What Flowers Are in Season in October in the UK?

Short answer: October belongs to chrysanthemums, to dahlias until the first frost, and to fruit rather than flowers — hips, hypericum berries, crab apples, viburnum and physalis. It is the month when British material stops being about petals and starts being about texture and colour.

October is the turn of the year for a florist. At the start of the month the garden crops are still going and the shops look like late summer; by the end of it the first frost has usually been through London, the dahlias are gone, and the buckets are full of berries, foliage and chrysanthemums. Ordering in the first half of the month and the second half gives you two different bouquets.

What is in season in the UK in October?

Grown here and cut in October: chrysanthemums in every form, dahlias until the frost, asters, hydrangeas in their antique state, amaranthus, rudbeckia, solidago, ornamental grasses and the last cosmos. The fruiting stems are the other half of the month — rose hips, hypericum, snowberry, viburnum berries, crab apple, physalis and sloe.

Foliage becomes a serious ingredient rather than a filler: eucalyptus, oak and beech in leaf, hornbeam, and the first of the seasonal conifer at the very end of the month. Our autumn collection is built almost entirely from this list.

When do dahlias stop?

At the first proper frost, and not before. In London that is usually somewhere between the middle of October and the start of November, but it is a weather event rather than a date — some years the dahlias run into November, some years they end on the tenth of October.

The practical consequence: if dahlias matter for an event in late October, no florist can promise them, and any who does is guessing. Order them for early October and they are reliable; order them for the last week and the honest answer is "if the weather holds". For a date after the frost we would build the same look from chrysanthemums and berries instead.

Why are chrysanthemums the October flower?

Because they are the one thing that gets better as it gets colder. Chrysanthemums are grown here in volume, they come in every form from single-headed blooms to sprays, and they hold in a vase for two to three weeks — longer than anything else in an October bucket.

They also carry a reputation problem in Britain, where they read as either supermarket flowers or funeral flowers. Both are unfair to the flower. The large-headed cultivars in bronze, plum, russet and cream look nothing like a cellophane bunch, and they are the reason a British autumn arrangement can be made almost entirely from home-grown stems. See what we actually stock before deciding.

What about hydrangeas in October?

October hydrangeas are the best of the year for arrangements that need to last. The heads have gone fully papery — green, rust, burgundy, dusty pink — and they dry in place instead of collapsing. An October hydrangea arrangement will still be on the table in November, just drier.

The trade-off is that they no longer drink much. If you keep the vase topped up as if it were June, the stems rot; better to let the water run low and allow the heads to dry. Full list of what we have in hydrangeas.

Which October material is fruit rather than flower?

More than people expect. Hypericum berries in coral, cream and burgundy; rose hips from wild and garden roses; snowberry in white; viburnum in metallic blue-black; crab apple on the branch; physalis lanterns in orange; sloe on blackthorn.

Fruit and berry stems are the cheapest way to make an arrangement look expensive in October, because they add depth without adding flowers. They also last: two weeks and often more, since there is no bloom to open and drop. If you want an arrangement that reads as October rather than as generic autumn, ask for berries by name — most briefs do not mention them and most bouquets therefore do not have them.

What is flown in during October?

Roses, lisianthus, alstroemeria, most lilies, gerbera, all orchids, and — from late October — the first southern-hemisphere peonies from Chile and New Zealand. None of these are British in October or in any other month, and there is nothing wrong with them; they are simply not what the season here is doing.

Worth knowing if you are buying for the season rather than for the flower: a bouquet of imported roses in October is identical to the same bouquet in March. The month only shows if there is British material in it.

How long do October flowers last indoors?

Better than at any other time of year, for one reason: the room. October rooms in London are cool and the heating is not yet running hard, so vase life is at its longest. Chrysanthemums two to three weeks, berries two weeks or more, hydrangeas one to two weeks and then dry, asters about a week, dahlias five to seven days.

That changes in November when the heating comes on and every one of those numbers drops by a third. The care rules are in how long flowers last, and the short version is: cool room, water changed every two days, nothing near a radiator or a fruit bowl.

When should you switch from autumn to Christmas flowers?

Not in October, whatever the shops are doing. Fresh evergreen — fir, spruce, holly, eucalyptus in wreath quantities — is genuinely available from the last week of November, and anything sold as a Christmas wreath earlier than that is either dried, artificial, or made to dry out before the day.

The practical calendar: autumn material through October and the first three weeks of November, evergreen from the end of November. Our Christmas wreaths are made fresh from that point, and when to order Christmas flowers in London sets out the dates that matter. If your date is in November, read what is in season in November first — it is the month with the shortest British list of the year.

We deliver across London seven days a week, same-day on orders placed before 22:00, and everything is made up the morning it goes out. Ask for season rather than for a specific flower in October and you will get a better arrangement — the month is generous if you let the florist use it.