Enjoy the late show

Keep autumn on bright side

AUTUMN weather is just round the corner – but there is no reason your garden should fade as the leaves fall.

Herbaceous plants are our saviours for a late show – and Michaelmas daisies are a popular way to prolong a garden’s colour.

If the common purple and pink v varieties are too much, try Aster Horizontalis. This compact, bushy v variety has foliage that takes on coppery-purple tints and is covered w with thousands of tiny white-petal flowers with dark pink centres.

It is a good choice for a wildlife garden as both birds and butterflies enjoy the nectar.

Sedums are another easy to grow group of perennials that provide long periods of interest and colour.

Autumn Joy is one of the best. Butterflies love this one too. Plant it alongside pink Japanese anemones and a Mrs Popple fuchsia, which keeps its flowers longer than other varieties.

The silver-mauve spikes and violet blue flowers of Liriope muscari is useful for edging beds and borders at this time of year, and works well in dry, shady parts of the garden. Use it to contrast with the bold leaves of bergenia or elephant ears.

For winter interest choose the varieties Bergenia Evening Glow or Bergenia Winter’s Tale as their leaves turn shades of maroon and scarlet when the temperature drops.

Iris foetidissima, commonly known as the stinking iris because of the smell from its foliage when crushed, is another good choice for a shady spot. At this time of year it demands attention for its bulging seed pods that pop to reveal brilliant red seeds.

This must- have iris is almost indestructible. It makes a handsome partner for the bright orange Chinese lanterns of physalis, which look good even in winter when skeletonised.

Keep the physalis in check, though, because it will happily take over your garden. Finally, one plant with weather-resistant blooms that you will want to encourage is colchicum, or naked ladies. Look for double varieties that have water lily- like flowers that emerge before the leaves poke through the bare soil.

Tip Stinking