Planting for late summer colour

As summer moves towards autumn the garden can look rather tired, especially if the weather has been warm and dry. There are most probably gaps and a little more colour would be welcome. This is a great opportunity to add pot grown perennials in flower, both for instant impact and colour at this time in future years.  With the incredible range of varieties available and new introductions there is plenty of choice and a few additions can really liven up your planting schemes.

Gardens are buzzing with insects. Pollinators including bees and butterflies are out feasting on nectar and pollen. Prairie daisies, such as echinacea and rudbeckia are magnets and provide colourful landing platforms for winged visitors. There are many new varieties of Echinacea, cone flower, with showy blooms and compact growing habits.  After the colourful blooms have finished the dark, conical seed heads remain attractive well into winter.  They like good drainage and mix well with grasses, such as the lovely Stipa tenuissima

Sedums, commonly known as ice plants, are also very popular with pollinators. Clumps of the taller growing varieties make bold statements in the border. The ever popular Sedum spectabile ‘Autumn Joy’ (‘Herbstfreude’) is a reliable favourite with ice green leaves and flattened heads of pink flowers, gradually turning ruby and then mahogany. Again the faded blooms can be a delight in the winter garden. On damp soil these sedums can get too tall and the stems tend to flop. If this happens, cut the stems back by half in May, this makes them branch and they stay upright without support.

Anything blue is always a magical ingredient in a planting scheme. It has the power to link any other colours together and positively glows in the more subtle light as the sun gets lower. Surprisingly more compact pot grown delphiniums are at their best in late summer. This is often a more successful time to plant than in early spring when new shoots are soon devoured by slugs and snails.

Nepeta, cat mint comes in many shapes and forms. The popular ‘Six Hills Giant’ flowers for months, but can get untidy later in the season. Don’t be afraid to cut it back to around 10cm, you will find new shoots coming from below. Water it thoroughly and feed with a solution of Vitax Q4 soluble plant food. This really gives perennials the boost they need to put on some fresh growth and a few late flowers.  You can do the same with astrantias and Geranium ‘Rozanne’.

Penstemons are excellent plants to introduce in late summer. This is often when new batches are at their best on nurseries. The bonus is these are evergreen, and if the weather stays mild they can keep blooming well into winter. Just tidy them up next spring, rather than cutting back hard. This results in earlier blooms and bigger plants next season.

This is also the time to buy and plant Japanese anemones, Anemone x hybrida. These wonderful plants are ideal to light up slightly shaded corners with ferns and evergreens, as well as to add light height in mixed borders. You will find both tall and short varieties that can suit just about any situation.

Whatever you choose to plant, give new plants the best possible start. Soil in the border is likely to be dry after summer, so a good soak a few hours before you plant helps to make the ground easy to prepare. Water your new plants thoroughly in their pots. Dig out the planting holes, breaking up the ground around them and in the base of the holes. Then add a generous handful of Vitax Q4 fertiliser to the soil you will use to backfill the hole.  Plant each plant firmly with the level of the compost it was growing in just below the soil surface. Now water thoroughly and regularly until late autumn rainfall takes over. 

Andy McIndoe for Vitax