VICTORIA PEARSON
06.08.2024 - 14:06 / gardenerspath.com / Rose Kennedy
11 of the Best Fall Annuals for the South
The moderate and even sweltering temperatures in southern states gives us gardeners in the region an advantage in autumn.
For us, the riot of color from coleus, cleome, strawflower, and other summer annuals doesn’t have to stop when Labor Day rolls around.
Instead, we can turn to an attractive assortment of fall annuals for a color boost in our window boxes, hanging baskets, beds, borders, and landscapes.
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Of course, fall perennials like asters and mums are also appealing. But there’s something extra gratifying about sowing the annuals that will complete their growing cycle in a single year or season.
You can sow or transplant these cheery plants in July or August, enjoy the autumn show, and then toss the spent plants at season’s end without a care.
If this sounds appealing, we’ll make it easy to choose a fall annual suited to your area of the south that also suits your taste.
We’ve compiled a list of 11 of the best options. They include cool-weather ornamentals, wildflowers, and annuals that start blooming in late spring and are still going strong right up until the first frost.
The USDA Hardiness Zones cover quite a range here in the southern states, and that will affect what you grow and when you sow or transplant it.
I’m in East Tennessee, Zone 7, for example. Our average minimum temperature can plummet well below freezing in the winter, and the fall annuals I grow ordinarily succumb to chilly temperatures by mid-October.
As you go further south, the Zone numbers go higher and so do the autumn temperatures.
Most of Louisiana, Texas, and Georgia are in Zone 8, with
VICTORIA PEARSON
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