Carol Klein shares her tips for late summer colour

DID you buy summer bedding plants months ago, when they first went on sale and panic-buying was all around? If so, you might have noticed they look a little tired by now, after the spring and early summer sun was followed by more typically Scottish bursts of heavy rain. But how can you plug the gaps to bring colour into your garden that’ll last until the autumn?

TV’s Carol Klein, pictured, will be offering late summer gardening inspiration to visitors of the virtual RHS Flower Show Tatton Park at Home on July 22, on the RHS website.

“You should go for perennials, because not only will they look good right through the summer and into the autumn, but they will keep coming back every year. They are much more worth the investment. It’s not worth planting bedding plants at this time of year,” says the BBC Gardeners’ World regular.

You can enjoy a riot of colour with latesummer flowering perennials in shades ranging from zingy yellows to scorching reds and burnt oranges, which will last into October.

“There’s a huge group of plants which are all from the States, but which we think of as common English cottage garden plants, flowering from midsummer onwards,” adds Klein.

Here are some of her recommendations...

ASTERS

“Michaelmas daisies start flowering as we go into August but then they will go right the way through,” she says. “Aster novi-belgii is a tough aster which never seems to get disease and is ideal.”

They can be planted in summer, where you have gaps left by earlyflowering plants, and grow to around 80cm. They prefer sun or light shade and should be kept well watered in dry soils. They make good companions with other autumnflowering plants, including Japanese anemones.

HELENIUMS