Abundant moisture has brought lushness to Colorado gardens. By midsummer, early flowers are fading and you might experience a midsummer slump in flower borders.

How can you carry color and interest through the season into the fall months? Perennials that flower later, grasses with colorful seed plumes and leaf blades, bronzing foliage of shrubs and trees can all add vibrancy to late summer and autumn displays. Fall blooming annuals add splashes of color. Even interesting seed heads such as those of Echinacea, if left on the plant, add texture.

Here are some plants to consider for late summer and autumn interest:

Late summer flowering perennials

• Rudbeckia (yellow and bronze varieties)

• Maximillan Perennial sunflower (native, grows to 3 feet)

• Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and Sedum ‘Autumn Fire’ (succulent, upright growth, pink to burgundy flowers)

Sonoran Sunset Hyssop* (drought tolerant, deer resistant)

Salvia Wild Thing* (drought tolerant, zone 6-9 so borderline cold hardiness in Colorado Springs)

• Wind Walker Royal Red Salvia (drought tolerant, attracts hummingbirds)

Red Feathers Echium* (deer resistant, drought tolerant, attracts bees and hummingbirds)

Orange Carpet Hummingbird Trumpet* (low growing groundcover, hummingbirds)

Sunset Foxglove* (semi evergreen, drought resistant, bronze yellow blooms)

• Chrysanthemums

Winter Fire sedum* (low growing succulent groundcover)

Ornamental grasses

• Blaze Little bluestem (upright, foliage turns deep red in fall to soft pink in winter)

• Flame grass (Miscanthus purpurascens; heat and drought tolerant)

• Pink muhly grass (frothy pink seedheads in late summer)

• Red switch grass (grass blades tinted with bronze, pink seedheads)

• Karley Rose Fountain grass (pink flower spikes in mid to late summer)

Fall flowering annuals

• Zinnias

• Cosmos

• Common Sunflower (Helianthus annuas; various colors and sizes)

• Pansies (thrive in cool shade)

Shrubs

• Blue mist spirea (small shrub, cobalt blue flowers)

Sumac varieties (Staghorn, Gro-Low*; bronze fall foliage)

• Burning bush (scarlet fall foliage, full sun for best color)

• Grace Smoke Tree (purple summer foliage turns bronze)

• Goldflame spirea (small shrub, chartreuse leaves turn to copper)

• New Mexico Privet (Forestiera neomexicana; 12-18 shrub, drought tolerant native, golden foliage)

Trees

• Autumn Spire maple (Acer rubrum ‘Autumn Spire’; 50 feet by 30 feet, seedless variety)

• Tatarian maple (Acer tataricum ‘Hot Wings’; 15-20 feet tall and wide, leaves turn red in fall)

• Amur maple (Acer ginnala; 15-20 feet tall, often multi-stemmed, red leaves in fall, occasionally yellow)

• Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry (Amelanchier x grandiflora ‘Autumn Brilliance,’ hybrid of native species; large shrub or small tree, sometimes multistem, bronze-red foliage, attractive red fruit popular with birds)

• Canada Red Cherry (Prunus virginiana ‘Canada Red’; 15-20 feet tall, green foliage progresses to purple to deep red)

• Black Hawk Mountain Ash (Sorbus aucuparia; small columnar tree 26 feet by 15 feet, fine textured foliage changes from dark green in summer to golden red in fall, orange berries add color)

(* These plants are PlantSelect; go to plantselect.org; search for plants based on type, size, growing requirements, bloom time, and attributes such as deer resistance and attractive to pollinators.)

Submit gardening questions to csumg2@elpasoco.com or call 719-520-7684. The help desk is open 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays at 17 N. Spruce St. Find us on Facebook at Colorado Master Gardeners – El Paso County.