Plant a garden full of fall color

First: Brighten beds with fiery flowers

Plant torch lily beside a red cordyline to make its orange flower clusters really pop. Fill in around both with low mounding grasses, such as Carex glauca, and perennials like Sedum “Autumn Joy.”

Add a row of Stipa gigantea, like the ones behind the wall, as a backdrop; if possible, position these grasses where the sun can backlight them for part of the day.

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Then: Set them off with chocolate-colored foliage

Purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum “Rubrum”) clusters around a path, while two reddish-brown smoke trees draw your eye through golden clouds of flowering Stipa gigantea.

Space ornamental grasses far enough apart so that, after they mature, they can move gracefully in the wind.

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Finish: With a touch of sunshine yellow

A single well-placed variegated plant can lend a glow to a garden bed. Agave desmettiana “Variegata” fills that role here; it rises above a sea of creeping carex, sedums and thyme.

For more burnish, add copper-toned planters such as these rusted steel cubes.

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Bring on the heat: Five warm-colored plants

1. Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’

Dense flower clusters start out blush pink, then age to rust as the weather cools.

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2. Fountain grass (Pennisetum orientale)

Foxtail-like plumes emerge from 2-foot-tall mounds of gray-green foliage, then fade to golden brown.

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3. Hen and chickens (Sempervivum tectorum)

Rosettes of fleshy bronze leaves hug the ground beside smaller Sedum spurium “Dragon’s Blood.”

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4. Smoke tree (Cotinus coggygria‘Royal Purple’)

Deciduous shrub with purple foliage turns more burnished in fall; flowers resemble puffs of smoke.

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5. Torch lily (Kniphofia uvaria)

Orange or yellow flower clusters emerge from grassy clumps.

Design:  Ryan Fortini Design Group, San Luis Obispo, Calif. (fortinihome.com)

• Video: Revamp your fall garden

Learn about garden path design