If you can't bear to remove your summer
annuals that still look good, you can fill in
around them with frost-hardy plants and
remove your summer annuals in stages as
the fall plants thrive.

You can leave cold-tolerant annuals like dianthus,
plectranthus, other ornamental grasses and foliage plants.
For example, keep that beautiful cascading plectranthus in your urn,
but freshen it up by replacing the geraniums with Dreamtime Jumbo
Yellow Strawflower, and adding colorful and trailing Starlette
Sunset Calibrachoa.

Choose healthy plants. It's harder for plants to recover from
neglect in the fall. So you'll want to purchase healthy plants
from the start. Avoid plants that are wilted, have many brown
leaves, or otherwise look "sick."

Make sure to choose all-weather containers if you plan to leave
them out during frosts. Clay pots expand and contract with frost
and can easily break. Choose metal, wood, or those marked for
use year-round.

Consider adding in decorative, non-plant material like fall-colored
ribbon, mini gourds and pumpkins, or curly willow branches for
height.

Don't forget to water! When temperatures turn cooler, we sometimes forget to water plants. You won't need to water as often when it's cooler, but you should make sure plants don't dry out.