I’m a gardening editor, and these are the 5 investment plant purchases I’m making this fall – plus what didn’t make the cut

Listen carefully at this time of year, and you will hear a great many of us gardeners whispering that fall is the most important season in the gardening calendar. It truly is. It is the perfect time to sow hardy annuals, and bed in new plants, giving them plenty of time to establish their roots in the soil before next spring.

The soil is still warm, but easy to dig. And from a practical standpoint, it’s also a lot easier to garden for longer periods of time when the weather is less extreme.

I tend to pick one focus area of my garden to work on in fall, and this year it’s what I’m deeming the ‘hero bed’ right next to our new patio. Over the summer we cleared it of brambles, woody rhododendrons, overgrown laurels and ground ivy. It’s now ready to become a stunning focal point in the yard, and I want to invest in spectacular, beautiful perennial plants to give it an enduringly professional look with color all year round. Here are my top five picks.

The plants I’m shopping this fall, plus a few I will happily leave at the garden center

As with any yard, your plant choices will come down to a number of factors, and understanding your soil and how much sunlight your bed of choice gets will be key to the success of your new plants.

However, buy well now and you’ll be enjoying these plants for many many years to come.

Viburnum ‘bodnantense dawn’

Reasons to invest: This is the pinnacle plant for winter color and scent. Clusters of tiny dark and powder pink flowers begin to emerge in November, when most other deciduous stems are bare and barren. These flowers carry the most delicious fragrance, and will persist throughout winter to March, when new foliage starts to emerge.

I plan to position one towards the back of my border, to add light and softness to the fence, and one much closer to the front, where I can appreciate its calming winter scent.

Best for: Part sun-part shade positions, and well drained, moist soil. Avoid if you have heavy, waterlogged clay for much of the year.

Hardiness zones: 4-8

Very similar varieties of winter-flowering viburnum include Viburnum carlesii, or Korean spice viburnum, from Nature Hills, and viburnum tinus, with live plants available from Amazon.

Ceanothus

Reasons to invest: Blue is one of the rarest colors to find in the garden, and there is no better way to get it than from California lilac, or ceanothus. In my experience, these shrubs grow very fast with minimal care needed, and are wonderful for creating natural privacy in a few short years.

They are drought tolerant, love a full sun position, and in spring they burst into an intense cloud of royal blue, which are also sweetly scented. There are many US native varieties that are ideal for xeriscaping, plus hummingbirds and butterflies love the springtime flowers.

Best for: Any soil type and hot, dry areas.

Hardiness zones: 7-10

You can find California lilac plants available from Nature Hills.

You can also find ceanothus seeds on Amazon.

Verbena bonariensis

Reasons to invest: It’s a garden stalwart for a very good reason. With fluffy purple flowers forming atop towering slender stems from summer through fall, Verbena bonariensis, or purple-top vervain is always a winner for me. I love it for its height, it’s airy nature, and the fact it is a pollinator magnet.

Verbena bonariensis is also incredibly easy to care for and to propagate, meaning I can plant and forget until the following fall.

Best for: Drought-prone areas and self seeding.

Hardiness zones: 7-11 as a perennial

You can find Verbena bonariensis seeds at Amazon.

Astrantia major

Reasons to invest: They might be small, but these star-shaped perennial flowers have a magical feel to them and will be perfect for popping into the shadier parts of my large border. I particularly like Astrantia major ‘sparkling stars’, which is an elegant white variety

The plants won’t be in flower in fall, but you can still get them into the ground (a good opportunity to buy some bare-root plants, which are usually less expensive) and allow them time to establish before spring arrives.

Best for: Shady areas, moist soils and for easy propagating.

Hardiness zones: 4-9

This bare root, burgundy astrantia from Burpee would be an ideal match for the creamy pinks of gaura flowers (read on to find out more!)

Gaura lindheimeri ‘sparkle white’

Reasons to invest: There are oh so many reasons why this is on my list of plants to invest in this fall. Gaura sometimes hides under the radar when it comes to the best perennials, perhaps because it is less showy and dominant than some of its counterparts, but that’s exactly what gives it such grace and charm.

With a long flowering period from early summer through fall, gaura produces lots of small white or pink flowers on tall, arching stems that look their absolute best moving in a gentle breeze. It adds a softness around more structured planting, and once established is super low maintenance.

Best for: Drought-prone soil and pollinators.

Hardiness zones: 5-9

You can find a beautiful bi-color gaura from Burpee.

You can also purchase gaura seeds from Amazon.

Plants I won’t be purchasing this fall

On my list of plants I am not going to be purchasing is one that might surprise you – and that is coneflowers. Don’t get me wrong, I adore them as a cut flower, I simply haven’t had success with them over the past two years, despite buying well-established plants from the garden center (which were not cheap).

I haven’t seen the height or spread I desire from them, and the blooms look weak and bedraggled rather than full and flaming. I’m taking my cue from nature, and moving on to plants I know will thrive better in our soil.

The other plant I’m happily leaving on the shelf is Euphorbia characias, or Mediterranean spurge. Again, I fully appreciate its alien-like flowers and acid-green tones, but I inherited a mature plant in our front yard and it was so difficult to get it under control; the spread was enormous.

I am also not a fan of its milky sap, which is released when the stems are cut. As a florist, I have been on the receiving end of skin irritation and tend to steer clear of this one as a result.

With all the plants I intend to buy, I’m going to look for mature specimens for some instant impact. In the case of the astrantia and verbena, it will also mean I can propagate them more quickly and create more plants for this space and elsewhere in the garden. It will be a big initial investment, but one that I know is going to be paying me dividends for many years to come.