Plants with October Flowers – A Gardening Guide

There are some surprisingly warm October flower colours around. Make the most of them before the onset of winter and make sure you get some in your garden. If there’s an Indian summer, having some colourful October blooming flowers should increase your enjoyment, if it is still warm enough to potter about in the garden. If the weather has taken a turn for the worse though, there is nothing cheerier than a bit of colour in a barren winter garden. To maintain uninterrupted flowers you may want to have a look at Plants with September Flowers – A Gardening Guide.

October Flowering Shrub

Abelia x grandiflora ‘Francis Mason’ (abelia) is an average-growing semi-evergreen shrub. It reaches a height and spread of 1.5 x 2 m. This abelia produces sweet-smelling trumpet-like flowers that start in June. These pale pink flowers look lovely against the plant’s green and yellow variegated leaves.

October Flowering Climbing Plant

Clematis tangutica (golden clematis) is a vigorous, fully hardy climber reaching a height and width of 6 m x 3m. It has cheery, lantern-shaped yellow flowers amidst large dark green leaves. After flowering it has unusual, attractive fluffy seedheads. Fast-growing and late-flowering it looks lovely growing over walls, or arches and, left unpruned, can become very large.

October Flowers

For something that thrives in damp areas of the garden Actaea matsumurae ‘White Pearl’ (bugbane) is hard to beat. Although it is a member of the buttercup family, it bears little resemblance to look at, with its slender spires of white flowers opening from green buds. This tall, handsome perennial, will light up dark areas with its brush-like wands. Height and width is 80 cm x 60 cm.

Penstemon ‘Andenken an Friedrich Hahn’ (beard tongue) is a fast growing, easy-to-grow plant reaching 50 cm x 30 cm. Spires of wine-red flowers contrast with its slim bright green leaves, making this a lovely addition to the autumn-winter garden. Resembling foxglove with its tubular flowers it goes well with grasses or blue flowers such as perovskia ‘blue spire’.

Another purple-red coloured flower is Sedum telephium atropurpureum ‘Purple emperor’ (stonecrop). Bronze-purple leaves sometimes appear black in certain lights but the purple-red flowers ensure it does not disappear into the background. It grows to 45 cm x 45 cm.

These October flowers provide the last memories of summer. To ensure your garden has flowers all year round the article Plants with November Flowers – A Gardening Guide will provide some ideas for next month.