Dear garden makers,
I hope you have had a good summer and your garden has been all you wished it to be.
This summer has had some very hot and dry spells and many gardens began to fade out in July due to lack of rain or the particularly early flowering of many flowers and shrubs. July to September are always a challenge to gardeners – just when you want to enjoy some carefree colour in your garden. You can keep replacing your bedding plants and annuals but that is expensive, wasteful and you need to do a lot of watering to keep them alive. Instead you could plant some hardy perennials which will look after themselves and over the years spread out and make a lovely display.
My favourites for the front of the border are: Erigeron karvinskianus (the Mexican daisy), Geranium x oxonianum - mounds of small pink flowers and Alchemilla mollis – beautiful folded leaves with frothy green flowers. The daisy is also evergreen and needs no cutting back as the little white and pink daisies last at least from May to September. It also self -seeds prolifically, especially in gravel. Don’t confuse the perennial Geranium with the scented Pelargonium which are used widely as container plants and come in a range of colours from bright red, candy pink to white. This will not survive over winter in your garden. Geraniumand Alchemilla also flower very early – April or May – then if you cut them back hard in June or July you will get new leaves and flowers in August and September. No skill is required to cut them back – using a pair of shears is a quick way of doing it.
Taller perennials which will provide a long and late season of colour include Echinacea – large pink daisies, Rudbeckia – large yellow daisies, Crocosmia – tall arching orange or red flowers and the almost indestructible Japanese anemones. Japanese anemones can be real thugs but there are now lots of new hybrids which are well behaved and come in a range of colours and petal arrangement. Look for Anemone x hybrida ‘Whirlwind’ or ‘Honorine Jobert’ and Anemone huphensis ‘Prinz Heinrich’.
When choosing plants for your garden it is worth considering where they occur naturally. Mediterranean plants do well in dry sunny places, North American plants flower late and are good for an autumn display, Japanese plants do well in most of our gardens as they like the temperate climate.
Finally, a few ideas about long lasting and late flowering shrubs – not only do they provide scent and colour but also food for bees and other insects. Absolutely reliable in dry sunny spots are English Lavender such as Lavandula angustifolia, Abelia grandiflora and Spirea japonica “Goldflame’
In shady spots which are not too dry you can choose from a huge range of Hydrangea – the usual Hydrangea macrophylla are back in fashion – either ‘mop head’ or ‘lace cap’. H. macrophylla ‘Mariesii perfecta’
is a good choice. Hydrangea paniculata with long conical flower heads are still popular as is Hydrangea arborescens with large round flower heads. Apart from some blue H. macrophylla most varieties of hydrangea have white, pale pink, lilac or lime- green flowers.
Hydrangea arborescens ‘Invincibelle’
Hydrangea paniculata ‘Big Ben’
There are two other Hydrangea which are worth a place in your garden – Hydrangea quercifolia – the ‘oak- leaved’ hydrangea and Hydrangea aspera with soft green leaves and large lilac flowers. Both these grow quite big over time so put in a spot where they can expand but maybe underplant with some spring bulbs so that you have some interest in spring before they come into leaf. In late summer they have lovely flowers which are loved by the bees and then the leaves turn red to give you some autumn colour.
Hydrangea aspera
Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Snow Queen’
A few jobs for September:
· Order and plant your spring bulbs
· Give your evergreen shrubs a final trim into shape
· Leave any plants with seed heads and ornamental grasses so that they provide food for birds over winter
· Plant up your pots and planters with new bulbs, winter flowering plants and some small evergreen shrubs
· Get ready to feed the birds over the winter
· Look around the garden for plants which are in the wrong place or have outgrown their space – October is the perfect time to move plants. Just water them, dig up and replant and water again.
Happy Gardening!
Erigeron karvinskianus
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