How to Plant a Garden for Color Every Season

As cooler fall temperatures roll in and summer blooms start to fade you may be asking yourself, "how can I plant a garden for color every season?" It's easy to achieve an interesting, colorful garden with bold blooms all spring and summer. But what do you do in the fall and winter for interest through the rest of the year?

Here are our four tips for achieving a garden with color every season:

1. Plant a mix of perennials and annuals! Choose a variety of perennials that bloom at different times throughout the year for color that comes back again and again. But don't be afraid to add annuals for your beds and in pots to fill in the gaps! Utilize mums, pansies, snap dragons, and other cool weather annuals for pops of color in the fall and winter.

   
   

2. Utilize grasses and sedums for the fall! Our native muhly grass and other ornamental options offer texture and color to your fall garden. One of our favorite sedums, "Autumn Joy" provides interest all year with green foliage in the spring, pink flowers in the summer that open red in the fall, and attractive seeds in the winter.

   
   

3. Include shrubs with fall and winter blooms and berries! Callicarpa or 'beautyberry' are native shrubs that produce attractive purple berries in the fall, making them great additions to your garden. Other Charleston favorites like camellias offer bold blooms in the cooler months of the year.

   
   

4. Prioritize foundational evergreens! Even if you don't have bold blooms during the off season, if you've planted evergreen foundation shrubs your garden will never be bare! We always encourage customers to start with an evergreen base and build with texture and color. Plant podocarpus, ligustrum, viburnum, and boxwood for an green layer all year.