Ep. 147 More than just mums: Fall blooming plants for the garden | #GoodGrowing
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris Enroth, horticulture educator with University of Illinois Extension coming at you from Macomb, Illinois, and we have got a great show for you today. We're talking about fall flowering plants. Last week was fall garden crops. This week, what can we plant in our landscapes to give us a nice end of the growing season flower show?
Chris Enroth:And you know I am not doing this by myself. I am joined as always every single week by horticulture educator Ken Johnson in Jacksonville. Hey, Ken.
Ken Johnson:Hello, Chris. Did you get your fall garden planted yet?
Chris Enroth:I got so I got the I got the thing seeded, which I did during the podcast recording last week, and that's about as far as I got. But if if I can get out of here in time, I'm gonna go I I actually got my seed that I ordered. Remember we talked about ordering garlic? I got the garlic ordered. I got some extra seed ordered.
Chris Enroth:I got some fall beets. I got some fall cabbage. I got some some turnips. I am going out into the garden after this, and I am seeding that with my with my cedar that I have, a little push cedar. So I'm I'm it's gonna get done.
Chris Enroth:How about yourself?
Ken Johnson:We got I got the our lettuce. So we added seeds leftover from the spring, so I didn't have to buy any of these. So I had lettuce, carrots, beets, radishes, and some peas. So it's all planted. Hopefully, it comes up.
Ken Johnson:Mhmm. Still need to I haven't ordered my garlic yet. I need to do that. But I can't remember what our login information is for the seed company. I gotta find that before I do that.
Chris Enroth:Might have. Oh, hopefully, it doesn't boil down to, make a new email and create a new account kinda deal.
Ken Johnson:But I think I could still do it as a guest, but that maybe what happens.
Chris Enroth:I love having an account with the seed companies because then I can go back and look what I ordered last year, because I might not always write it down at home. So it's nice having those accounts.
Ken Johnson:Or the or the seat packets get thrown away, and I have no no idea what I did.
Chris Enroth:Oh, yeah. Or the seat packets get wet, and sometimes the ink runs, and you can't read them anymore. Yeah. Been there, done that. Oh, yeah.
Chris Enroth:So, Ken, today, we are gonna be talking about flowers that can bloom in the fall that are gonna give us a nice fall color. I I think there's another added benefit to this, and this idea of maybe a late season nectar pollen source for some of our our pollinators, that this, like, to have a late season nectar pollen source for for some of our insects? Do we have a lot of them that are still active even late on in the growing season?
Ken Johnson:Yeah. So, yeah, when you know, if you ever listen to one of my presentations, you've probably heard this dozens of times. But, you know, when we think about our typical landscape, we do a really good job kind of that peak bloom season, that May to August time frame. We usually have a lot of stuff blooming in the fall. And early in the spring are usually kinda when we're we're lacking.
Ken Johnson:And at least in my opinion, those are some important times. In the spring, we have things emerging from overwintering, that need to to feed so they can build their nests and lay eggs and all that fun stuff. And in the fall, we've got things that are gonna be overwintering. Whether that's, you know, some of the wasps, which I know people don't necessarily like, but a lot of wasps and stuff. Bumblebees will overwinter as mated queens, mated females.
Ken Johnson:So they're they've gotta build up some of those those fat reserves and stuff so they can make it through the winter so they can emerge in spring. Things like monarchs, which are migrating. They need flowers so they can feed. So, again, they can have that energy to make it all the way down from Canada, Illinois, all the way down to Mexico and stuff. So the fall is gonna be important time for those insects overwintering, particularly as adults, so they can build up those reserves or or migrate to where they're gonna be going.
Ken Johnson:Mhmm. You know,
Chris Enroth:you you mentioned monarchs can, and a lot of the some of that more recent research seems to suggest that the the monarch North American monarch population as a whole is fairly resilient in terms that they when they make it, they they migrate to Mexico, and then they come up from the spring every spring, early summer. When they make it to the Midwest in Canada, they're really able to build up their population levels. It seems like that squeeze to that population comes in that fall migration time period where maybe there's just not the habitat or the resources for that long journey from Canada, for some of them, all the way back down into Mexico. So, I I guess some of these plants can be considered a little bit of a fuel or a pit stop for some of our migrating monarchs.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. And a lot of times we think monarchs, people are focused on that milkweed, which DDoS will feed on, but their primary I I would say they're primarily feeding on other flowers for that nectar. So those other flowers are just as important as the milkweed if you're if you're trying to help monarch populations. Mhmm. Yeah.
Chris Enroth:Well, I I'd say let's dive maybe right into one of the things that seems to be tied into kind of that monarch migration pattern, and and that's the goldenrods. It always seems like the goldenrods start to bloom when it is time for those those monarchs, especially the central those central here in North America, maybe not East And West Coast, goldenrod starts blooming. A lot of times, those monarchs have begun their migration, which is typically we don't like using holidays as as, like, benchmarks, but usually, like, the Labor Day holiday weekend is a a good frame of reference for when they would typically start blooming, and the monarchs would typically start migrating southward. But I I will say I have become a bit of a a goldenrod freak in that I I am growing several different types, except for one type, Canadian goldenrod, which is a native species, but horribly, horribly aggressive. And I I won't on purpose plant that one in my garden.
Chris Enroth:But I have a couple other ones I'd like to share, and I can go ahead. We we can pop up images here. So if you're listening, apologize, but we do have a YouTube video version of this, and we'll pop up images of some of the plants that we're talking about. The first one that I'd like to share is actually a cultivated version of goldenrod. It's a fireworks goldenrod.
Chris Enroth:So it's Soledago rugosa, and this is a kind of a a fine leafed, fine textured flower, very lacy, very dainty. It one of my favorites goldenrod. So fireworks goldenrod. I think it is actually called a common name is, like, wrinkle leafed goldenrod, but it is it is just and it looks night neat right now in the garden. I mean, it's just this kind of arching stems, and that's cascading down.
Chris Enroth:There's no flowers yet, but the texture itself is is very interesting, especially in, like, in contrast with something like the coneflower and stuff that's around it with bigger leaves, bit more coarser texture. So, you know, my my first golden rod to share is, like, actual cultivated version called fireworks. And so I yeah. Check it out, folks. It's it's pretty neat.
Ken Johnson:That's a little bit smaller one, isn't it?
Chris Enroth:It is smaller. It's a bit more contained, but I I would still say it is kind of this multi stemmed arching. This is kinda arching stems that is about waist high, I would say. And I I just I really like where I have it in my pollinator garden at home. Do you grow any goldenrods, Ken, on purpose?
Ken Johnson:Yes. We've got a couple. And the plant tags that were on the ground are broken off, so I need to go through and look at my order history and figure out what they are. I think zigzag is one. Mhmm.
Ken Johnson:We've planted. If I remember that's is that the one that can tolerate a little more shade?
Chris Enroth:That's it. It's more of like a woodland type species.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. Because we planted that one in our that's one we must plant in our backyard in our shady garden area. I don't think I've taken any pictures of it. So I have no pictures to provide.
Chris Enroth:Oh, I got some of one. Because that that's one I planted also. It and I have the the leaf of the zigzag goldenrod, the leaf is serrated to the point it looks like a a dangerous saw. You know? It it they're highly serrated leaves, and the name that zigzag name, so the flowers kind of zigzag up that that central stalk there.
Chris Enroth:And I like this one. It does spread, though. I will say that much. So put it in the woods if you can, especially in the fall where there's nothing blooming at least in my woods as everything's fighting honeysuckle at that point in time. So, Ken, is there another type of goldenrod that that you might grow?
Chris Enroth:You mentioned you might have a a few of them, one of them being zigzag. Are there any others that that might be living in your yard?
Ken Johnson:I'm trying to get maybe stiff. I think. Possibly. Mhmm. Maybe.
Ken Johnson:I didn't do my homework.
Chris Enroth:You gotta organize those plant tags, Ken.
Ken Johnson:I stick them in the ground and they get broken off and, yeah, that's the end of it.
Chris Enroth:No. I I I'm in the same boat. Well, actually, my plant tags go into one central container that's sitting in my garage, and that doesn't help because it's all mixed up with everybody else there. And I'm like, who is who? Especially when you're dealing with goldenrod.
Chris Enroth:So you almost have to go back to, like, the goldenrod fact sheet or compendium to figure out who's who. But I I say stiff goldenrod is definitely one that I also have. Kind of true to its name, the leaves are fairly sandpapery, kind of stiff, more rigid. And I think they're taller. They're not as branched as the fireworks one, but they're they definitely have a different coloration texture to the leaves and, again, has that that white or not white, has that yellow bloom color.
Chris Enroth:And I I I really like this one. I don't see this one being as aggressive in the garden as, like, the zigzag goldenrod was or has been and definitely not as aggressive as, like, Canadian goldenrod.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. And whatever goldenrod it is we have in our our front yard and our our boulevard hill strip median, whatever you wanna call it, gets a little tall, and it's right by our driveway. So it makes it difficult to see the road. So what I've been doing last last year and this year too has been basically shearing it off, making it a little more bushy branch here to help keep it a little short. And I've been somewhat successful in keeping it down.
Ken Johnson:So if you do have get a taller one, that could be something you can try to kinda keep it a little little shorter if you put it too close to your driveway and block your view Yeah. On your driveway.
Chris Enroth:Well, that that reminds me. So sometimes people do call into the office and they say, I've got a problem with Canadian goldenrod. Yeah. It it it's aggressive. It takes over.
Chris Enroth:What can I do to stop it? And probably one of the best control remedies there is right before it's about to bloom, you mow it. And that removes that bloom, cuts off seed production. And that plant has put a lot of energy into creating those blooms and vegetative growth and the and the like. And to suddenly just lose all of that all of that mass and the photosynthetic ability to recuperate does set the plant back.
Chris Enroth:So probably if you have a large scale area fighting Canadian goldenrod, mow it right before it blooms.
Ken Johnson:And that'll prevent any seed production Mhmm. Too, which can get you in trouble too if you don't A lot of trouble.
Chris Enroth:Neighbors will be calling you. That's right. Hey, Ken. And the other thing is, does does your wife have all kinds of, allergy responses to this goldenrod that you planted in yard? How why would she let you do this?
Chris Enroth:She'd be sneezing all day. Right?
Ken Johnson:That is that is one of those things that just doesn't seem to die. So so golden red, gets blamed a lot for allergies, seasonal allergies, particularly in the fall, because it's got these nice showy flowers. We notice it blooming. The real culprit or what's typically the culprit is gonna be ragweed, which has kind of green nondistinct flowers that you don't really notice. So that's that's what's causing your allergies.
Ken Johnson:It's wind pollinated. Typically, I can say always, but typically plants that are causing allergies, a lot of times are gonna be wind pollinated. They're releasing all that pollen into the environment, and that's what you're gonna be allergic to. You know, I'm not an allergist, but my understanding is typically those insect pollinated are not really gonna be causing any allergies because they're not releasing that into the environment. They're relying on insects to move that around.
Ken Johnson:Mhmm. But because goldenrod has those nice showy flowers that are blooming at the same time as ragweed, it gets blamed for seasonal allergies and stuff. And Yeah. Did a good growing article on that. We can link to that in the show notes, and you can read more about that if you like.
Ken Johnson:And help spread the word. It's not goldenrod's fault.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. It's goldenrod. It's just the it's plant in the wrong place, wrong time. Right? It's it's unfortunate.
Chris Enroth:So the thing causing your allergies is ragweed, pollen. Oh my goodness. Well, we have a lot more other than a goldenrod. If you aren't willing to dip your toe into that golden pond, then we can move on from there and talk about its companion plant, at least here in Western Illinois, and that is gonna be our blooming New England aster. Ken, do you have any of those fall asters in your garden?
Ken Johnson:Yes. We do have New England aster. That is one we've we just did the straight species, and I know, the purple dome is one of those those more popular, commonly found, native art, cultivars, whatever wanna call it. But we we have the straight species, and it's, you know, it's got the nice purple flowers, yellow centers. It's a it's a pretty attractive plant.
Ken Johnson:Mhmm.
Chris Enroth:I I did plant purple dome in my yard last year, and it didn't come back up this year. That's probably because when I bought it, like, the bottom two thirds of the plant was just dead leaves. It's just the top part was green. And so it was one of those sick cases where I I bought a plant that was already dead and put it in the ground and expected it to live. But it I don't think it did.
Chris Enroth:Maybe I'll be surprised. Maybe I'll find it hiding somewhere in the garden bed, but, yeah, my pollinator garden bed is was all ditch lilies, day lilies, and I have slowly been beating them back. But every once in a while, they move back into a place where I've already planted. So it's a constant battle. And pretty soon, I will win because I'm I will not yield to a ditch lily.
Ken Johnson:Lilies buy it on sale?
Chris Enroth:Yes. Your purple dome? Yes. I bought it on sale, got a heck of a deal, and then got a heck of a dead plant.
Ken Johnson:There's a reason you got a heck of a deal.
Chris Enroth:Exactly. Purple dome is a pretty neat plant, though. I I I'm gonna try again. I'm going to try it again. It looks I think it when I first saw a picture of it, I thought it was a mum.
Chris Enroth:It is, like, that compact and that rounded of a habit. Fooled me, but it is a New England aster. Purple dome grows anywhere from, like like, thigh not thigh, probably shorter than that. Probably knee to shin height, maybe ankle. Ankle's a little short, but between those two human anatomical regions.
Ken Johnson:Depending on how they work.
Chris Enroth:Exactly. Yes. My six year old waist high. You know? So it all it is all relative.
Chris Enroth:But I I will say I'm gonna try it again. I I would be excited if it would survive this time. I probably need to actually spend some money on it, though.
Ken Johnson:There's always next time.
Chris Enroth:Always the next for sale.
Ken Johnson:And another one we grow is, is calico aster. So this is more of a woodland species too. This another one. Last few years, we've been kinda focusing on the backyard where we've got one more shade. So this is one we put in there.
Ken Johnson:It's got white. Some of those kind of pinkish flowers on it. This is another one. I haven't had any disease problems, and it hasn't had insects on it. So I haven't really taken any pictures of it.
Ken Johnson:Those are the only pictures I ever take.
Chris Enroth:There's no bugs, and there's no problems with this plant. You don't need a picture of it.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. I'm sure there's been pollinators, but I haven't had a camera when they've been on there. So see if I can track down a picture to put in in here for people to see it. But, but, again, it it can take some shade. So if you've got shade areas that that you wanna get some color in, calico aster would be one.
Ken Johnson:And I think it pairs pretty well with the zigzag goldenrod too.
Chris Enroth:I've never tried that one. I'll have to I'll have to look into it if I can't come across a purple dome on sale this year. So well, Ken, another favorite purple flowering fall plant of mine is Veronia, which is ironweed. Actually, I was out on the in the prairie just this last weekend, and the prairie or the straight species of ironweed, it's a prairie species, is starting to bloom right now. So a little bit earlier than you might think, but the cultivated form that I grow, it's called iron butterfly.
Chris Enroth:I believe it was selected by Alan Armitage who if you don't know who that is, he wrote, Herbaceous Perennial Plants, the very well renowned book. And so, he's he's kind of a noteworthy plantsman, and he selected iron butterfly, which is a type of ironweed that, blooms a little bit later in the season, has fine textured flowers, fine textured foliage as well, and it's something that I've also incorporated into my garden. I really like this plant paired up against some of my, black eyed Susans, some of my taller ones. And this is a bit of a taller plant, waist high, if not a little bit taller than that. And it it's just I I absolutely love it.
Chris Enroth:It's it's a great plant, kind of like that fireworks goldenrod. The texture of the leaves is an ornamental trait in and of itself. So even if it's not blooming right now, it still looks great, and it's a it's a nice addition to any pollinator garden.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. That is not one I have grown, but I think I need to edit.
Chris Enroth:I'll see if I can get any babies off mine coming up and and start handing them out. I don't know. It it's not really doesn't seem like it's ready to divide yet considering it's only been in the ground for two years now. Well, almost a year. Almost two years.
Ken Johnson:Year and a half ish. Give it a little more time.
Chris Enroth:Yep.
Ken Johnson:So you mentioned black eyed season with your iron weed. Is that are you doing the just straight regular black eyed season, or is that a different type that you're
Chris Enroth:doing? I am not sure for the taller ones what is being grown. I am going to assume that it is the old fashioned Goldstrum cultivar. It just looks like Goldstrum. About later on in the in the month of August, the leaves are gonna get diseased.
Chris Enroth:They're gonna get covered in, was that Septoria, I believe. Or
Ken Johnson:Mine are already covered.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. So The ones I have. And so I I'm fairly certain that's what I have for black eyed Susans. However, I, this year, decided that I love that perennial plant of the year so much, which is a black eyed Susan, and the name is American gold rush. So this is a kind of like purple dome master.
Chris Enroth:This is a much shorter, much daintier black eyed Susan, creates these mounds of a of kind of that form of a mounded habit, and I planted it late spring this year. It is loaded in flowers right now. It's absolutely stunning. And if this plant performs like this every single year, I'm I'm going to be in love, and I'm going to be planting more of it. So check out it's a it it is a hybrid.
Chris Enroth:It was actually developed here in Illinois, so it is a native species to Illinois, technically, even though it's been hybridized. But American gold rush, it's a rudbeckia.
Ken Johnson:And then I think our our next plant on the list is on the black eyed season, but not our not our typical, and that's sweet black eyed season. That's not one I have grown or really familiar with.
Chris Enroth:And I think that's more that I have seen that one growing up against a woodland kind of in that that partially shaded area, intermixed with other native plants like jewelweed and and some of our our lower growing grasses like side oats grama, blue grama, stuff like that. And out in the wild, that that sweet black eyed Susan is is really impressive. This is wall of yellow as you walk into the woods. I don't know how well it would perform in a yard, though. But if someone has a bit of a bigger space that can take a little bit of partial shade or has a bit of partial shade, sweet black eyed Susan, which I believe that's the subtomatosa one, is would would be something that could perhaps work in that situation.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. Looks like it's also called sweet coneflower. So maybe another name you see.
Chris Enroth:And I I mentioned, Ken, that I was in a prairie this last weekend, and another flowering plant that I came across that is just starting actually, the flowers aren't even quite developed yet, but it's really interesting flower is the bottle gentian flower, which bottle gentian is actually a flower that never opens or doesn't open very easily. It it actually requires the strong jaws of a bumblebee to open the flower, and the bumblebee will crawl inside of it, and maybe it'll spend the night in there, or or it'll come on out and and move along. But that's how it gets pollinated, which I think is fascinating. It's a really neat looking flower. It's this kind of football shaped flower, cream colored.
Chris Enroth:And so I think there's some that are a bit more blue colored and very interesting native prairie plant that I would love to include in my yard, but I don't have one in my yard. I I would try to, though.
Ken Johnson:I don't have either. But I've heard of, you know, people talking about it and just have bumblebee butts Mhmm. Sticking out the flowers and stuff, which I've seen pictures of it. It's it's kinda cool. But I think that things like that are cool.
Chris Enroth:There's probably a Facebook page called bumblebee butts. So it's probably after the transformer movie maybe. I'm not sure. But, hopefully, it is the actual insect. Well, there is one that I I do also have in my yard, another late bloomer, and this is another one which I have really enjoyed having in the yard.
Chris Enroth:And when it blooms, it is a fantastic fall blooming plant, and that is false sunflower or it's a Heliopsis hellianthoides, and the cultivar name is bleeding hearts. There's a couple other cultivars that are also similar similarly named like that, but false sunflower bleeding hearts, this is one that I have had in my garden for the last couple of years, and I the blooms are spectacular. The deer love to munch on these things, though. And so I have my plants. I got tomato cages around them.
Chris Enroth:I'm trying to protect them. Deer still come in, and so they keep munching on them. But I am gonna get blooms. I did check the other day, and the deer have decided to move along and to stop trying to bother with my pushing my tomato cages over to get to the flowers. And so I do I will have blooms here in a little while, but, yeah, we'll pop a picture that the the plant itself is really interesting.
Chris Enroth:It has these dark purple stems and very kind of dark green flowers, and the or not flowers, leaves, dark green leaves. And then the flowers themselves are this sort of array of orange, red, deep purple, and they're big. They're broad. They're this big disc of flowers. And I I really like this one when it is in bloom.
Chris Enroth:It's another one of those, even not in bloom, has still has ornamental peer appeal with those dark stems and those interesting green hued leaves.
Ken Johnson:And then speaking of sunflowers, so I think when when typically when people think of sunflowers, think of the the annual sunflowers of Helianthus annulus. But there are some perennial type sunflowers, I'll say for the most part. So these are usually blooming July, August, September, August, September, October, depending on the species. For the most part, these are rather aggressive. They spread by rhizomes.
Ken Johnson:So in a home landscape, for the most part, you're probably not gonna be doing perennial sunflowers unless you have a very large yard or you want nothing but perennial sunflowers, which Yep. Maybe you do. I won't judge. But there are for for my reading, and I haven't grown these, so I can't speak from personal experience here, but it sounds like there's two species, at least, that are native to Illinois. They would be native to Illinois.
Ken Johnson:They're a little less on the aggressive side. They they will form clumps, and it may be something where you have to divide it every three or four years to kinda keep it under control, but they're not gonna go crazy and and feature entire yard like some of the other ones. That'd be the western or naked stemmed or few leaf sunflowers. This kinda grows kinda like a little rosette. Maybe a little taller, and has these big, tall, bare flower stalks that puts flowers out on.
Ken Johnson:And, again, they're not like what you think of as a typical sunflower with a giant heads and stuff. They look a little bit almost more like cosmos to me, which are related. But it's still sunflower, still has the ray and and disc flowers on it. Fairly adaptable for soils. It probably likes a little on the drier side for this one.
Ken Johnson:And there's also swamp sunflower, just the name implies. Probably likes a little more of the the wet side, but from what I've read, it can take some drier soils, as well. And this is another one that does not spread quite as readily. It is taller than it gets about five to eight feet tall, so that would be something to keep in mind too. Probably don't wanna put it right next to your driveway next to the street.
Ken Johnson:Oh, come on. So you can see out of the driveway. But
Chris Enroth:No. It's just just let it flop over into the road.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. So that that would be another option, you know, if you want those. I think those two are are more the August, September, October time frame for blooming. So if you want those sunflowers in you know, even with the annual sunflowers, if you do your succession planting, you could probably get those blooming up until frost, if you stagger those plantings too. And for for these, they're not the the perennial sunflowers, they tend not to have the real big sunflowers.
Ken Johnson:It's the seeds, but they're not as big as the ones we the annuals that we typically think of, but smaller seeded. But birds and stuff, we'll we'll still visit and feed on the seeds and things like that.
Chris Enroth:I think it's always important to remember sunflower hails from North America originally, even though it's grown all over the world these days, mostly that annual one. But you can find native perennial sunflowers that used to be a part of our tall grass prairie landscape. So there's there's a there's a lot more flowering plants. I think this is probably just a smattering of them that we can get into. I know that there's some late blooming blazing stars out there, and we didn't say the m word today, mum, but you could go buy mums too if you really wanted wanted to go that route.
Chris Enroth:But there's that's mums is a whole other topic. It's a whole industry.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. And those if you wanna get those established, plant those sooner rather than later. The longer you can have them in the ground, the better they'll establish. Still not gonna guarantee they're gonna survive the winter, but sooner you get them in the ground, the the better chance you'll have of getting them to make it through the winter. Yep.
Ken Johnson:Ideally, you'd wanna plant those in the spring. See if you got a whole season. Yeah. And And the whole growing season to get established.
Chris Enroth:Because they can take work. They can take the whole growing season for establishment. And then if you wanna get that mum, like, fall, you have to really prune and pinch and work at that and and fertilize. And and there's a there's a lot of work that goes into making those those round mum potted plants in the fall. And the growers that's some some big large scale greenhouses, that's, like, all they could do is they they grow mums every year, and then maybe they grow something else for the springtime.
Chris Enroth:And so that that's about it, and it it's a lot of work.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. Autumn joy sedum.
Chris Enroth:Oh, yeah.
Ken Johnson:That's a I good
Chris Enroth:got one of those. I do have an autumn joy sedum. It flops around because I always forget to pinch it to to set it back, which you should pinch in about June. Because if you don't do that, if I pinch right now, I'd I'd remove all the flower buds that have already been set.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. I usually pinch mine. I did not pinch them this year. Usually, I do it even twice. I pinch them, keep them nice and compact, but so I'm sure mine will be flopping everywhere.
Chris Enroth:These are very attractive to flies. Right? The flies, they like the seed of flowers.
Ken Johnson:Flies, bees. I in my yard, do you mean sometimes you can hear them buzzing from Mhmm. Flies, bees from 20 feet away. They're absolutely covered in them.
Chris Enroth:Yes. Yeah. So pretty pretty nice pollinator plant a lot of people don't think of.
Ken Johnson:So one other thing, there are some so typically for bulbs, when we think about bulbs or anything like spring blooming bulbs that we're planting in the fall, but there are some that'll actually bloom in the fall. So that'd be another option. I know most of stuff we've talked about is native species, but there are some some fall blooming bulbs. So there's autumn crocus. Saffron crocus would be another one.
Ken Johnson:So that can be a twofer there. You can get your your own saffron, and you'll quickly understand why it's so expensive. Yeah. If you grow your own. Cyclamen, there's a hardy cyclamen that we could grow outdoors here in Illinois that blooms in the fall, and there's also, an autumn daffodil, as well.
Ken Johnson:So if you want more of a yellow flower instead of purples like all the other ones, you can plant them. We've got a good growing article on that. We'll put in the show notes that you can read more about all of those.
Chris Enroth:Well, that was a lot of great information about fall blooming plants, as we said, minus maybe the mum, which everyone seems to reach to. So, hopefully, we gave you some alternatives to, just that, you know, the mum and some of these are perennials, of course, and they well, all of these we've talked about are perennials, and so they'll they will come back each and every year. Be floral and nectar be floral and nectar resources for your pollinators, your garden, look lovely, give you that year round seasonal blooming time, and it's just a joy to watch. So the Good Growing podcast is a production of University of Illinois Extension, edited this week by Ken Johnson. And a special thank you to Ken for hanging out with me to talk about fall blooming plants.
Chris Enroth:Thank you, Ken, for chatting about what we have coming up in our own backyards this year.
Ken Johnson:Yes. Thank you. I've got got some more plants I need to try out now, so add those to the list. See if I can find them on sale that are still healthy.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. Those whole sale racks there get you.
Ken Johnson:And let's do this again next week or maybe the week after.
Chris Enroth:Oh, we shall do this again probably the week after. We are going to head off to a national conference in Faraway Iowa where we will learn all about what our colleagues are doing around the country. And so we will we'll probably take a little bit of a break here next week. We might give you a small garden bite though to munch on until we get back. So listeners, thank you for doing what you do best, and that is listening.
Chris Enroth:Or if you're watching us on YouTube watching, And as always, keep on growing.
Creators and Guests
