THE BEST PLANTS IN THE EARLY FALL GARDEN

It's an unsettling time in the garden. Part of me looks around, thinks about all the tasks that must get done before it gets too cold out to want to do them and wants to just get on with it, and the other part of me realizes that the garden is still looking fantastic. 

And a walk around the garden shows that the best looking plants right now are also, in general, among the easiest to care for. In fact, with one exception, the most I have deal with any of these plants is once a year. That's it. One tiny little bit of attention paid to them once.

Anything that requires that little care and provides this much pleasure is surely an all-star.

Korean feather reed grass is full of the most lovely fluffy flowerheads right now. The only thing I do to it is cut it back in late winter or very early spring. I supposed some day I'll have to divide it, but that's a rarity.

It provides a great backdrop to the thick, ruffly leaves of Gingko biloba 'Gnome'. Or is it the other way around?

Hydrangeas are the gift that keeps on giving. I can't imagine a garden without them. The panicle hydrangeas in particular shine at this time of year. This is 'Bobo', which is now in its fourth month of bloom (seriously, it started in June) and is now showing almost neon pink coloring.

'Quickfire' hydrangea has been pink for at least a month (hence the name), and is still looking great.

Hakonechloa is a good-doer all around, but 'All Gold' in particular shines in autumn light. Again, all I do to it is cut it back in late winter and I only divide it when I want more of it, which it happily provides.

Hakonechloa macra 'Stripe it Rich' gets great seed heads this time of year.

While all the plants around it are starting to look tattered, especially the slug-damaged hostas and the deer-munched 'Incrediball' hydrangeas, the groundcover Lamium maculatum 'Pink Chablis', seems to always look fresh and lively.

It wouldn't be early fall in the garden without Rudbeckia. It's the standard by which all fall-blooming perennials should be measured. I cut it back in spring, leaving the stems standing for the birds and winter interest.

Sedums just sit back as the unnoticed wallflowers all summer, but come early fall, they are stars. I also leave the standing over winter and I try to cut them back in about June to keep them a little stockier and prevent flopping.

Not all that is beautiful in the early fall garden is foliage or flower. These berries on Viburnun x juddii are so bright and shiny. I will enjoy them until the birds find them. I literally do nothing to this shrub other than admire it. What more can you ask for?

Roses hardly fall under the "low maintenance" category that the rest of these plants fall under, but it would be remiss of me to ignore them in a listing of the best plants in the garden in early fall. Here in zone 5, now is the time when most roses get a stunning second flush of flowers, so long as the gardener has been diligent about deadheading earlier in the year. This is 'The Alnwick Rose', which I planted in late spring.

Nature has a way of reminding us to enjoy every day and not rush to what's coming next. Plants like this are proof.



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A GARDEN MOMENT TO NOTE

Like most gardeners, for me this time of year is as much about late season chores like dividing and moving as it is about making notes of what worked and what didn't. It's always amazing to me how different the garden looks in September compared to what it looked like in June.

Back in June I wouldn't have noticed this spot in the garden because it was nothing special. But now it is an area worth noting. To me, this combination has all the best aspects of texture, color and structure.

This is the end of the path by the garage, on the four feet or so of garden that borders that part of the path. On the edge is a fluffy, finely textured grass similar to Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima). Mexican feather grass is a lovely annual in my zone 5 garden, but in many other places it is highly invasive and should not be planted. Unfortunately I can't tell you what grass this is because, um, I lost the tag (seriously ... every time!). I know it's not hardy here though, and that's fine because this is a tough spot for a plant to live, what with snow being piled on it from clearing the path.

The specific grass doesn't much matter because there are probably a dozen that could offer the same look. Beyond it is a grouping of sedums, both 'Autumn Joy', the darker of the two, and 'Neon'. All of them were planted from cuttings, which is to say I pruned some in another area and stuck the prunings in the ground. With sedums like this, it's just that simple. The paler florets are areas where I cut the plant back in June to give me a longer period of blooming and keep the plants from flopping.

Short of watering the grasses in when I planted them and cutting back some of the sedums once, I've not done anything more than walk past this area all summer.

I just don't know how you can get better than that: a beautiful moment in the garden for basically no effort. It's one worth noting.