Regional Picks: Unusual Autumn Stars – Southeast

If you ’re sick of the same onetime asters and mum , why not plant an unexpected surrender - star instead ?

Here some truly out - of - the - average plants for up your fall garden game in the Southeast . Some of these choice provide first-class leafage color while others put on a floral display in the terminal throws of October .

Looking for some autumnal star for your containers instead ? ReadAutumn Pots Minus the Mumsby Sarah Partyka for even more out - of - the - box fall planting inspiration .

1. White-topped Pitcher Plant

Name:Sarracenia leucophylla

USDA Hardiness Zones:6 to 9

Size:14 to 22 inch tall and 12 to 16 inches wide

Conditions : Full Dominicus ; moist , boglike stain

Most pitcher plants get new pitcher in spring . blanched - topped ewer plant is unique in that it produces its biggest blossom in autumn , when more than a dozen stately pitchers arise in unison . Their shine white hood are saturated with inky red veins and are nothing short of astonishing . Such bold displays of renewal are welcome so late in the class . As a bonus , unusual purple flowers come out the next spring . They are so otherworldly that first - time observers sometimes are n’t convinced that they are flowers at all . It should be note that all pitcher plants require boglike condition to thrive .

2. Giant Leopard Plant

Name:Farfugium japonicumvar.giganteum

Zones:7 to 10

Size:1 to 3 feet magniloquent and all-embracing

condition : fond to full subtlety ; moist , well - enfeeble soil

Upon first bump gargantuan Panthera pardus plant on the West Coast , I was so taken that I lovingly cradled a specimen in my lap for the entire flight back to South Carolina . Luckily for gardeners everywhere , it ’s more promptly useable today . The vast circular leave , which can be more than a invertebrate foot across , are specially appealing . Some might say that the form is almost aquatic , but to me , the plant resemble a pile of waxy green tractor seats . Daisylike scandalmongering efflorescence mount high above the foliage in tumble . Use giant Panthera pardus plant in the shade for visual weighting or as a foil for more finely textured sedge and fern . While the plant is evergreen , stale winters can reduce it to smuggled glop , although it quickly emerges again in other bounce .

3. Mexican Sunflower

Name:Tithonia diversifolia

Zones:9 to 11

Size:7 to 10 feet marvelous and wide

condition : Full sun ; well - enfeeble filth

Tolerant of heating system and drought , Mexican sunflower is also tight growing and adaptable . These are all fine qualities , but that ’s not what makes this plant so cool . Mexican sunflower is all about sizing . Topping out at up to 10 feet grandiloquent and nearly as wide , this grotesque rarity shit a marvelous blind or hedge . It ’s also much dear by insect , which buzz about the 3 - inch - wide golden flower in fall . Cows and goats like it , too , but they favor to crunch on the nutrient - rich foliage .

4. Candy Corn Plant

Name:Cuphea micropetala

Zones:7b to 11

Size:3 feet improbable and wide

Few perennial can rival candy corn plant for shear floral furiousness . An acute blend of orange and yellow , the small tubular flowers ascend vertically on unsloped radical , setting flame to the fall garden . During any other season , this combination might be jarring . But in fall , when Halloween and Thanksgiving keep sway , it ’s incredibly gay . Due to its long flowering period , confect corn whiskey works piddle an excellent container specimen but work out equally well in a mixed delimitation or massed for long views .

Ethan Kauffman is the garden managing director at the Moore Farms Botanical Garden in Lake City , South Carolina .

Photos : # 1 , millettephotomedia.com ; # 2 , Joshua McCullough ; # 3 , B. Navez / courtesy of wikimedia.commons.org ; # 4 , good manners of Ethan Kauffman

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Regional Picks: Unusual Autumn Stars - Northeast

Regional Picks: Unusual Autumn Stars - Northwest

Regional Picks: Unusual Autumn Stars - Northern California

Regional Picks: Unusual Autumn Stars - Midwest

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