Several of us have been preaching the significance of fall planting for the past twenty years.
Those of you that have overcome your suspicions and embraced the fall-planting message will be spending a lot of time over the next two or three months with a shovel in your hand. Good for you. Still others haven’t converted yet, perhaps suspicious that the fall-planting message is nothing more than another snappy marketing campaign.
Trust me; fall planting is the real thing. For sheer quantity of flowers, fall is the best planting season of the year. Our warm soil, moderate temperatures and coming rains combine to make this the best gardening season in southern California. Cool-season flowers planted right now, in early fall, develop huge root systems and bloom over a longer season than those planted in spring.
So get the shovel, decide what you want to plant, prepare your flower beds and let’s get started.
SOMETHING NEW
Among the large selection of cool-season bedding plants are familiar pansies, violas, snapdragons, primrose and poppies. These are fine choices, but why be in a rut; let’s try something different this year.
Cyclamen are the flower that has advanced its popularity the most in recent years and for good reason. Growing in nearly full sun or moderate shade, cyclamen will probably outbloom any other flower over the next six months. Deep red cyclamen, contrasted with pure, glistening white will make quite a show and in the coming months you’ll see many front walkways adorned with this seasonal combination.
Nemesia have become a workhorse flower of local gardens, being planted every month of the year and flowering just about nonstop. But in their heart of hearts, nemesia are cool-season flowers, at their happiest from now through spring. The pastel blues, pinks, lavenders and white are perfectly colored for the cooler, grayer months ahead. The soothing lavender-blue flowers of the variety ‘Blue Lagoon’ are my favorite.
Ornamental cabbages and kales, once a curiosity, are now among the most popular winter flowers in Orange County. With almost no effort and no deadheading these architectural plants will fill a bed quickly with a sea of white, pink, or purplish-red foliage. The white in particular seems especially well-suited to the shorter days of winter.
Throughout fall, winter and spring I love small daisy-flowering plants. Not the big shrubby and stiff looking daisies like Marguerites, Euryops and Shasta’s, which I don’t use, but the lesser known border and bedding type daisies. African Daisy (Arctotis) are almost custom made for Orange County gardens. Their small clumping habit, warm colors and grey-green leaves seem to work perfectly with so much of our architecture. I especially like the color of one called ‘Pumpkin Pie’.
Since I enjoy daisies at this time of year, in my own garden I just set out two or three dozen South African Daisies (Osteospermum), half of a soft orange called ‘Orange Symphony’ and the other half a harmonious soft, clear yellow called ‘Lemon Symphony’. The combination is perfect for the fall season, but if I let them, they’ll bloom all the way through spring.
For a little height and to punch up the fall colors even more I scattered in a few deep pumpkin-orange Wallflowers (Cheiranthes or Erysimum). These will grow just a bit taller than the South African Daisies, but bloom during the same six month season.
GETTING OFF TO A GOOD START
Before planting, prepare the soil with additional organic matter; either home compost or a high quality planting mix. Add a granular organic fertilizer and mix thoroughly to a depth of six to eight inches, then level the surface and water thoroughly. Remove the small plants from the containers; if roots have grown into a tight mass, gently tease apart the bottom of the rootball. Space the plants 8 to 18 inches apart depending upon what you choose.
Plant so the rootball is even with or perhaps just slightly higher than the soil level. Tamp the soil around each plant firmly and water again. Keep the newly planted bed moist until roots have taken hold - usually in a couple of weeks.
Now that summers heat has subsided and our days are turning mild and breezy it is again a pleasure to be out in the garden; out among the butterflies, birds, bees and flowers. Fall temperatures, warm sunshine on our shoulders and the unique color of the light at this time of year is just right - for both flowers and gardeners.
Fall really is for planting. Try some of the flowers I’ve mentioned here and you’ll see for yourself what the rest of us are talking about.
Ron Vanderhoff is the Nursery Manager at Roger’s Gardens, Corona del Mar 
