All beds and borders need star performers for each season, providing a continuation of shape and color. There are scores of first-rate fall plants, including dahlias, cannas and Japanese anemones, while many grasses are now at their best.
Cortaderia (pampas grass) has lavish plumes of spikelets in late summer and fall, and is a magnificent eye-catching compensation for the absence of summer flowers. Other grasses, such as Molinia, are not as immediately dramatic but their green strappy leaves will soon turn an astonishing orange -brown, and when they are placed to catch the setting sun look like they are about to ignite. Deftly placed contrasting yellow rudbeckias add an extra richness.
