I would wait till spring. Up north the late winter/early spring freeze/thaw cycles will kill a lot of fall planted plants from heaving. Also, the plants that are on sale now have probably been sitting in pots all season and are rootbound and not in the best of health. I always plant in spring. I've lost too many plants planted in fall.

I've lost some as well but I think I planted in October. As long as you have 6 weeks min before frost, you should be ok planting now. I wouldn't wait much longer though and I wouldn't get everything on your list.

Do they have 1 yr warranty on perennials? Some garden centers do.

Also, I thought daylilies were supposed to be pretty rugged. Could she do the daylilies? I'm new to them.

If you find hostas, go for it. Those suckers can handle it, as long as you don't neglect fall watering!

Anything planted in the fall still needs to be watered to establish, but not as much since the cool weather doesn't dry out the soil as quickly.

When do you typically get frosts? Our frosts come very late due to the Atlantic, so my fall calendar will be very different from yours.

Frosts have nothing to do with when it is appropriate to plant zone hardy plants!! They only come into play with temperature sensitive things like annuals or tender (nonhardy) perennials. Technically you should be able to plant anything that is fully hardy for your zone any time the soil is remains workable - not frozen and not saturated with water. Fall is actually a very desirable time to plant as root growth tends to be in an active stage in fall, soils remain warm and rainfall plentiful so plants establish faster than with a spring planting. And concerns about frost heaving can be offset by thorough mulching, which is darn good practice to follow regardless.

And if plants are on sale, so much the better!!

I do most of my planting in fall because my soil is so cold in the spring. In fall soil is warm for good root growth, but the air is cooler and days are shorter so plants are less likely to be heat stressed. I keep an eye on moisture until they die back, and I mulch the bed so I am less likely to get freeze-thaw cycles.

One thing that may cause different results for different folks may be soil. Mine is well-drained and relatively loose and I only rarely get plants heaved by freeze-thaw. Tighter soil (lots of clay) which holds onto water more may have a greater likelihood that plants may be heaved as the water in the soil freezes and makes the soil expand and push the plants out.

So, Helen, you may want to see how well-drained your soil is and how likely your soil is to stay frozen once it is frozen to judge how successful your fall plantings would be.

I haven't found frost heave to be a big problem with most fall sale plants since they are fairly large, pot bound specimens. Once the root balls are properly torn apart, it is a large root mass to be pushed out of the ground.

Daylilies vary widely in how hardy they are. There are evergreen types that don't overwinter well here. They are also something that you want to buy with some size if fall planting since single, or even double falls can get squeezed out by frost heave. This isn't a problem with large divisions.

In the cold zones, planting in spring after the last frost date (end of May) gives the plants warmer soil and 4 months to grow and adapt before winter. Planting now , well, the first frost is only a few weeks away.

I planted a ton of clearance plants right through October last year. The only ones I lost were marginal to the zone and a really beat up echinacea that I didn't figure would survive anyway. Everything else came through beautifully.

Even if you lose a few, at 75% off it's a good deal to fill up the beds with the basics.

" Planting now , well, the first frost is only a few weeks away."

Can you explain to me why a frost would be of concern when planting zone hardy perennials?

I would buy. consider planting pot and all (so it is fully in the ground) and transplanting from the pot to ground in the spring. If even a 25% survival rate price wise it makes sense and for many plants you will do much better (in terms of survival). (do not leave in pots above ground - it is much colder on the roots than in the ground.)

Short answer: take advantage of the sale and plant now. Long answer: you will get many answers to this question as you can see from the above, and the many other threads asking the same thing. Fall planting works for me and was one of the things I learned worked for me as a newbie gardener. I wish you success no matter what you do!

I do ALL my planting in autumn. Given a decent leaf mulch, this is the absolute best time of year - effectively the start of the season. Also, I hate to leave soil uncovered as winter rain will mess up the soil structure, leach nutrients and generally be destructive...so even if it is only a 3month cover crop, I get something in the ground...and stop weeding too. I will continue to plant through winter- every day that the soil remains unfrozen (we do not get snow cover here)

For Gardengal...to answer your question...the original poster lives in zone 4, in Minnesota. That is a very cold zone. Frost and even snow come early, sometimes in October. The plants don't have enough time to adjust before being frozen.

All of the above comments come from people in warmer zones...5, 6, 8 and 9. Those zones may have more of a chance to grow plants in fall than in zone 4.

susan - it doesn't matter at all if the plants freeze. They'd freeze anyway even if they had been planted in spring :-) And it is only the top growth that would be affected by freezing temps anyway, which is really no big deal. It is the root system that is of importance and that will be fine. Even with an early fall frost, the soil will remain warm.......it takes a long time for soil temps to decline in fall/winter just as it takes a long time for soils to warm up in spring. And it takes several weeks of below freezing temperatures for ground soil to freeze to any significant depth so that is typically not an issue until well into winter.

FWIW, I planted an entire perennial garden in mid December one year........just a day before an Arctic blast that had us enduring temps in the teens for over a week. Didn't lose a single plant!

Susan, I am on the southern bounds of zone 4, and I regularly have planted into October and a few times into November. I wouldn't anticipate any issues based on my experience. I have lost almost no fall-planted perennials or shrubs whereas my spring plantings are much less predictable unless they are really large plants.

Also, waiting until after spring frosts are done won't mean that the soil is warm. Our last spring frosts usually arrive in the last two weeks of May, but it's July before my soil is warm, even in full sun. So spring root growth tends to be quite slow.

Once I planted a maple tree ON CHRISTMAS DAY just because I could. Thing is thriving.

Well, do what you like to do and I'll do what I like to do. Gardening is a personal choice with a learning curve based on one's own garden conditions and experiences. I like the fresh new plants on sale in spring, not the worn out bedraggled ones on sale now. Have fun with it.

If you don't feel comfortable planting them now you can overwinter them in your garage, shed or sunroom. Then just plant them in the spring. I have done this many times. Heck for 75% off I would be buying them up!

Thank you so much for the advice, as a new gardener I really appreciate all the wisdom you were willing to share. I will go to the sale and at least take a look around, who knows they may be all sold out by now anyways :) Anyways, thanks for the comments! Very much appreciated!