With many communities getting the first frost of the season, many of our warm weather flowering annuals may have “bitten the dust”! So, what’s a gardener to do with the bare spaces left behind when removing those drooping and dying flowers that used to provide the ornate color?

Typical fall plants are great outdoor choices, like mums, but there are also other varieties of bedding plants that will provide great color during the month of October, and perhaps even into November.

Petunias will actually get almost a 2nd wind of blooming when cooler temperatures settle in for the season. While a hard freeze may doom these plants, cooler fall weather will often allow these summer mainstays to perk up again.

Snapdragons and violas are also flowers that will show great color during the cooler season.

Perhaps the hardiest of all is the pansy, which can tolerate even a freeze or two and still produce a nice show. (In the bedding plant world, being called a pansy actually means you’re quite tough!)