Some gardens may look spent at the end of a long, hot summer, but with good landscape planning, the shorter days may be the beginning of fresh color.

A native that begins its show of scarlet flowers in late August and continues through September and into October is California fuchsia, Epilobium (previously classified botanically as Zauschneria). Because of the many species and cultivars available, it’s possible to add bright deer-resistant color for weeks.

The taller cultivars have strong, erect stems with multiple flowers opening in succession. In fullest bloom, it is a blaze of scarlet flowers, all the more vibrant in contrast to the silver stems and leaves. Hummingbirds are frequent visitors.

Like most plants with gray or silver leaves, California fuchsia does not need much irrigation. Winter drainage is especially important. Place plants where there will be winter sun and full sun during the growing season. Low-growing cultivars are good bank covers.

The native plant sale next weekend (Sept. 29) will be a place to find Epilobium. The sale will take place at the North Star property off Auburn Road, beginning at 9 a.m. Earliest shoppers have first choice, which is a solid reason for becoming a California Native Plant Society Redbud member. Then you can begin shopping at 8 a.m. Remember that fall is the perfect planting season.

In the irrigated garden, Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ blossom clusters open pale rosy-pink by mid-September. In the next few weeks, the hue will transition to rosy-pink, then deepen to a rich rose before turning brown, a color that will hold for many weeks into winter. Like all the hardy sedums, the juicy, succulent leaves are a deer favorite.

Near the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ in my garden, the purple-blue flowers of the early September New England aster ‘Barr’s Blue’ are finishing their show this week, and attention turns to the Aster novae-angliae ‘Harrington Pink’ just appearing, the last of the asters to brighten my fall garden. Cultural requirements for the sedum and the asters is the same: plenty of compost, full summer sun and regular irrigation. Plus protection from the deer!

Another September-October bloomer with needs similar to Sedum and Aster is the false dragonhead, Physostegia virginiana. However, it is such an aggressive spreader that I give it a space all its own. ‘Vivid’ is the cultivar grown for its lilac-pink flowers with tall, strong stems perfect for cutting. The white cultivar has a lovely bloom, but stems are not as sturdy, so this perennial tends to have a sprawling habit.

The last blaze of color in Alyce Hammond’s Clark Street garden in Grass Valley spills over and through a white picket fence with abandon, large gold daisies glowing until the sunsets. This uncommon perennial is Helianthus angustifolia, often available in local nurseries. In my garden, deer do not touch the foliage, which is a rich dark green during the summer months. As September approaches, sturdy stalks lengthen to as much as four or five feet. Bloom continues through most of October.

In shade gardens, the cultivars of windflower or Japanese anemone (Anemone japonica) bring fresh blooms to the fall season with single white or pale pink and double rosy-pink cultivars. All are strong spreaders. Another perennial, hardy fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica) blooms all summer, non-stop into fall, inviting hummingbirds even as days shorten.

With a bit of planning, late bloomers can be the strength of your fall garden, a prelude to the changing leaf colors that will soon dominate the local landscapes.

Carolyn Singer has gardened organically in the foothills since 1977. She will be teaching a class on fall gardening and landscaping from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. today at Peaceful Valley Farm Garden Supply 272-4769. A class schedule and past articles may be found at www.carolynsingergardens.com.

The rugose spiraling whitefly is spreading fast throughout Florida and expanding its appetite for a variety of tropical landscape plants.

The pests — three times larger than the tiny whiteflies that attack backyard vegetable gardens — feast on gumbo limbo, coconut palms, avocado, calophyllum and black olive trees. They also like bird of paradise, banana and mango plants. Despite their foreign palate, the bugs have rapidly broadened their diet to include a taste for more than 50 species of plants in Florida.

The bugs weaken plants they infest. Worse for homeowners is the nasty mess they leave. The whiteflies excrete a sticky dew that oozes from infested trees, soiling driveways, pool cages and cars. The substance also attracts sooty mold — another problem for plants.

As gross as it sounds, however, homeowners and landscapers who find spiraling whiteflies — named for the spiral pattern in which they lay their eggs — should not automatically reach for the pesticides, state and academic bug experts said. Florida’s host of predatory insects, such as parasitic wasps and lady beetles, might keep the nuisance in check.

Scientists are working to identify the whitefly’s best natural enemy to combat the bug without killing off beneficial insects that pollinate important crops or gobble up other landscape and agricultural pests.

That strategy worked 15 years ago with the giant whitefly, which spread to Florida from California. The state bred natural enemies that devoured the whitefly population. Now it occasionally shows up, but is far from a plague.

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the University of Florida are teaming up to look for the spiraling whitefly’s natural enemies.

“We’re seeing what is attacking them now and if any are candidates to rear and promote release,” said Greg Hodges bureau chief for entomology, nematology and plant pathology at FDACS.

Ian Stocks, a whitefly expert for FDACS, said that in some areas of Florida, parasites and wasps have already begun to attack the whitefly.

Spiraling whiteflies were first documented in Sarasota this spring when a homeowner arrived at the local extension office with an infected leaf.

“At first I thought it was the giant whitefly and then I saw the circular pattern that it makes when it lays its eggs,” said Patricia Porchey, an extension agent for urban horticulture in Sarasota County.

The best plan of attack for a minor infestation is to wash off the plant. Spraying pesticides on foliage will kill everything on the plant, including beneficial insects.

Experts recommend systemic chemical treatments, applied to the roots of a plant, for only major infestations of plants that do not produce food. Systemic insecticides will render mangoes, bananas, coconuts and other fruits inedible.

Laurel Schiller, owner of the Native Plant Nursery in eastern Sarasota County, said she never uses synthetic pesticides on plants. Instead she recommends neem oil or a mixture of 9 parts water, 1 part mild dish soap and 1 part cooking oil.