating companion rewards you with a striking winter display of jet-black or crimson berries, set against tight green topiary globes. Holly lollipops remain vibrant year-round and thrive in zones 6-9. Another holly variety that can make a lovely lollipop is variegated holly, which offers unique foliage patterns for even more curbside razzle-dazzle.

Gold Rush Nature Hills Nursery Drops of Gold Japanese Holly

4. Privet

(Image credit: tc397 / Getty Images)

Privet (Ligustrum) is another native shrub you can count on for easy shaping and lush good looks. This shrub grows fast, making it a popular choice for hedging or privacy screening in zones 3-10. Tolerant of most growing conditions, privet can tough out salt and urban pollution, and needs very little care other than regular pruning to keep it under control. For cold hardiness and bulletproof adaptability, European privet and golden vicary privet are great options for shaping. They accept shears without flinching, sprouting new growth rapidly to fill in any accidental gaps.

As well as the lush green or gold leaves, you’ll often see white spring flowers with a strong fragrance. Some find this smell delightful, while others hate it. These flowers develop into grape-like fruits, which can be purple, green or white. When privets are pruned as lollipops, they form a strong, low-maintenance ball that needs trimming just once or twice a year. Just be careful with Japanese or Chinese privet, since these can be very invasive. You can get a 20% discount on Glossy Privet from Trees.com for a pretty blooming evergreen that copes beautifully with heavy pruning.

Glossy Wonder Trees.com Glossy Privet Bush

5. Laurustine

(Image credit: Photography By Tonelson / Getty Images)

Laurustine (Viburnum tinus) is a broadleaf evergreen shrub with dense, dark, glossy leaves that works particularly well in topiary. Thriving in zones 8-10, it is great for lollipops, since it handles crown lifting well. While boxwood offers static green foliage, a Laurustine lollipop transforms dramatically through the year. Deep pink buds form in fall, held against leathery dark green leaves through winter before opening into pink and white blossom clusters in spring. These flowers appeal to birds, bees and butterflies, and the resulting berry-like fruit provides food for wildlife.

This plant is native to the Mediterranean areas of Europe and North Africa, and requires full sun and good drainage to thrive. Prune your Laurustine standard immediately after flowering finishes in late spring. This allows the plant to set new flower buds during summer while maintaining its crisp spherical habit. They arrive quite dinky, but you can get Citronella King’s Viburnum Tinus Spring Bouquet Plants from Walmart in packs of 6 for a plant that will easily develop a dense, round shape with pollinator-friendly blooms. This evergreen brings four-season multi-sensory interest to topiary art that traditional boxwood simply can’t match.

Pretty and Pink CitronellaKing Spring Bouquet Viburnum Tinus Spring Bouquet

6. Inkberry Holly

(Image credit: Diane Labombarbe / Getty Images)

For native plant enthusiasts seeking an ultra-hardy, blight-resistant box alternative, inkberry holly (Ilex glabra) is a triumph. Native to Eastern North America, it has rounded leaves and a smooth grey trunk that lifts beautifully into a single-stem standard. Cultivars like 'Densa' and 'Gem Box' naturally maintain a dense, rounded canopy structure, making them remarkably easy to shape into crisp topiary balls with minimal trimming. For lush character in colder climates, Green Promise Farms’ Inkberry Densa Plants from Amazon are currently available at a 10% discount. Inkberry’s glossy green leaves take on a bronze-purple cast in cold months rather than bleaching out like boxwood, providing rich seasonal contrast.

In addition to its cold hardiness down to zone 4, inkberry is virtually immune to the pest and disease issues. It thrives in full sun to partial shade, and excels in wet or poorly drained soil. In late spring, small white flowers attract native pollinators, followed by pea-sized black berries that feed songbirds through winter. Unlike traditional boxwoods, inkberry has a tendency to produce small suckers. To maintain your lollipop, simply snip away these ground-level suckers once every spring. This keeps the lower stem pristine and the top ball densely packed with lush foliage.

Black Beauty Green Promise Farms Densa Inkberry Plant

Bidding farewell to boxwood doesn't mean sacrificing lush year-round greenery that can make a statement. By embracing single-stem lollipop standards, from vivid red photinias to resilient native Inkberry hollies, you add playful personality, vertical height, and disease-free beauty to your yard. With sharp shears, proper soil prep, and a little seasonal shaping, these thimble-pretty evergreens will bring reliable structure and wow factor to your small spaces for decades.

(Image credit: Diane Labombarbe / Getty Images)

Need more ideas for getting the most from your plants, indoors and out, and looking for the best seasonal expert advice delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the free Gardening Know How Newsletter!

If you want your Thanksgiving cactus to put on a spectacular display in November (and obviously you do!), then September is the month to start thinking about its blooms.

Yes, I know; it feels far too early to worry about a plant that won't flower for months, but what you do now can make a big difference to how many buds your Thanksgiving cactus produces. And fortunately, the most important job is surprisingly simple: make sure your plant gets a good night's sleep.

What do I mean by this? Well, the Thanksgiving cactus is a short-day plant, meaning it needs longer nights to encourage flower-bud formation. And, as the days naturally begin to shorten in September, your plant is approaching the conditions it needs to bloom... but even a little artificial light at the wrong time can interfere with that process.

The One Thing Your Thanksgiving Cactus Needs In September

When it comes to getting a good night's kip, we can all agree that we sleep sounder under the comforting gloom of a blackout blind. Your Thanksgiving cactus (or Christmas cactus, actually!) are the same: they crave that natural dark after the sun dips below the horizon.

This means, then, that if yours is sitting on a windowsill in a room where the lights are regularly switched on after dark, it's time to consider moving it somewhere where it can experience natural darkness in the evening.

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GINGERGLOW Thanksgiving Cactus Live Plant in 4 Inch Pot

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Now, before you get carried away, you don't need to put it in a closet or make its care complicated. A room that isn't regularly lit at night is usually enough for your Thanksgiving cactus, so long as you keep it consistent.

The aim is to give your Thanksgiving cactus around 12 to 14 hours of uninterrupted darkness each night as fall approaches, while keeping it in bright (but indirect) light during the day.

A spare room, guest bedroom, or another naturally darkened room can work really well; the trick is to just avoid somewhere that becomes completely dark during the daytime, since the plant still needs plenty of light to grow and prepare for flowering.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

It's important you don't skip this step in September, as a Thanksgiving cactus doesn't suddenly decide to bloom when Thanksgiving arrives; the process starts several weeks earlier, when the plant responds to changes in day length and temperature by beginning to form flower buds.

That means this month is a useful one for checking where your plant is growing and what kind of light it receives after sunset. And, if it's beside a lamp, under a kitchen light, or in a room where the lights stay on late into the evening, making that small change now? It could be the difference between a bright and beautiful display at your Thanksgiving table, and a seriously lacklustre one.

Don't leave it too late; once your Thanksgiving cactus is entering its bud-setting period, you'll want to avoid constantly moving the plant between rooms or changing its light exposure from day to day. Sudden changes in temperature, light, or watering can cause stress, and Thanksgiving cactus may drop developing buds if conditions change dramatically.

(Image credit: Alamy)

The one thing to do for your Thanksgiving cactus in September, then? Find a good spot with bright, indirect daytime light and reliable darkness at night, then leave it there.

With the right conditions in September and October, those unassuming green segments can and will eventually become covered with the colorful flowers that make Thanksgiving cactus such a bodacious houseplant to have on display over the holiday season.

Just be sure to water when the top portion of the potting mix has dried rather than keeping the soil constantly wet, and you're all but guaranteed a good show by the time November rolls around. Good luck!

Sebastien Panouille, founder and principal of specialist lighting design studio ThinkL , turns his talents to a range of projects from residential homes to large scale installations, but his core philosophy remains the same: good lighting should be accessible, intentional and controllable.

Ahead of his participation in this years Interior Design Show (IDS) at the Vancouver Convention Centre West (Sept. 24 to 27) where he is curating Illuminate, a collection vignettes presented as a “lighting village,” and co-moderating a seminar “Lessons from FIFA: How the PNE Amphitheatre Reshaped Everyday Lighting Design” on Sept. 25 with Victor Quezada, principal and architectural lighting team lead at AES Lighting, Panouille shares his thoughts on aspects of light and how illumination has evolved over the 15 years he has been working in home Canada.

The lighting industry was not his original career choice and, but for a visit to a career fair in Lyon, France, Panouille would be practising medicine. Instead, he swapped the dream of a stethoscope for a spectrometer and after completing a degree in home automation he focused on lighting.

After some years working in France, including at the Louvre and the Châtelet les Halles train station in Paris, Panouille relocated to Canada in 2013 and now is principal of ThinkL with offices in Vancouver, Langley and Toronto.

Panouille says the big change in the lighting sector has been not so much on the quality or the efficiency of light but the control of the light source.

“Ten years ago, it was very hard to bring an LED light source to a very, very low light level without having any disturbances like flickering or buzzing, where in today’s era, not all manufacturers, but a good 50 to 75 per cent, can deliver a very nice solution that can replace a halogen light source,” he says.

With a portfolio that ranges from boutique retail and hospitality spaces to corporate workplaces, presentation centres and wellness environments, Panouille says regardless of the size of the project the core principles of good lighting design should apply.

These are: intentionality: to avoid generic lighting grids — every light source should serve a specific purpose to prevent over-lighting; user control and operability — users must be able to adapt lighting levels to their specific tasks; and, a “lighting match” — trusting the process and making sure people involved in the project can advise on accurate needs and costs, balance quantity and quality and focus on thoughtful placement and quality fixtures.

Panouille believes professional advice is valuable for projects of any size and budget, from small home renovations to large commercial offices, and that lighting decisions should be carefully considered and integrated into a project early.

While many people who move into homes accept the existing lighting and often don’t make any changes, Panouille suggests there are several simple upgrades that can make a difference to the quality of light.

“Ninety per cent of the people who move into a new condo will most likely have overhead lighting, eventually they will install a decorative lighting luminaire above their dining table, and they always have decorative lamps,” he says. “It’s always more interesting to enter a space where there [are different light sources]. If there are no layers of light, then the ambience can feel flat.”

Panouille says installing dimmer switches is the most cost-effective way to tailor light levels to activity while combining overhead lighting with other light sources like decorative table lamps and floor lamps create visual interest, depth, volume and contrast.

Jared Cranwill, showroom sales manager, B.C. at leading retailer Robinson Lighting & Bath in Vancouver says customers visiting the showroom who are looking for table lamps and light fixtures are gravitating toward a mix of portable, rechargeable lighting and more sculptural fixtures that feel like art pieces in their own right.

“Rechargeable lamps such as the Suki Lamp by Visual Comfort and Marset FollowMe are popular because they offer flexibility — you can easily move them around the home depending on how you’re using a space,” he says.

“At the same time, we’re seeing strong interest in more expressive fixtures, such as the Gambosa by Marset, where the fixture itself becomes part of the visual story of the room rather than simply serving a functional purpose,” says Cranwill.

Panouille also points to the way geography shapes our experience of light.

“We live in Canada and North America, so our latitude exposes us to a type of daylight that’s particular to the Northern Hemisphere. If you go to the Southern Hemisphere or even closer to the equator, the population has a completely different experience of light,” he says.

In North America, for example, daylight varies considerably by season, with longer days in summer and shorter days in winter. Closer to the equator, the length of day and night remain much more consistent throughout the year.

Those differences in natural light may also influence what people find comfortable indoors.

“In the Northern Hemisphere, we are more sensitive and more comfortable under warm lighting, whereas close to the equator, people are usually exposed to much brighter daylight, so they don’t really mind having brighter and whiter light,” says Panouille.

Selecting fixtures also personalizes and enhances a space, he says, adding that pendant lights and chandeliers can be statement pieces. Key considerations include matching the scale and esthetic of the room, ensuring appropriate light distribution and understanding that higher-quality manufacturing justifies higher price points.

Local materials, traditions and architectural trends (such as Pacific Northwest influences or Scandinavian minimalism) shape fixture design and lighting preferences.

“If people are more minimalist, they will use Scandinavian styles like [those of] Louis Poulsen,” he says. “Or according to their preferences they may turn to crystal and glass or Italian style. I think it’s the statement that reflects a lot about people’s personality.”

Cranwill agrees there is a lot of interest in lighting that does more than illuminate a room and he is noticing a growing interest in fixtures with character, craftsmanship and a sense of individuality — pieces that contribute to the design of a home rather than simply providing illumination.

Natural materials, particularly alabaster, travertine and other natural stones, have been very popular with Robinson Lighting & Bath customers in 2026, says Cranwill.

“There’s something appealing about the individuality of these materials — no two pieces have exactly the same veining, texture or character,” he says.

Fixtures like the Calcolo from Lib & Co. showcase the natural variation of stone and allow the material itself to become a focal point, says Cranwill.

“We’re also seeing customers gravitate toward lighting with more organic and sculptural forms rather than fixtures that feel overly uniform or purely functional.

“It contributes to the personality and character of the space. Customers are looking for fixtures they feel proud to display in their homes, almost like a piece of art or sculpture,” he says.

An example is the Flock of Light from Moooi .

“It has a strong presence even when it isn’t illuminated, so the fixture becomes an important design element within the room. I think this speaks to a larger shift toward homeowners viewing lighting as an opportunity for self-expression rather than something that simply needs to blend into the background,” says Cranwill, also noting a growing interest in customization, particularly among design clients.

“I think we’ll continue to see more personalization, natural materials, sculptural forms and lighting that can adapt to the way people actually live,” he says. “Rechargeable and portable lighting will continue to grow because it gives homeowners more flexibility, while customization allows lighting to feel much more personal and intentional.”

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Harvesting seeds from the plants you already grow is a fantastic way to expand your garden for free. Fall is the perfect time to pluck the ripe seedheads from many plants. But if you’ve never tried seed saving, then you may not have all the equipment you need to get started. Luckily, it doesn’t require much.

Before you start harvesting flower seeds from your garden, it’s important to gather all the necessary tools. If you’ve been gardening for a while, you may already have some of these items floating around. But if not, you can pick up what you need for only a few bucks from Amazon.

Here are the essential tools you need to harvest and save seeds from your own garden. September is the ideal time to start saving seeds, so add these items to your cart now!

1. Good Pair of Pruners

(Image credit: Getty Images)

If you’ve ever done any amount of gardening, you likely have a pair of pruners lying around somewhere. But if you don’t have a preferred pair of pruning shears or are looking to upgrade, I recommend these $13 Fiskars bypass pruning shears from Amazon for harvesting seedheads from your garden.

Fiskars is my go-to brand for pruning tools because they’re affordable, durable, and made from quality materials. But if you’re looking to splurge, these cult-favorite pruners from Felco are our Editor-in-Chief Melanie’s favorite pruners.

No matter what brand you choose, you will need a sharp, clean pair of pruners to cut off faded flowers that have turned into ripe seedheads by this point in the season. You can either deadhead, cutting off only the seedhead, or you can cut back plants, leaving a few inches of stem attached to the seedhead.

Leave some of the faded seedheads on the plants in your garden to provide winter food for wild birds. Allowing some of the stems to remain also creates shelter and nesting spots for beneficial insects over winter.

2. Sifter to Separate Seeds From Chaff

(Image credit: Photo by Laura Kalcheff / Getty Images)

This is a somewhat specialty item that the average gardener probably doesn’t have, but if you’re interested in saving lots of seeds from your plants, it’s one that really comes in handy. A soil sifter, like this one from Amazon that’s currently 50% off, makes separating the actual seeds from the chaff so much easier than trying to do it by hand.

Break up the seedheads in the sifter and then sift out the seeds, leaving the chaff and other unwanted bits of plant material behind in the sifter. Throw those into your compost pile, when you’re done.

This particular soil sifter comes with four different mesh screens you can swap out for different types of seeds. Use the finer screen for species with smaller seeds, like larkspur, or use the screen with the larger holes for bigger seeds, like sweet peas. I’ve tried using a regular kitchen sieve to separate seeds in the past and it has worked alright, but the ability to change out the screen definitely would have been a big help.

If you make your own compost at home, this sifter will also come in handy. Use it to filter out larger chunks of compost that still need more time to decompose. You’ll be left with a wonderful, fluffy batch of ready-to-use compost for your garden.

3. Container to Store & Sort Your Seeds

(Image credit: Kathleen Walters / Future)

Once you’ve harvested your seeds and separated them from the chaff, it’s time to organize and store them for next season. There are many different ways you can store seeds, from paper envelopes to old pill bottles to glass jars and everything in between. But one of the best ways to store and organize seeds that our team of plant experts has ever discovered is using a craft bead organizer.

Content Editor Kathleen came up with this idea a couple years ago when she had more leftover seeds at the end of the season than she knew how to handle. She realized a craft bead organizer, specifically this one that’s only $10 on Amazon, was the perfect solution for her abundance of seeds.

This organizer can hold up to 64 different types of seeds and each variety can have its own separate container. Plus, the kit comes with labels, so you never have to wonder what type of seed is inside.

Every type of garden has its moment in the sun when it looks its best. For prairie landscapes, that peak moment starts in September, as summer heat softens into fall, as native grasses don their autumn shades and glow in the slanting sun. There’s also the amazing color show of late-blooming prairie perennials.

If your garden is looking end-of-season tired, it doesn’t take much to get some of that native prairie plant pow. A prairie garden also has the benefit of being low-care, drought-tolerant, and downright gorgeous.

Where to begin? Begin here, with these five fabulous prairie plants. They are ready to wake up your fall garden.

You’re Five Prairie Plants Away from a Fabulous Fall Garden

You don’t have to bulldoze all your current backyard plants to get quick beauty in September. Just pick a couple of these wonderful prairie plants and watch your garden come to life again.

1. Narrowleaf BluestarFallNancy J. Ondra / ShutterstockSpringbeekeepx / Getty Images

Botanical name:

Amsonia hubrichtii

Hardiness:

USDA Zones 5-8

We aren’t going to save the best for last here. Instead, we’ll start our list of five top prairie plants for fall fireworks with one of the most breathtaking native perennials: Narrowleaf Bluestar. If you’ve never heard of it, you are in for a treat. Also called Asmonia, this native beauty offers clusters of pale-blue starry blossoms in spring, contrasting nicely with the green foliage, but that’s not all. Come September, the delicate, feathery leaves blaze a brilliant golden-orange.

Low-maintenance? Check! Pollinator friendly? Check! (Just ask the Swallowtail butterflies!) Multi-season appeal? Check! This all-American perennial thrives in full sun and average soil, and is especially effective in or mass plantings. If the plants get floppy after their blooms fade in early summer, give the plant a trim to help it retail its shape. Plant bluestars from Garden Goods Direct with ornamental grasses and black-eyed Susans for a gorgeous golden bed that transitions easily from late summer into fall.

2. Asters

(Image credit: Peter Photos / 500px / Getty Images)

Botanical name:

Symphyotrichum spp.

Hardiness:

USDA Zones 3-8

What is autumn without asters? This late-season perennial is everywhere come September and October, painting the rolling hills of wild prairie in vibrant shades of blue and purple. Their starry flowers are life-savers for pollinators - filling them up with nectar right up to the first killing frost. Yes, this includes monarchs and bees.

Install asters in your backyard in a full sun location in soil with good drainage. Plant near contrasting blooms (like goldenrod!) for maximum wow-power. An aster never arrives alone; the flowers appear in dense clusters, adding texture (as well as color) to fall gardens. A three-pack of aster plants from Home Depot can be planted directly into your fall garden or used in containers on your porch before transplanting.

3. Goldenrod

(Image credit: RYosha / Shutterstock)

Botanical name:

Solidago spp.

Hardiness:

USDA Zones 4-9

If you sneeze just reading the name of this native perennial, you aren’t alone. Many people think goldenrod causes their seasonal allergies but no, it’s ragweed. Goldenrod should be a welcome member of your garden plant family. It’s worth its weight in gold - so to speak- in autumn meadows, its brilliant egg yolk yellow plumes a fantastic contrast to purple or blue asters.

You can find goldenrod in lots of different sizes and shapes. Whatever you pick, the late-season pollinators will thank you. Goldenrod offers invaluable nurture for bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects in fall, with generous supplies of nectar. Feed those hungry pollinators with gorgeous 'Fireworks' goldenrod from American Meadows It's delicately arching branches add even more visual interest to your garden.

4. Big Bluestem

(Image credit: Rory Buckland L / Alamy)

Botanical name:

Andropogon gerardii

Hardiness:

USDA Zones 4-9

If you have a large property, you need large plants to balance out the space - and nothing is better than ornamental grass. Why not go for Big Bluestem, also known as a “prairie giant.” It gets as tall or taller than the gardener - rising to 6 feet (2m) tall and providing bold structure as well as dramatic fall color.

This tall grass grows in blue-green, giving it the common name, but it changes like clockwork come September. The tall blades evolve to shades of burnished copper (bronze, red, and purple) in the fall. Easy-to-grow and drought tolerant, big bluestem is best grown in full sun. It is a larval host for more than a few species of butterflies. 'Blackhawks' big bluestem from American Meadows will add some autumnal drama to your landscape while also resisting deer!

5. Pink Muhly Grass

(Image credit: inho Lee / Getty Images)

Botanical name:

Muhlenbergia capillaris

Hardiness:

USDA Zones 5-9

Think of this stunning ornamental as the love child of a grass plant and a pink flamingo. You want visual drama in your fall garden? Pink muhly grass offers it in spades with airy plumes of soft pink blossoms. A stand of this gorgeous prairie grass makes your backyard look as if a pink cloud landed, or a giant’s cone of cotton candy fell from the sky.

Pink muhly grass flowers from the end of summer into fall. The dense clumps of foliage are made up of wiry, forest green needle-like leaves. They provide the base for the flowers that seem to float above. Plant this ornamental grass in a full sun site with well-draining soil and you’ll have a low-care, tolerant, hardy plant with prairie flair and winter interest. It is also a host plant for the orange skipperling butterfly and provides material for nest building for bees and birds. 1-gallon pots of pink muhly grass plants are currently on sale at Trees.com (formerly Fast Growing Trees) and will add some serious vibrancy to your fall garden.

Shop Fall Planting Essentials

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Tru Pro Digging Shovel

With large perforated turn stems and a D-grip handle, this 40-inch steel round digging shovel has a sleeve comfort grip.

Most of the insects that wreck a garden in May are already here in September tucked into old vines and leaf piles, waiting out the cold. They aren't hatching from nowhere come spring. Fall sanitation is one of the least glamorous jobs of the season, but probably the highest-return. So it's important to take steps to prevent spring pests now.

Targeting specifically to stop overwintering bugs in fall works better than chasing them in spring, mostly because they're sitting still and concentrated in a handful of predictable spots right now. The catch is that not every fall cleanup task helps keep away pests. Some of them clear out the beneficial insects that would have eaten problem pests for free.

Knowing which cleanup tasks to do now and which ones to leave alone is what separates a useful September from a needlessly busy one. Here are the pest prevention tasks you need to do now – and the one you can skip this September.

Pest Prevention Tasks to Do in September

The below list runs in order of highest need: vegetable beds first since that's where the worst offenders bed down, then fruit trees, then whatever plants are headed indoors before frost. Two unhurried weekends are all you need to complete these tasks in an average-sized yard.

1. Pull spent cucurbit vines.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Squash bugs (Anasa tristis) don't fly off anywhere for winter. The adults crawl under dead leaves, old vines, boards, scraps of plastic mulch, whatever is flat and sheltered near where they fed and they wait there until spring. Early fall is when they go looking for shelter, so now is the time to strike.

Clearing away spent squash and pumpkin plants now takes the invitation off the table to unwanted bugs. Weeds along the bed edges count, too. Don't just heap the garden waste at the fence line either. Till it under or run it through a hot compost pile to kill off any residual bugs.

2. Turn soil where borers overwinter.

(Image credit: Lubo Ivanko / Getty Images)

Wilted squash vines back in July probably meant squash vine borer (Melittia cucurbitae) and the larvae that did caused this common problem are long gone from those vines by now. They exited, burrowed an inch or two (3-5 cm) down into the soil, and spun tough cocoons to sit out the cold.

Turning over that ground brings up the cocoons for weather and birds to get. Only bother in beds that had visible borer damage, though. There's no sense disturbing soil that was fine all season.

Home Depot carries a four-tine digging fork that works well for this purpose. The fork lifts and crumbles the top few inches of soil instead of slicing and flipping it like a shovel.

3. Clear fallen fruit under trees.

(Image credit: Patricia Hamilton / Getty Images)

Fallen apples and pears are more than wasted fruit. Codling moth (Cydia pomonella) larvae ride down inside them, then crawl out to spin cocoons under loose bark or in the litter at the base of the tree. Mid-September into early October is exactly when that happens.

Getting the fallen fruit off the ground during that window intercepts a good share of next year's population of moths. Rake the leaves out from under the canopy while you're there. A rolling nut gatherer from Ace Hardware's garden aisle makes short work of a heavy drop year and saves your back.

4. Treat plants before bringing them indoors.

(Image credit: Sutthiwat Srikhrueadam / Getty Images)

Any houseplants that summered outside picked up some pest passengers. Spider mites and aphids reproduce fast in warm, dry indoor air with nothing hunting them. By February, one overlooked mealybug colony might have worked its way across a whole windowsill.

Start the pest inspection now rather than on the night of the first frost warning when it's time to bring houseplants back indoors. Treatments need a couple of weeks, often more than one round. Check leaf undersides and the leaf joints. The soil surface matters, too. Slugs come up through drainage holes and settle into damp potting mix, so tip the pot and look underneath for hitchhikers.

Lowe's stocks a ready-to-use insecticidal soap for the soft-bodied pests, though a hard rinse with the hose knocks off a fair number first. Keep the returning plants away from your established houseplants for two to four weeks after moving them indoors.

The #1 Mistake to Avoid

The reflex after summer is to clear away any and all debris, but that’s actually a mistake. Raking the borders bare and putting the whole yard to bed looking well-swept can actually cause more pest problems than it solves. Don't totally clear out all the dead plants debris in your yard and garden. Leave some spots in where beneficial insects can overwinter.

Ladybugs, minute pirate bugs, syrphid flies, and parasitoid wasps overwinter in leaf litter, under loose bark, and in the stems left standing. These beneficial insects actually hunt problem pests like aphids and keep your spring garden pest-free, if you leave habitats for them in fall. Clear all of the debris and you lose out on those helpful bugs, while plenty of the pests you were targeting overwinter outside in the garden anyway.

(Image credit: Marcel Krauss / Getty Images)

Be thorough where the evidence of pests points: the vegetable beds, the ground under fruit trees, anything visibly diseased. Everywhere else, easing off is actually good pest control. Cutting back perennial plants to roughly 8 inches (20 cm) instead of to the crown leaves the hollow stems intact for beneficial insects sheltering in there.

A yard raked down to bare dirt in November tends to be a yard with no beneficial insects to help it come May. The diseased material is the one thing not to compost, though. A home compost heap often doesn't run hot enough to kill off the pathogens, so the trash is the safer destination for diseased plant matter.

September work is quiet work. Nobody photographs a cleared squash bed. But the payoff arrives eight months out when spring plants are free of unwanted pests.