Planting Fall Color
**Recorded Fall 2025
September is when the Mid-Ohio Valley garden starts to change character. Nights cool down, summer annuals begin to fade, and the beds that looked full in July suddenly have room again. That empty space is an opportunity, not a problem.
This is the window to plant fall landscape color: garden mums for those familiar mounds of bloom, ornamental cabbage and kale for texture that gets better as the weather turns, and pansies for color now and again when spring finally shows up.
We’ve grown these crops in our Mason greenhouses for a long time. Garden mums are on the benches now at Mason, Gallipolis, and Belpre. More fall plants are arriving soon.
Garden Mums
Mums are the plant most people picture when they think of fall. Full sun (at least a half day), well-drained soil, and steady moisture after planting are what they want.
Plant them at the same depth they were growing in the pot. Water them in well, then keep the soil evenly moist—not soggy—while they settle. Newly planted mums usually need water two or three times a week if we go dry. Container mums dry out faster and may need water every other day.
If you are planting in the fall, they generally do not need a heavy feeding. They are already in bloom, and extra fertilizer now does more for foliage than for flowers. Deadhead spent blooms if you want the plant to stay tidy.
A note on next year: good drainage matters more than almost anything else if you hope a mum comes back. In our region, “hardy” mums are not a sure thing. Leave the old top growth in place over winter to help insulate the crown, and wait until spring to clean it up. Treat a return flush as a bonus, not a promise.
Use them in the front of a bed, in a pot by the door, or mixed with other fall plants. Give them room to stay mounded instead of crowding them against a wall that cuts the light.
Ornamental Cabbage and Kale
These are grown for leaves, not flowers, and that is what makes them useful. The ruffled, painted foliage tightens up and the color deepens as nights get colder. What looks a little green in warm weather often turns rose, purple, cream, or white after a stretch of cool air.
Plant them in full sun to light afternoon shade, in soil that drains. Set them at the same depth they were in the pot and water them in. They hold well through typical fall weather and look especially good next to mums and pansies because the leaf texture is so different from petals.
They are not the same kind of winter plant as pansies. Enjoy them through the fall display. A hard freeze will eventually take them. Do not count on them for early-spring color the way you can with pansies.
They work in the landscape, in mixed containers, and along a walk where you want something that still looks intentional after the last petunia is gone.
Pansies for Fall—and for Early Spring
This is the plant we want you to plant with next year in mind.
In the Mid-Ohio Valley, pansies planted in the fall will survive the winter and give you color again in early spring. That is one of the best returns in the whole garden year: one planting, two seasons.
Plant them while the soil is still workable and roots still have time to grow before the ground freezes. Full sun to part sun, well-drained soil, and the same planting depth as the pack or pot. Space them about 6 to 8 inches apart so air can move through the planting.
Water them in and keep them from drying out while they establish. A light mulch after the soil cools helps even out winter temperature swings. Do not bury the crowns. In late winter and early spring, clean off any winter-worn foliage and they will push new blooms when the weather allows.
Pansies are happy in beds, window boxes, and mixed pots. Pair them with mums and ornamental cabbage now. When the mums finish, the pansies are the ones still working.
You can also plant pansies in early spring if you miss the fall window. Fall planting is simply the better habit here if you want that first wave of color before the summer annuals are ready.
A Simple Way to Put Them Together
You do not need a new landscape plan. Look at the spots that are thinning out.
• Sunniest open ground: mums for immediate color, pansies at the front for spring.
• Containers by the door: one mum, a few pansies, and an ornamental cabbage or kale for the middle.
• Along a walk or the edge of a bed: a ribbon of pansies that can stay through winter.
Water new plantings well, then watch the forecast as we move toward a typical first frost in late October. These three crops are chosen for cool weather. They do not need to be treated like July petunias.
Stop By
Garden mums are available now. More fall plants are arriving soon!
