Kick off the fall season with a bit of team spirit in your garden. Let your neighbors know who you’re rooting for with a color display of your favorite football team’s colors. From flowers and foliage to fruit and fall color, nature can help you support your team.
Go Cards!!
Celosia ‘fresh look red’ and Coleus ‘crimson velvet’
Nature loves this color and the choices are endless!!! Here are a few:
- Celosia commonly called cockscomb are warm weather plants that thrive in hot, humid areas. The vibrant flowers require a minimum of eight hours of sun each day and soil that drains quickly. When planting celosia in the fall, prepare site by removing weeds and mixing organic matter into the soil. Water often and deadhead.
- Lantana ‘Dallas Red’ is an ever blooming, evergreen tropical shrub that is grown as a tender perennial in temperate zones. They prefer a full sun location and moist, well-drained soil. Lantana are highly attractive to hummingbirds, butterflies and other useful pollinators, however they are poisonous if ingested by humans and other animals.
Other popular plants with red flowers or berries include:
- coleus ‘Crimson Velvet’
- Dahlia, options include ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ ·
- Penstemon ‘Husker Red’
- Achillea ‘Paprika’· ornamental peppers (Capsicum annuum), such as ‘Chilly Chili’
- maple, includes Acer rubrum ‘Red Sunset’, A. japonicum and A. ginnala ‘Flame’
- heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica)
- holly, includes Ilex opaca, I. cornuta, I. verticillata and I. decidua
True blue
Plumbago ‘auriculata’
Though blue is a bit challenging to get in the natural world, here are some plants that could work for Kentucky fans.
- Plumbago auriculata is an evergreen shrub that grows from three to ten feet and can be trained as a vine. The flowers are a soft, powder blue and are borne throughout the summer in phlox-like clusters. Plumbago will thrive in full sun or partial shade and does best in light, slightly acidic soils.
- blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) The intensity of blue found in this lobelia is unparalleled. They are easily grown in rich, medium to wet soils in full sun to part shade. Lobelia is a most desirable plant for woodland gardens especially since it blooms bright blue in late summer.
- Scabiosa ‘Butterfly Blue’
- Ageratum sp.
“Orange” you gonna use this color?
Zinna ‘profusion fire’
From Texas burnt orange to Tennessee bright orange, these plants serve up a version or two of this hue:
- zinnia ‘Profusion Orange’, ‘Profusion Fire’ and ‘Profusion Apricot’ Zinnias are extremely popular annuals due to their ability to bloom over a long period, their endurance and vibrant colors. They are of the easiest possible culture and will thrive under widely varying conditions. Although they thrive best in full sun, they will also endure partial shade.
- coleus, options include ‘Rustic Orange’ While coleus comes in a wide variety of colors, the rustic orange is my favorite. With its dark orange foliage and yellow and green margins, these new, bigger sun loving varieties have revolutionized container gardening. Coleus plants are durable and easy to grow however they are tender annuals. Frost will cause them to die immediately but can be moved inside and used as house plants.
- (Tithonia)
- Echinacea Mango Meadowbrite’
- lantana, options include ‘Miss Huff’ and ‘Spreading Sunset
Thank you, hgtv.com, for a great idea!!!!
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