Late Summer Performance

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Aug 1, 1998

The white Phloxes in my garden have just started to bloom again. This for me is confirmation that late summer has arrived and autumn is not far behind.

We have witnessed the excitement of spring, with its fresh, bright-green growth, the pageant of early and high summer as each highlight paraded across the stage, then as we enter August the plot begins to get a bit thin and almost seems to run out of ideas completely. This late-summer gap is a trap that many gardeners can easily fall into. We are so keen to have colour in June and July that many gardens go to sleep during the months of August and September. This need not be the case of course and with a little planning and forethought, the late summer garden can rightly take its place among the more obvious highlights of the summer season. In fact, this time of year presents us with a golden opportunity to turn what usually appears as a slow decline to autumn, into the crowning glory of the growing season.

So, what plants can we incorporate into our plots to excite us and liven up that all too often blowsy scene of green and spent seed heads? There are many unsung heroes of the late summer border and quite a few spectacular bit actors too, just waiting to be discovered. I'll start with a few colourful characters from my own garden, plants that certainly deserve an encore.

I have already mentioned Phlox. They can be relied on for bright, even screaming clumps of colour in pinks, mauves and magentas. Mine are white in the main, which are certainly bright enough, but perhaps more decadent colours are called for. For sheer debauchery, one could hardly do better than Crocosmia 'Lucifer', a fiery hot red that can't fail to liven up an otherwise straight-laced border. Growing to four feet in height with good foliage and very decorative seed heads. Centre stage in my garden at the moment is the plant of all the Corinthian capitals of ancient Greece and Rome. Decadent? Never! Acanthus is the aristocrat of late summer. Superbly architectural, the Acanthus comes in two very worthwhile forms - A. mollis and A. spinosus. The leaves of the former are the more impressive, whilst the latter is the tougher plant. They grow well in sun or semi-shade, will put up with dry soil, and possess tall, imposing spiky spires of flowers. Be sure of where you plant them, for they send a long taproot into the soil, making transplanting almost impossible.

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