Autumn now

When the tide of spring is high and we’re awash in roses, the autumn garden may seem far away.

But now is a perfect time to get out your spyglass and peer into the future. Why go to all the trouble of shopping and planting only for the fleeting blooms of May and June? With some forethought in the spring, your garden can offer interest and delight well into the fall and even winter.

Mary Saba of the design team at The Growing Place in Naperville (thegrowingplace.com) likes to look for plants that have interest in all seasons.

Sedum “Autumn Fire,” for example, has distinctive sculptural foliage that complements spring and summer bloomers, and then develops deep pink flowers in late summer that dry out and last to stand brown and handsome under a snowfall.

Green-leafed cultivars of Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) offer the structure of a delicate small tree through most of the growing season and then burst into spectacular red and gold fall color. “It’s just glorious,” Saba says. “And because they are at eye level, you really get to see it.”

Swaying in the wind, grasses are always in motion in the summer garden until they turn rich shades of gold and red in the autumn. “And you’re not going to get much more low-maintenance than ornamental grasses, because you only have to cut them back once a year” in early spring, says Sandy Remijas of Rainbow Garden Designs in Lemont (rainbowgardendesigns.com).

The potted chrysanthemums that will be for sale in late August or early September may be a good way to refresh annual containers whose petunias and impatiens look dated as the trees turn. But they’re throwaways. For mums or asters to survive in the garden from year to year, you need to buy and plant them in spring and give them a whole season to get their roots established before winter. “If you plant them now, they’re a true perennial,” Saba says.

Here are some autumn-interest plants to seek out in garden centers now. Choose those that are suitable for your sunlight, soil and other conditions, plant them properly and water them attentively through their first summer — and you’ll be rewarded this fall and in autumns to come.

Perennial flowers

Goldenrod: No, it doesn’t cause hay fever. But various species of this native plant have spectacular, fluffy spikes of yellow bloom in late summer and early fall. Goldenrods can be 3 or 4 feet tall, but some compact cultivars for smaller gardens include Solidago “Golden Baby,” S. sphacelata “Golden Fleece” and S. rugosa “Fireworks.”

Asters: Several species are native to the Midwest, though they too can be tall and ungainly in gardens. Remijas likes “Purple Dome,” a cultivar of New England aster (Aster novae-angliae “Purple Dome”), because it has lots of flowers on a compact, bushy plant. She suggests planting it surrounded by lower perennials because it tends to brown out at the bottom of the stalks.

Turtlehead: Upright stalks with glossy foliage early in the season are topped by tight bundles of oval blossoms in late summer and fall that stand up well to wind and rain. White turtlehead (Chelone glabra) and red turtlehead (C. obliqua), whose blooms are really pink) are both native.

Salvia: Like many perennial species, perennial salvias will rebloom in fall if you cut them back after their first bloom in early summer, according to Tim Pollak, outdoor floriculturist at the Chicago Botanic garden in Glencoe (chicagobotanic.org).

In fact, assiduous deadheading will prolong the bloom of many plants, including reblooming roses. “The point is not to let the plant made a seed,” Saba says. “If it makes a seed it will shut down for the year.”

Grasses

Prairie dropseed: This relatively short native grass (Sporobolus heterolepis) has a “roundy moundy” shape, a beautiful golden-orange fall color and a lovely herbal fragrance, Remijas says. She plants it by a walkway where her passing dachshunds brush against it. “The dogs come in smelling like the herb garden,” she says.

Switchgrass: With steel-blue summer stalks, a cloud of wispy seed heads and golden fall color, this native prairie grass (Panicum virgatum) makes an excellent background plant or hedge. “Northwind” is an especially upright selection that Remijas likes.

Shrubs

Hardy hydrangeas: There has been a recent boom in breeding and selecting new cultivars of the hardy Hydrangea paniculata, such as the quite large pink-blooming Quick Fire (H. paniculata “Bulk”) and smaller Mystical Flame (H. paniculata “Bokratorch”). They bloom in late summer with large, long flower heads that persist into winter. Another good bet, Saba says: dwarf cultivars of oakleaf hydrangea (H. quercifolia).

Dwarf fothergilla: This native of the Southeast (Fothergilla gardenii) has fragrant, fluffy white spring flowers and leaves that turn orange-red in fall. Remijas likes to plant it near patios for the scent.

Viburnums: Most species in this hardy genus have richly colored fall foliage. Remijas recommends Blue Muffin, a cultivar of arrowwood viburnum (Viburnum dentatum) because it is a little more compact than the towering native species and has an especially rich crop of the blue berries much loved by birds.

sunday@tribune.com