Late summer plants to light up your garden.

Summer’s not over yet, there’s still sunshine around, and although the nights are chilly round here, there are plenty of lovely plants around to light up your garden at this tail-end of the season.

Ornamental grasses look wonderful at this time of year, wafting around gently in the breeze.

they look good on their own or together with flowers

Hollyhocks come in a wide range of colours, I really like this dark, sultry one.

Sedum flowers are lovely all through summer. They’re a stocky little plant, the flowers of this one start as pale green buds gradually opening to pink, butterflies love them.

Plant in full sun in well-drained soil.

60 x 60cm.

Helianthus is a real late starter, flowering at the end of august and continuing for weeks,

plant it in a sunny part of the garden in light soil.

height 2m x 1.2m

Kniphofia are a stalwart of late summer, also known as red-hot pokers they love sunshine to bask in.

Most grow to about a metre high.

Verbena bonariensis have been flowering for weeks and will carry on through to October if it’s not too wet or cold. They’re tall, but have a light, airy appearance that doesn’t block the view and they look great with tall grasses.

Sun, fertile but well-drained soil.

height 2m x 1m

The Calamagrostis in the background is one of my favourite grasses, it’s a perennial that starts off a nice, vibrant green and eventually turns this lovely straw colour. It’ll stay like this through the winter [unless it’s very wet and windy] until it needs cutting down and then it starts all over again.

I’m making lists of plants for the new garden and one of my criteria is to have plants for all the seasons so there’s always something good to see. That’s why I like plants that flower for ages or change and develop over the seasons.

More about late summer plants here.

Happy gardening, Jill

all photos: Jill Anderson