Ensuring a continuous flush of flowers and colour in your garden means you need to make space in your borders and containers for late summer flowering perennials. There are many to choose from to suit your garden from hot colours to cool colours and pastels. Here are 9 of the best ones to brighten up your garden.
- Sedum – Sedum flower from August onwards and have large clusters of pink or red blooms providing great colour and interest in the autumnal garden. They are easy to grow, drought tolerant and like a well drained soil and a sunny position. They look good planted on mass or mixed with grasses or other late summer flowering perennials such as Echinacea. Bees also love them and you will find them covered with pollinators when in flower.
- Achillea – Achillea come in a wide range of colours from whites and pinks to oranges and reds and look really good mixed with grasses in a prairie style border or in a gravel garden. They are drought tolerant and like a well drained soil and a sunny position. Pollinators love Achillea and the wide flat flower heads make easy landing pads for them.
- Agapanthus – Agapanthus originate from South Africa so like sunny dry conditions and a well drained soil. They come in different shades of blue and white and combine well with other perennials and grasses. Bees find the large clusters of bell shaped flowers very hard to resist.
- Echinacea – Echinacea’s are a great plant for combining with grasses in the prairie garden. They come in a good variety of colours from pinks and whites to flaming oranges, reds and yellows. The seed heads look good left on over winter and provide food for birds and mice. Pollinators also love them when in flower.
- Dahlia – Dahlia’s come in such a variety of forms and colours that you’re sure to find a variety that suits your needs and your garden. They come in miniature patio varieties as well as taller varieties and have a massive range of flower types from single flowers to pom pom varieties and dinner plate flowers. If you’re looking to keep the bees happy then go for the single varieties where they can access the nectar easily.
- Actea – Actea have lovely purple foliage that makes the spikes of scented white flowers really stand out. They prefer a shady or semi shaded position where the soil stays slightly damp.
- Aster – Aster are great autumn flowering plants and never fail to provide a great burst of colour right when you need it. The pretty daisy flowers come in bright pinks, purples and blues and flower profusely for a long period over the autumn season. They look really good planted on mass or mixed in with other perennials. They like a sunny or semi shaded position with well drained soil and are a good source of nectar for pollinators.
- Verbena bonariensis – a sturdy architectural plant that provides height and colour in any border and looks particularly good planted amongst grasses. Bees and butterflies love the clusters of tiny purple flowers which sit on top of tall stems. They like full sun and well drained soil.
- Rudbeckia – Rudbeckia provide a cheery burst of colour in late summer with their bright yellow daisy flowers with black centres. They look great planted on mass and like a well drained soil in full sun.
There’s so much choice when it comes to picking late summer flowering perennials to provide colour and interest in your garden. The problem is, how do you choose when you just want them all?!
Happy Gardening!