Just because you’ll soon be raking leaves and preparing your house and yard for winter, it doesn’t mean you can’t have colorful flowers and plants around until spring.

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

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

Pansies (Viola x wittrockiana) like cool weather.

They come in many colors: pink, white, maroon, purple and yellow.

Pansies will bloom through the fall into winter, and many times bloom again with your bulbs early 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.

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

Known also as cole crops, ornamental kales are grown for the colorful foliage, not for the flowers.

Many have frilly, ruffled edges and bright colors of purple, pinks, and creams.

These 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 or red pigmentations for which the plants are noted intensify after several frosts or prolonged cool weather.

Planting too early, that is during the dog days of August and 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 kales are 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.

Types to look for include Osaka, Peacock and Tokyo series.

All three series grow to an optimum diameter of 12 inches.

Give them plenty of space.

Bolting will occur as the season changes to warmer temperatures and a seed head will develop.

When they are no longer nice to look at, they are great for composting.

Chrysanthemums, or mums as they are commonly called, are very colorful fall blooming perennials.

Some gardeners find it hard to keep looking good the next year and treat them as annuals by discarding them in late fall or winter.

There are many species of chrysanthemums.

They are very popular in fall and can be purchased almost anywhere.

Florist’s mums add instant color, but their colorful blooms don’t last long and will die with the first frost.

Garden mums, however, will still bloom after a few light freezes in the fall.

When transplanting mums into a container, be careful with their stems because they can be quite brittle.

The blooms only last a few weeks, so move them around the yard to brighten up areas that are being “put to bed” for the winter.

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