Fashionable Fall Flowers

Temperatures may be dropping, but East End gardens are still hot this time of year.

“People think as soon as September comes and the kids go back to school that the garden is done, but we really have another three months,” Hampton Nursery owner Stephen Forte said at his Hampton Bays store last week. “Most of the plants, believe it or not, don’t like it when it’s hot in the summer. After 10 or 15 hot days, they’re like us.”

He hugged his arms around his body and bent his knees, pleading, “‘Please, just give me a break.’ So the cool nights come and perk things up. Most of the plants like that. They just jumped after last week, with the rain and then it got cold. Plants are back.”

But not all flowers are making a return. Fall gardens, which can bloom through Thanksgiving, are heavily dependent on hardy plants that can withstand colder weather and even frost, Mr. Forte said. Tropicals, petunias, geraniums and marigolds are finished, and impatiens are a “done deal,” he said, explaining they’re currently suffering from a blight.

Gardeners will also have to wait until next season to see black-eyed Susans, salvia, lavender and hydrangeas—all except one, said Phil Bucking, who co-owns Sag Harbor Garden Center with his wife, Diane.

“There’s a new hydrangea we’ve been carrying, which has been incredible,” Mr. Bucking said during an interview last week. “It’s called ‘Sweet Summer.’ It’s a white-blooming hydrangea that holds its blooms very long. It’s more late summer than early fall, but it’s a really nice addition to the garden.”

There are a number of new flowers popping up in fall gardens, including the white-petaled Japanese anemone and a blue-flowering shrub called “caryopteris,” which attracts butterflies, Mr. Bucking said. Rubrum grass, a purple fountain grass, is also becoming popular, Mr. Forte said.

“As for what’s different for the fall, maybe just some new colors,” Mr. Forte said. “Great fall colors—purples, reds, oranges. These plants get people in the mood. They remind you of fall, fires, hardy meals, red wine. It’s vibrant, sort of muted colors—the bricky-orangy reds, the browns. A lot of these colors come out when the sun is setting. People are getting home from work, maybe it’s six o’clock, the sun sets at 7:15, 7:20. If they’re sitting on their back deck, things tend to, as the sun is setting, jump out.”

Gone are the bright colors and “Easter pinks,” he reported, though one new fall plant—a dark pink camellia with a glossy leaf—is an exception to the pink rule, Mr. Forte noted. The flower is making a comeback, he said, as are pansies, violas and the shrub beautyberry.

“All these little berries here turn bright purple,” Mr. Forte said, holding up one of the leaves. “So after Halloween, the only thing left on the stem is purple, so-cool-looking berries.”

Montauk daisy, aster and the climber sweetheart clematis are reliable, hardy plants, Mr. Bucking reported. But one oldie but goodie that has been falling out of fashion is the chrysanthemum—commonly known as a mum, he added. They’re beautiful and provide a pop of color when many of the fall flowers have yet to mature, he said, but they rest more on the traditional side.

Mr. Forte agrees.

“Most garden center owners and even designers, they don’t like mums,” he said. “It’s like, it’s a mum! It’s a funeral thing. My feelings, for a windowbox or pot, if you want to put some of these with a little cabbage or kale and stick some mini-pumpkins in there, it’s a great little fall basket. Mums, for me to put in my garden? No. No.”

According to Diane Bucking, mid-September is an in-between period for plants: summer flowers are over and fall flowers aren’t quite ready, she said. So when gardeners want a punch of color, many spring for cabbages, kale and bright red, orange, yellow and purple ornamental peppers.

“They’re all greenhouse-grown. You can get them now, you can get them at Christmas,” she said. “We’ve been getting them for a few years, but I would say it’s something newer—newer than a mum. They’re not edible. Well, Elaine eats them, but she’s crazy and from Jamaica.”

Ms. Bucking grinned at her employee, who was watering the plants, and the two women laughed together.

“She doesn’t think hot is hot,” Ms. Bucking continued. “So people use them, they bloom and then they’re done. You don’t save the plant. It’s just color for right now when there’s no color around.”

Though fall gardens are just getting started, now is the time to start planning for the winter and spring. Always think a season ahead, Mr. Forte said, whether it’s fertilizing evergreens, repairing lawn damage or transplanting annuals.

“So what you do now will already be in place for the spring,” he said. “Your job becomes a little bit easier.”