When you hear the words ‘colorful perennial for fall’, admit it: your mind goes to mums immediately, right?

You’re not alone; chrysanthemums have become one of those plants that almost feel synonymous with the autumn months. The moment summer starts losing its grip, garden centers fill with them in jewel-bright shades of purple, pink, red, orange, yellow, and white, ready to be tucked into containers, lined along front steps, or planted into borders to give everything one last burst of color before winter.

I love how wonderfully immediate they are. You buy one, put it somewhere that needs cheering up, and suddenly the garden looks as though you’ve made an enormous effort. And yet... well, and yet over the past few years, I’ve found myself looking at another plant growing around the garden and thinking that, actually, this might be the fall flower I’d choose if I were starting from scratch.

The Colorful Perennial Quietly Replacing Mums

Now, it’s not as instantly associated with fall, and it certainly doesn’t arrive in garden centers with quite the same fanfare. But once asters start flowering, they have a habit of making everything around it look better, which is why this colorful perennial is quietly becoming my favorite alternative to mums.

The thing about mums is that they are brilliant at one particular job: giving you an enormous hit of late-season color. Asters, meanwhile, are all about the build-up; rather than appearing as one big autumnal statement and calling it a day, they take things slow and steady as they weave their way around the garden... and, much like that iconic tortoise, this is exactly how they win the race (and all while making everything around them look better).

Shop Asters:

There really is an aster for everyone. The smooth aster, for example, is a native plant that boasts masses of daisy-like flowers in airy shades of blue and violet. The Snow Flurry Aster is another great native option, which brings with it showy white blooms all fall long.

Then there’s the New England variety (like this Grape Crush New England Aster from Nature Hills), which is taller, fuller, and far more exuberant, with masses of colorful flowers that can range from pink and purple to blue and white, depending on the variety. And hardy wood aster, too, offers an easy breezy way to add a little late-season brightness into a woodland-style or partly shaded area.

Honestly, we spend so much time choosing plants for the moment when they look their absolute best. We want the perfect June border, the perfect summer container, the perfect flush of flowers for photographs. But if you want something that carries us (and pollinators!) through those fall months, asters are absolutely the answer.

Falling for another colorful perennial doesn’t mean I'm giving up on mums entirely, of course; there are few easier ways to create an instant splash of fall color, and I still love seeing those great big pots of flowers appear when the seasons change.

I’ve readjusted my mindset, though, to think of mums as the quick fix and asters as the long game. One gives you an immediate display, and the other earns their place in a fall garden year after year – especially when the rest of the garden starts running out of flowers.

And if I had to choose between the two? Well, I’d take the asters. Every single time.