With summer on the wane and autumn in the air, gardeners are often encouraged to think ahead to the great autumn cleanup. But it is not yet time to call it a day, as there is an explosion of colour in the late summer, a glorious splash of real flower power to enjoy that precedes the autumn foliage.
Late Summer Classics
One of the late summer standards that carry us into autumn is the dahlia. Long consigned fierce staking in a special border, dahlias are making it into our flower borders where they contribute bright clear colour over a long season. Mix them with other late flowering perennials or shrubs strutting their autumn colours and you will find the dahlia as a real asset.
There's a dahlia style and colour for every situation - cacti, singles, pompom and more. A bright splash of candy pink, almost black, vivid red or singing orange, dahlias bring a breath of fresh air just when you thought all was about to turn brown and gold.
Sedums are another obvious choice, as are asters. And both sedums and asters will survive an early frost while dahlias collapse into a messy heap. Reliable and brilliant colour, sedums are especially good for dry gardens. Sedum 'Autumn Joy' is a tried and true performer, massed with bees and butterflies and it will carry its flat heads long into winter. The glaucous foliage makes the sedum a good front of border edging plant, slip a grouping in and admire it when its earlier flowering neighbours have finished.
Asters are classic autumn flowers; the long lasting and colourful daisies brighten up the border. Aster x frikartii 'Monch' was long planted at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, UK, to carry the garden through autumn. Other asters such as A. novae-angliae and A. ericoides are great late season performers.
Other daisies include the venerable Shasta, Leucathenum x superbum, sometimes irritatingly prone to mildew so plant it where there is good air circulation, and the Erigerons, such as Erigeron 'Violetta'.
Popular Prairie Flowers
Flowers that last and glow with the colours of autumn, prairie flowers are ideal garden plants. Many die well, holding their seed heads tall and proud long after the flowers have finished. Bright golden yellow daises with deep brown centres, rudbeckias are the 'Black-Eyed Susan' of North America. Rudbeckia fulgida grows to 1.0m (3ft 3in) and has bright orange yellow flowers and the cultivar R. f. var sullivantii 'Goldstrum' is especially desirable. R. hirta is 90cm (3ft) and has some wonderful cultivars such as green centred 'Irish Eyes', the evocatively named 'Marmalade' and several dwarf forms.
Another prairie flower, Echinacea purpurea, the cone flower, is enjoying tremendous popularity. Available in the deep pink of the species or a newer, white form, 'White Swan', with a striking orange-brown central cone. The seed head remains long into winter, after the flowers have gone. Naturally tall, it will easily reach 1.2m (4ft) in full sun and good soil, but don't mess with it overmuch as it resents disturbance.
Achilleas begin to carry their flat, plate-like flower heads in shades of yellow, creamy or red in mid to late summer and continue well into autumn. There are a number of lovely cultivars to choose from. The flat flowerheads are a great contrast in form when grown with spiky gladioli, verbascums, solidago and others.
Heleniums are also popular, Helenium hoopsei 'Moorheim Beauty' has orange-red flowers with deep brown centres that reach about 90cm (3ft) and combine beautifully with yellows such as rudbeckias. H. autumnale has a number of named forms with flowers from yellow to maroon.
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Late Summer glory in the border
Dahlia 'Clarion'
Late summer colour from Sedum spectabile
Black-eyed Susan, Rubeckia fulgida
Prairie flower Echinacea purpurea
The flat heads of Achillea provide contrast in form |
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