8 Colorful Plants to Pair with Mums for a Stunning Fall Garden

Mums are gorgeous all on their own, adding a burst of late-season color to our gardens. But combining them with the right companion plants can make them look even more striking. Then you can play with color and texture to elevate your display with contrast and depth. The following plants are typically available and looking their best in early autumn, making it easier to pair them up and create stunning fall mum displays.

1. Ornamental Kale and Cabbage

If you haven't checked out ornamental kale and cabbage, you might be surprised at the bold colors in purple, deep green, pink, and creamy white. It's a fall favorite, and still easily found, often on sale, at many independent garden centers. 

Ornamental kales and cabbages are quite frost-tolerant, so they'll continue to provide interest even after the frosts have turned your mums brown. They take an entire season to grow, so buy large plants already showing color if you didn't start them from seed in the spring. 

2. Asters

Asters are perennials that bloom from late summer until frost, and even longer. Many are very cold-hardy and well-suited for northern growers. Most are some shade of purple, but breeders have released asters in shades of pink, strawberry, and creamy white.

The New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) is a great choice, but any asters you find in bloom at the garden center in fall are perfectly suitable to pair with mums. They like full sun and good drainage, and if you plant them near your front steps, patio edge, or in the perennial bed, you'll have a spot every year to plant a pot or two of mums.

3. Sedum 

Stonecrops or sedums keep on blooming from late summer until frost, attracting bees and providing color when many other garden plants have quit or gone to seed. These perennials are available in many sizes and colors. Some varieties, such as 'Purple Emperor' (shown here) and 'After Dark' offer dark foliage in addition to flowers, making them especially striking companion plants for fall mums. 

4. Coral Bells

Many coral bells (Heuchera spp.) are still available at your local garden center, and since they’re perennials, they're often on sale at a big discount. Coral bells are primarily a foliage plant, although they sometimes flower. They are available in loads of colors, including burgundy, pink, bronze, and many shades of green. 

Heucheras will do fine in partial shade, making them perfect for some of those less sunny spots where you'd still like a pop of color to set off your mums. They often are shorter, at about 1 foot tall, not counting the blooms. 

5. Ornamental Grasses

Airy, colorful grass heads swaying in the breeze whisper autumn and chilly days. Choosing plants that are naturally mature and ripe in autumn works with our sense of time and seasons. In other words, it just looks right. Ornamental grasses enhance mums by providing contrast in form and texture.

Taller ornamental grasses work well for the vertical element in more permanent in-ground mum displays, and dwarf varieties, which are still often two feet tall, are well-suited for fall container designs. Check out little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora), and pink muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris). 

6. Swiss Chard

Swiss chard is a delicious leafy vegetable, but it also provides color and texture for a fall garden, perfect for pairing with mums to bring a brightly colored vibe. Swiss chard is a popular fall garden crop, so it's often easy to find at garden centers and nurseries in late summer and early autumn. Use it as a mid-height selection, or plant smaller varieties in front of a large mum pot.

'Firebird' is an all-burgundy variety with gorgeous glossy crinkled leaves and matching stems. 'Bright Lights' rainbow chard is almost too fancy to eat, with deep green foliage and stems in red, pink, yellow, orange, and white. 

7. Black-Eyed Susan

The old-fashioned black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) is always a winner, and quite hardy in the garden, but breeders have created many more Rudbeckia choices that harmonize well with the color of mums to create vivid displays. You’ll find them in many autumnal shades of orange, gold, yellow, maroon, and bronze, and often in multi-color blooms.

Some Rudbeckia are perennial, and some are annual, although many reseed. Planting a rudbeckia, an aster, and a sedum in an arc leaves you a perfect spot for a mum to get plopped right in the center every fall, providing a ready-made display for only a few minutes of effort.

8. Marigolds

If you thought marigolds were only for edging vegetable beds, you might be surprised. African marigolds, in particular, are tall, stunning plants that bloom in dahlia-esque shapes, grow several feet tall, and keep on pushing blooms until frost (which usually ends your fall mum display anyway). French and African marigolds are available in multiple fall colors of burgundy, orange, and gold. Keep them deadheaded and they'll provide color all season long.

Shopping for Fall Plants

If you started planning your fall display of mums early, your choices were nearly endless. But if you're shopping in early October, the pickings may be slim when looking through the garden center for companion plants. While big box stores have often moved on to fall or even holiday decorations, independent garden centers are still selling plants, and it's a great way to support local business and have a wider selection of plants to pair with your mums. If they're selling mums, chances are you'll find some of these other plants as well.

If you buy the mums there too, you can experiment with colors and combos in real time before you buy. Set them on your cart and take a look at how they complement each other with height, color, and texture.