Just because you’re starting to rake leaves and preparing your garden and lawn for winter doesn’t mean you can’t have colorful flowers and plants until winter sets in.

You can maintain a beautiful display throughout the fall by choosing cool-weather plants for your landscape and containers.

The most popular of the cool-weather plants are mums, pansies and ornamental kale.

Chrysanthemums, or mums as they are commonly called, are very colorful fall-blooming perennials. Some gardeners find them hard to keep looking good the next year and treat them as annuals by discarding them in the late fall or winter.

There are many species of chrysanthemums. They are very popular in fall and can be purchased almost anywhere.

Florists’ mums add instant color, but their colorful blooms don’t last long and will die with the first frost. Garden mums, however, are hardy to Zone 5 and will still bloom in the fall after a few light freezes.

When transplanting mums into a container, be careful with their stems, which can be quite brittle. The blooms only last for a few weeks, so move these around the yard to brighten up areas that are being “put to bed” for the winter.

Pansies like cool weather. They come in many colors: pink, white, maroon, purple and yellow. Pansies will bloom through the fall into winter and then bloom again with your bulbs early the next spring.

They are part of a larger flower family that includes violets and Johnny-jump-ups. They like full sun to partial shade and moist, well-drained soil.

Ornamental kale is native to Europe and Asia and is classified as Brassica oleracea (the same as edible cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower). Ornamental kale is used more for coloring the garden than for eating.

Known also as cole crops, ornamental kale is grown for the colorful foliage, not for the flowers. Many have frilly, ruffled edges and bright colors of purple, pink and cream.

The plants are usually purchased fully-grown. They can be planted throughout the fall. Plants may also be set out in the spring and allowed to grow in place for nearly a year.

Later fall plantings have several advantages compared to earlier plantings. The white, pink and red pigmentations for which the plants are noted intensify after several frosts or prolonged cool weather. Planting too early, that is, early September, can result in a plant that stretches, becomes leggy, and is relatively colorless.

Planting before frost also means that you will have to contend with cabbage loopers, whereas after frost, ornamental kale is relatively pest-free. They can take temperatures down into the teens and a covering of snow does not seem to hurt them much, but they don’t like to be coated in ice.

Bolting will occur as the season changes to warmer temperatures and a seedhead will develop. It is fun to see them go to seed. When they are no longer nice to look at, they are great for composting.

Spotted Lanternfly update: Adult spotted lanternflies have emerged. Check the Penn State website for information on what you can do to help stop the spread of this destructive pest: extension.psu.edu/spotted-lanternfly.

“Growing Green” is contributed by Lehigh County Extension Staff, Master Gardeners. Information: 610-391-9840, 610-813-6613