We’re heading relentlessly towards Autumn now and the first of the crunchy leaves of the huge London plane trees in my street have started to gently fall. Time for a cheering trip to the nursery or garden centre for hot (very) late summer colour.
This isn’t the time to agonise over matching pastel shades; throw everything at the late-summer border and enjoy the cacophony of clashes!
Here are my top 5 easy growers for a late season splurge:
- Japanese anenomes, (try Anemone x hybrida ‘September Charm’) are stately perennials with sweet blush white and pink flowers which wave delicately on tall wiry stems
- Michaelmas daisies, (a good one is Aster x frikartii ‘Mönch’), provide a haze of mauve well into October
- Black-eyed susans, (Rudbeckia fulgida var. deamii), brightens up cooler days with custard-yellow flowers that look like they were drawn by a talented 7-year old
- Hysopp (give Agastache ‘Blackadder’ a go), has an intense smoky violet colour and gives a useful upright form in the often-lax Autumn border
- Dahlias (Dahlia ‘Arabian Knight’ is beautifully intense) are no longer the preserve of your nanny’s back garden. They provide gloriously camp pom-poms of colour!
Team any or all of these with a waist-height fluffy grass such as purple moor grass (Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea ‘Transparent’) which will quietly tie them together to make a loud but loveable family.
For inspiration, take a look at the late plantsman Christopher Lloyd’s plant picks for his hot garden at Great Dixter. Embrace strong Autumn colour and go out with a bang!