Fall Brings a Blizzard of Colors to this Washington Garden

We appreciate your support of our brand at Lowe's and hope you enjoy your new plants. If you'd like to share what you've been buying, I'd love to know!

Because we have a national audience, I don't do too many very specific regional posts HOWEVER, you are not alone in this problem (Texas, I'm looking at you). I will work on something for an upcoming newsletter.

Try succulent euphorbia and some of the more frost tolerant Cacti.

There are a number of ways to answer your question. Sure there are some fall bloomers, but what really makes fall exciting are the plants with foliage that changes in the fall. I will give you both. Sorry for the botanical names. For fall blooming you have long-blooming roses that are still doing their thing, and others like: Aster laevis, Aster nova-angliae, Aster oblongifolius, Aster tataricus, Echinacea and Rudbeckia are still blooming, Anemone x hybrida, Chrysanthemums, Clematis terniflora, Colchicum, Helenium, Helianthus, some Hosta, Sedum 'Autumn Joy', Solidago, Also, many grasses either bloom or change color in the fall. You can have a whole garden of different grasses with different russet tones that can be interesting all through the fall Miscanthus sinensis, Molinia 'Skyracer', Panicums, Calamagrostis, and Sorghastrum. Of course, there are plants known for their fall foliage. Some of these are trees and some are shrubs. These all have good fall color: Viburnums, Maples, Amelanchier, Amsonia (excellent!), Calycanthus, Chionanthus virginicus, Clethra, Fothergilla, Cornus kousa, Hydrangea quercifolia, Ilex verticillata, Itea virginica, Oxydendrum arboreum, and Ginkgo. I hope that helps.

Hi Maureen. Great question. I am guessing you mean either Asiatic or Oriental lilies? If so, yes, fall is the best time to dig them up and divide. Typically you wait until about a month after they flower on order to give the plant time to store up some nutrients. Do you need advice on dividing? If so, just let me know. When dividing you need a large enough root mass so that you can divide into evenly sized pieces each with at least a few eyes. You'll know when its time to divide when plants begin to produce fewer blooms or when they produce blooms only along the outside and are bare in the middle. This typically occurs when a lily bulb is about 5 years old. It sounds like yours are still young and probably small, so you may decide to wait. If you do decide to divide, carefully dig up the entire rootball and with back-to-back garden forks pry the mass apart into two or more pieces, each with at least two eyes. Then replant those pieces. Bulbs are pretty forgiving. Glad to be of assistance. Thank you for contacting Monrovia.

Hi Honesto--very sorry to disappoint, but that is not a plant that we are currently growing.

Thank you for your comment. We're so glad it was helpful.