20 Fall Flowers for Pots: Elevate Your Seasonal Décor

Switch out your seasonal decor when the temperatures drop. Annuals add vibrant color until frost, so combine them with some of best fall flowers for pots to keep the show going. Use plants with the same basic needs for water and sunlight; shade-lovers, for example, won't survive in full sun. Choose perennials recommended for your USDA Gardening Zone or, if your potted perennials overwinter outside, two zones higher.

Layering Plants for Depth and Interest

Fall containers aren't only about flower color, says Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens Senior Horticulture Designer Barbara Arnold. Consider leaf and bark textures and shrubs with changing foliage, like oakleaf hydrangeas. "Think outside the box with perennials: Heucheras come in a range of colors, from lime green and burnt orange to deep, almost black tones. Hostas offer green, blue or variegated foliage that turns golden yellow in fall." Try cool-season annuals and vegetables like pansies, petunias, spinach and kale, and native grasses for movement, color and seedheads. Asters, mums, pansies, snapdragons, violas, goldenrods and rudbeckias are some of the best fall flowers for pots. Click the links in our gallery of pots to see if the plants are annuals or perennials, and consider when and how long they bloom, so you can coordinate your displays.

Choosing and Arranging Foliage and Fillers

Marie Genovese, with Gardener's Supply Company, says her company's experts recommend arranging fall plants for pots as "thrillers, fillers and spillers". Thrillers grow vertically, like cannas, while fillers have a horizontal habit, like petunias. Spillers cascade, like calibrachoas. "Generate energy and excitement with complimentary colors like purple and orange or yellow and blue," or use blues and pinks for soothing compositions. Greens, silvers and whites, she adds, look stunning.

Containers for Fall Flowers and Foliage

Choose durable containers, says Chuck Pavlich, Director of New Product Development at Terra Nova Nurseries. "Drainage holes are a must." He likes simple designs in smaller containers. "Crowded containers with too many elements look haphazard and poorly composed." Grow vertical plants in upright containers and heavy foliage and larger plants in wide, broad ones. He recommends using good potting soil and a slow release fertilizer supplemented by occasional liquid fertilizer.

This pot holds Swiss chard, an orange canna, mums, ornamental cabbage, trailing Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia) and ornamental peppers. Spikes of salvia peek out from one side, while ornamental millet anchors the arrangement.

Instead of dark green foliage, opt for brighter hues, says Linda Vater, garden design expert for Southern Living Plant Collection and Encore Azalea. As shown here, Heuchera 'Glitter' sparkles with a Heliotrope and rare 'Joey' (Ptilotus exaltatus).

Fill a container with Agastache 'Queen Nectarine' for pollinators like hummingbirds. "Design your container with height variation and visual balance," Barbara says. Yellow petunias, sweet potato vines, blue Nemesia and a maroon coleus complete this sun-loving combo.

Swiss chard 'Golden Sunrise' glows alongside ornamental peppers and pansies, while 'Ruby Red' Swiss Chard partners with blue pansies in another pot. Andrew Bunting, VP of Horticulture at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, says 'Firecracker' peppers come in rainbow colors.

Echo fall's oranges and golds with Superbells Double Orange Calibrachoas, Suncredible Yellow Sunflowers, Supertunia 'Black Cherry Petunias,' Dolce 'Toffee Tart' Heuchera and Graceful Grasses 'Fireworks'. Add "seasonal props like pumpkins, gourds, sticks, branches, moss or grapevine balls," Barbara suggests.

Tone down warm pink and maroon Celosias and pink and red Dianthus with blue-leaved Crassulas, yellow and green Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow', ornamental cabbages and Gold Thread Cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera) ‘Filifera Aurea'.

Chefs and cooks, plant pots of frost-resistant or winter-hardy herbs like parsley, oregano, chives, thyme and sage to keep in a sunny spot near the kitchen or grill. Rebecca Sears, CMO and Resident Green Thumb at Ferry-Morse, says herb seeds "double as fragrant fillers that support pollinators, too," and recommends the soft, airy foliage of plants like lavender and dill for texture and contrast.

This 'Voodoo" recipe from Proven Winners features Plum Dandy (Alternanthera hybrid), ColorBlaze Golden Dreams Coleus, Sweet Caroline Red Hawk Sweet Potato Vine and Jazz Hands Night Moves Chinese Fringe Flower (Loropetalum).

Because fall containers have a short season, plant them full for a lush look. This one features Dolce 'Wildberry' Heuchera, 'Violet Knight' Sweet Alyssum and trailing Dichondra Silver Falls.

Dwarf or medium-sized dahlias shine in fall pots; given full sun, most bloom until frost. Add Gaura and ornamental millet for texture and contrast.

Elephant ears (Colocasia) are striking with pots of mums and annual marigolds, zinnias, kalanchoes and Celosias. Overwinter potted tropicals indoors, dig and store the tubers or treat them as annuals. They'll come back in warm winter climates.

Plant an eye-popping pot with red, lime green, purple and orange plants. This one holds Saucy Red Salvia, Saucy Wine Salvia, EverColor ‘Everillo’ Carex, ‘Sunshine’ Ligustrum, Flirt Nandina, Pot of Gold Little Lucky Lantana and Purple Pixie Dwarf Weeping Loropetalum.

Heuchera 'Paris' sends up stems of long-lasting, deep rose flowers and produces white-veined, green leaves. Creeping Jenny trails over the sides; this pot can take sun to shade.

Heuchera 'Georgia Plum' charms with rosy-purple foliage overlaid with pinkish-silver. It prefers part shade but tolerates sun if it's kept moist. For other purple plants that take partial shade, Andrew suggest 'Redbor,' an ornamental kale.

With dry soil and full sun, perennial succulents can grow through fall and into winter. These pots hold Sedums Rock 'N Round 'Popstar' and Rock 'N Grow 'Back in Black' and Heucheras Dolce 'Toffee Tart' and Dressed Up 'Evening Gown'. Prairie Winds 'Lemon Squeeze' fountain grass adds height, texture and movement.

Make a splash with Prairie Winds Desert Plains, a fountain grass; Heucheras ''Wildberry' and 'Peachberry Ice' and trailing Dichondra Silver Falls flanked by pots of mums.

Don't like combinations? Fall pots of mums are stunning on their own. Give them full sun and move them indoors or mulch heavily in winter.

Cool weather doesn't stop these fragrant plants. ‘Citrona Orange’ wallflower (Erysimum) is surrounded by ‘Matrix Purple Clear’ pansies, ‘Sorbet Orange Duet’ violas and Sweet Alyssum. The colors last beyond frost in mild winter regions.

Autumn Carnation, from the Encore Azalea line, opens pink, ruffled blooms in spring and reblooms throughout summer and fall; Creeping Jenny cascades over the rim of this pot. The deep green leaves change to purple in fall and winter. It can take light shade but flowers best in 4 to 6 hours of sun.

Fall flowers are gorgeous in everything from whiskey barrels to hollowed-out pumpkins. 'Silver Gumdrop' Heuchera holds court here with Trailing Red Livingstone Daisy (an annual that flowers into fall), Celosia Intenz Dark Purple (a spring-to-fall bloomer) and a red switch grass, Prairie Winds Cheyenne Sky. Give these plants a sunny spot.