A BURST OF COLOUR Make the most of your garden’s last spectacular show of glowing reds, golds, umbers and plums
Don’t waste a second of precious late-season sunshine. Enjoy your garden’s last spectacular display, with the glow of gorgeous reds, golds, umbers and plums
As the heat of summer ebbs away and flower gives way to berry, we can still enjoy the soft radiance of morning sunshine. Garden foliage becomes splashed with fire and stems ignite to produce a colourful crescendo before the cold of winter hits. You don’t need a huge garden to enjoy a spectacular display; when space is at a premium, be selective, eschewing plants that are dull for the rest of the year. This is the time to plant some late-season performers.
LET THERE BE LIGHT
As winter approaches, the sun moves through a lower arc in the sky, and light angles in the garden become longer and more golden. Take advantage of this by considering where the sun will hit borders or pots, aiming for it to shine through vibrantly coloured trees and shrubs such as Cotinus ‘Grace’ and Euonymous
europaeous to spectacular effect. Grasses, seed heads and trees with beautiful bark such as Acer griseum look wonderful backlit by the autumn sun.
LATE BLOOMERS
Inject fresh colour and vigour into borders by planting hardy perennials in full bloom. They’ll look good now and give repeat performances for years to come. The large wine-red petals set around an old-gold centre of daisy Helenium ‘Indianersommer’ positively blaze in sunlight, and with regular deadheading will keep going into October. Flowering heathers bloom in pinks, purples and golds from late summer and are great for evergreen ground cover or in pots. But no autumn garden is complete without Michaelmas daisies; the longest flowering of all is Aster x frikartii ‘Mönch’, with its lavender-blue petals around golden centres.
MESMERISING GRASSES
Grasses are the glue that holds many a garden together, adding texture and shimmer through summer, then drama and colour in shades of bronze and russet from mid-August through to Christmas. Happy in pots or borders, deciduous grasses offer most impact; the panicums are always good value in autumn; P. virgtum ‘Shenandoah’ completely changes to tones of violet
and purple, while ‘Rehbraun’ morphs to a glowing red. All the miscanthus sinensis cultivars look good, while in a pot, the caterpillar plumes of Chinese fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’) are spectacular. All look great with verbena, rudbeckia and late-season Salvia guaranitica. Buy from knollgardens.co.uk.
DAZZLING BULBS
These can be squeezed into pots, borders or planted in the lawn to create stunning pockets of colour.
Autumn crocus, Crocus sativus in purples, lilacs or mauves will give stunning displays grown in grass.
Often confused with crocuses, colchicums are real autumn highlights, doing best in moisture-retentive soil. For something special, seek out white forms such as Colchicum autumnale var. album, which positively shines when planted beneath the canopies of trees.
Glamour can be added with the Jersey lily, Amaryllis belladonna. Autumn rains bring out the delicately scented trumpets of pink, sometimes white, flowers in late summer atop purple-tinged stems.
Finally, we can’t talk about autumn bulbs without a nod to the flamboyant dahlia. Plant tubers in a sunny spot in mid-spring into well-composted soil mixed with a generous addition of fertiliser; protect tubers from late frost with a covering of mulch. Add stakes at planting time, securing the stems as they grow. Keep them well watered through summer and deadhead regularly to fully enjoy their energetic display. My favourites include Dahlia ‘Julie One’, D. ‘Blue Bayou’ and D. ‘Purple Flame’. Buy from nationaldahliacollection.co.uk.
It’s worth squeezing a small tree or large shrub into even the smallest garden to add structure
YEARLY DELIGHT
Annuals can give instant lift and an explosion of blooms. Chrysanthemums are sold in full flower – just stand the pots in position. The first hard frost will kill them off, but if you bring them inside to an unheated conservatory or enclosed porch they should flower for a few weeks. Chrysanthemum ‘Jade Green’ adds pizzazz to pots, while C. ‘Astro Dark’ has bronze blooms, and dark cerise pink C. ‘Lollipop Purple’ will light up the borders.
LEAF, BARK AND BERRY
Acers, liquidambar and amelanchier trees give a fantastic display of orange and red foliage. Even in the smallest garden, it’s worth squeezing in a small tree or large shrub to add structure. My favourite is the snowy mespilus (Amelanchier lamarckii), which earns its keep year-round, but particularly in autumn. If your space is truly tiny, there will still be space for A. alnifolia ‘Obelisk’, or Liquidambar Styraciflua ‘Gum Ball’, a smaller form, whose autumn crimson, purple and orange maple-like leaves smell of burnt sugar when crushed. Buy from crocus.co.uk.
Many dogwoods, such as Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’, offer wonderful autumn foliage, which, once fallen, reveals brightly colourful stems. Cut these down to the base in early spring for the same effect the following year.
Roses are magnificent year-round; if you deadhead lightly, you’ll have lovely hips right now. The best are from species roses, though ramblers and climbers produce hundreds of hips. Rosa spinosus ‘Falkland’, R. ‘Fru Dagmar Hastrup’ and R. rugosa ‘Alba’ are excellent choices. Buy from davidaustinroses.co.uk.