Autumn Harvest Flowers: October's Best Blooms
October is one of the richest months in the British flower calendar. Dahlias, chrysanthemums, and late-season roses peak just as the light turns golden and the hedgerows run with berries.
October is the month when the British flower calendar makes its most dramatic declaration of abundance. The dahlia, which has been building since July, reaches its absolute peak: vast, blowsy blooms in every shade of the harvest palette, from palest cream through amber and copper to the deepest burgundy imaginable. Chrysanthemums are fully in season. Late garden roses offer their final, often most deeply fragrant flush. And the hedgerows and woodland edges provide an extraordinary array of berries, seed heads, and foliage that no other month can match.
The dahlia at its peak
If you grow dahlias in a cutting garden, October demands harvesting. The tubers are using all their remaining energy to produce flowers before the first frost ends the season, and the blooms are consequently larger and more vivid than at any earlier point in the season. Café au lait, the soft blush-caramel dahlia that became the defining flower of contemporary wedding floristry, is at its best in September and October. Bishop of Llandaff, with its vivid red flowers and dark foliage, brings drama to any arrangement. 'Cornel' bronzes beautifully as it ages in the vase.
Foliage and berries: the October bonus
No month offers more interesting foliage and structural material for arrangements than October. Rosehips in orange and deep red; blackberries at the end of their season; crab apples in yellow and crimson; the first turning leaves in amber and bronze; ornamental grasses going to seed; achillea seed heads in rusty gold. A skilled arranger in October needs relatively few cut flowers: the foliage and structural elements do most of the visual work.
“October is the month when British flowers stop performing for the eye alone and begin performing for every sense: the scent of late roses in damp air, the deep warmth of copper dahlias in slanting light.”
The chrysanthemum season
October is also the heart of the British chrysanthemum season. UK-grown chrysanthemums, available from specialist growers from September through November, are considerably more beautiful than the year-round imported varieties available in supermarkets. The colours available in October are specifically suited to the season: bronzes, coppers, burgundies, and the warm russet tones that complement the autumn landscape. For arrangements that feel genuinely seasonal, seek out British-grown chrysanthemums from a local flower farm.
Creating an October arrangement
- Choose focal flowers in warm, autumnal tones: copper dahlias, bronze chrysanthemums, late roses
- Add structural foliage: rosehips, blackberries, crab apple branches, ornamental grasses
- Use seed heads as texture: achillea, nigella, allium seed heads are all beautiful dried
- Consider dark, dramatic additions: deep burgundy dahlias, chocolate cosmos if still in season
- A shallow, wide vessel suits October arrangements better than a tall vase
- Allow arrangements to dry naturally in situ: many October flowers are more beautiful dried
Continue reading
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