For forward-thinking gardeners, stretching out the flowering season for so long as attainable is a no brainer to create borders that look good nearly solely year-round. However it takes cautious planning, modifying, and upkeep. And in autumn, arguably, the steadiness is most finely calibrated. As summer season ends, a backyard that continues to be vibrant till the primary frost could be mesmerizingly stunning, profiting from autumn’s smooth, hazy gentle. Comply with these eight seasonal tips to maintain your borders singing for so long as attainable.
1. Preserve deadheading.
Above: Reduce early flowering salvias onerous in July after their first flowering and they’re going to return with an autumn flush. However frequently deadheading perennials right down to a pair of leaves may even maintain the flower spikes rising till the primary frosts. {Photograph} by Claire Takacs.
2. Lean in to jewel colours.
Above: The season’s heavy hitters, together with dahlias and crimson scorching pokers, can typically seem too garish to these with a desire for extra subdued schemes. However select only one or two hues to create a tonal impact and these flowers tackle a extra elegant character. Right here, within the Blue Diamond Forge backyard on the Chelsea Flower Present in 2021, Kniphofia ‘Poco Pink’ stars in a tonal scene with chocolate cosmos, ethereal Panicum ‘Rehbraun’ and echinacea. {Photograph} by Britt Willoughby Dyer.
3. Go huge on asters.
Above: Michaelmas daisies convey lush mounds of intense colour to borders, simply as different perennials begin to lose some vigor. Their vary of hues, from deep purple to all shades of pink, look great planted en masse or combined with grasses, and their number of kinds permits them to be planted all through a border. Because the title suggests ‘Purple Dome’ kinds neat mounds to round 5ocm with intense purple flowers for the entrance of a border; the ever-popular ‘Little Carlow’, not all that little at 1.2m, has upright stems topped with the prettiest lilac daisies, whereas ‘Violetta’ has intense magenta flowers and produces upright stems to 1.5m. These late flowering perennials additionally present a precious supply of nectar via the autumn months. {Photograph} by Britt Willoughy Dyer.
4. Maximise construction.
Above: Add fascinating structural vegetation that may maintain curiosity when there are fewer vegetation flowering. Right here, Melianthus main takes middle stage towards a heat wall at Le Jardin Plume in Normandy, France. With its beautiful toothed, glaucous leaves, this architectural plant is usually a dazzling addition to borders too, nevertheless it wants a sheltered spot in free draining soil. {Photograph} by Claire Takacs.
