Plant a Halloween Garden!
October 6th, 2009
Filed in Annuals and Perennials
Tags: Halloween, perennials
Halloween is coming! Fortunately for us gardeners, Mother Nature has several scary plant species worthy of boos and scares. From flowers shaped like eyeballs to grass stained with blood, you’re sure to find a frightful plant to set the tone of Halloween.
Are you ready? Here’s a little garden’s worth of spooky delights to showcase for your trick or treaters!
Spiderflower
Spiderflower, or Cleome, is a perfect start to the Halloween garden. What’s Halloween without spooky spiders? To boot, this plant also has vicious sneaky spines along its stem. It flowers all summer, until frost, and prefers full sun to part shade. It is an annual that re-seeds like crazy, so BEWARE!
Eyeball Plant
Show the neighbors that you’ve got your eye on them by growing the Eyeball plant, Spilanthes oleracea. It can be grown as an annual plant or a houseplant, and does well in part-shade.
Witchhazel
Halloween wouldn’t be the same without witches! Witchhazel is an understory shrub that blooms in either the fall or spring, depending on the species that you plant. It is hardy from Zone 4 to Zone 8. Cultivars that lose their leaves during the winter are the nicest for gardeners, because the leaf loss allows you to see the small, delicate flowers more easily.
Bloodgrass
Bloodgrass, Imperata cylindrical, is as scary as vampires, in some parts of North America. It will take over and spread like a zombie infestation, so it is best to just admire pictures of it, rather than planting it in your garden.
Boneset
Do you feel like skeletons are chasing you? You might, if you grow Boneset, or Eupatorium perfoliatum, in your garden. It is a native perennial wildflower, which grows best in full sun, very moist to swampy soils.
Ghost Plants
Do you have ghosts in your garden? If not, get some Ghost plants, Graptopetalum paraguayense, succulent plants that practically glow in the dark like ghosts hovering near the ground.
Have a Happy Halloween, everyone! Check out Halloween Alliance for more Halloween Party tips, tricks and treats, and do-it-yourself Halloween decorations.
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