Prepare the garden for winter and next year
■ YOU can increase your stock of border carnations by layering – choose a healthy side shoot that isn’t flowering, bend it over without snapping the stem and peg firmly into the ground with some wire. Cover the stem with soil and water in.
■ DIVIDE overcrowded bearded irises to improve their vigour for next year.
■ CYCLAMEN corms that you have been storing can be started into growth in the greenhouse.
■ HAVING trouble with earwigs on your dahlias? Make traps with pots stuffed with shredded paper or straw, and remove earwigs daily. atop leggy stems, as well as Sanguisorba with its bottlebrush flowers on tall stems.
Pennisetum, Chinese fountain grass, has fluffy bottlebrush flowers which tempt you to caress them. ‘Karley Rose’ has lovely rose-purple flower spikes and I’ve planted them beside buxus balls to loosen the planting scheme.
For smaller gardens, ‘Little Bunny’ is more compact and would associate well with lateflowering perennials such as Michaelmas daisies (Aster) and cheerful Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm.’
Stipa tenuissima, Mexican feather grass, is a cute little grass with a fluffy blonde ponytail which works well in many herbaceous planting schemes. It loves the sun and is wonderful for introducing a light feathery effect
■ PRUNE climbing and rambling roses if they have finished flowering.
■ CONIFER and evergreen hedges can have a final trim to tidy up before autumn slows down their growth.
■ A HIGH phosphate feed for the lawn will help encourage strong root growth, a good measure to strengthen it for winter.
■ COLCHICUM, sternbergia and autumn crocuses should be planted in the ground as soon as they are available to buy in the garden centre. and linking different groups of plants. I think it’s really pretty paired with some pink cosmos.
Imperata cylindrica is the Japanese blood grass, which has flat lime-green leaves that turn blood red from the tips towards the bases to make a dramatic display. Its fiery appearance pairs well with those late-summer, bold-coloured perennials such as false sunflower, Heliopsis, rich red and orange heleniums, and crocosmia. Grow in full sun or partial shade, but keep them moist for optimal appearance.
Hakonechloa is the Japanese forest grass and perhaps my favourite – the surprise every autumn is the beautiful orange tints that appear.
It has a beautiful dome shape and at the moment I’m pairing it with Hydrangea ‘Annabelle’ for a cool white and green elegant planting scheme.