September Flowers in the Cut Flower Garden
September flowers are spectacular! These late summer / early fall flowers can be show stoppers in your flower beds as well as in your cut flower garden. And if you grow some of these, you can keep cutting beautiful bouquets of flowers right from your very own garden.
Let’s look at what’s growing with wild abandon this September in my zone 6, southwest PA garden.
September Perennials for the Flower Garden
Sedum
Sedum is a no fuss and must have perennial for the late summer / early fall garden. It blooms big heads of flower clusters on thick waxy stems. The flowers last for weeks in September and into October in the garden. They don’t like to be fertilized and don’t want much water. Score!
These gorgeous September flowers make for a great cut flower, too, They last for a week or more in the vase. Their waxy stems make a great filler flower, too! If you want a bit more green in a bouquet, you can cut the flower early, before it’s turned pink/red.
Bees love these flowers as well, so it’s great for pollinators in September. Look for these plants in the garden center around August. Sometimes you can get great sales on these guys in September, too.
Feverfew
Feverfew is a biennial or a short lived perennial. It will come back, but not for years, like sedum. It does however reseed itself so if you let a few seeds drop, you’re likely to always have feverfew growing.
Feverfew comes in several options for colors and shapes. Below I have Tetra White and Magic Green Lime. Snowball is my favorite, but I cut all of it so I have no pictures!
I get my seeds from Johnny’s Seeds. I have no affiliation with them. They sell a great variety of seeds and I’ve purchased from them for years.
September Annual Flowers for Cut Flowers
Dahlias are Peek September Flowers
Dahlias are an absolute showstopper in the ground and in the vase! Nothing beats their beauty in the fall. For cut flowers, I like to choose varieties that grow 36″ tall or more.
Dahlia’s have a wide range of colors and styles. My favorite style is the decorative dahlia. I usually order my tubers in January or February from Longfield Gardens.
You can dig up dahlias and store them somewhere that’s around 50 degrees F in the winter. I have yet to find the right spot and have had zero success storing mine. So I just buy new ones each year. It gets pricey.
Zinnia
If you don’t want the cost of dahlias (they can be $6 – $15 per tuber/plant) but still get some impact, zinnias can get the job done!
I think sometimes zinnias get a bad rap because they are used and talked about so much. But there is good reason for it. They are cheap and easy (that’s what she said!). Seriously though, a packet of good seeds may be $5 and you can grow 12 – 25 plants. That will keep you in flowers all summer and fall!
And with varieties like Benary Giant, Queeny Red Lime and Oklahoma, you can get 3 different shapes and loads of colors to choose from. I get my unique zinnias from Johnny’s Seeds and I’ve been hearing great things from Floret’s line of zinnias, too. I may try those next spring.
If you want more help on growing zinnias, you can check my detailed post here.
Snapdragons
Snapdragons are back, baby! These cool season flowers come back in action come September. They flower in the spring from an early planting and then, if you leave the bottom portion of the plant in the ground, they regrow come fall!
I love Potomac Appleblossom (first pic, white with pink). It bloomed beautifully in the spring and is coming back strong again.
Snapdragons make a great spike flower/accent in bouquets. These snaps are great for cut flowers, but not garden plants. They are too tall and need to be staked. You’d want to find a shorter variety for bedding plants.
Ageratum
My absolute favorite filler flowers in September are ageratum in the Timeless Mix.
These beauties bloom in shades of purple, blue, and white. And they bloom from July till frost!
I love these flowers as cut flowers and as landscape plants. They just bloom and bloom. My girls love to cut them, I cut them, and still they keep blooming!
Now one word of caution. These guys like to live. And they spread their seed everywhere! I have them coming up in my grass (I have 2 kids, a dog, and 4 chickens, so my grass isn’t exactly picture perfect).
The baby plants are easy to pull so I don’t mind. Wherever you plant ageratum, odds are you’ll have babies coming up for years! That’s a bonus for me, but could be a pain for people who like “perfect”. I’m more of a “Yay, free plants!” kind of girl.
Flowers for the September Cutting Garden
I hope this list gives you some inspiration and helps you plan for next year.
I love to try new varieties each year while maintaining my tried and trues. This list will reappear in my garden next year, and the years to come. They are that good!
Let me know what you’re planting for your September flowers. I’d love to try something new!
Thanks for visiting us in the garden!
