Autumn Flowers

It's October, but gardens are still alive and thriving with so many flowers.

I've been pleasantly surprised with the lovely hazy sunshine and mild weather we've been having and it's been lovely to still be enjoying the late summer flowers in the garden - it almost looks like it is still summer if it wasn't for the golden and red leaves turning the trees into that glorious autumnal colour.

There are still roses flowering and giving off their beautiful scents in the October breeze. I always enjoy seeing the verbenas swaying - even when they've passed their best of flowering, they always seem to stand tall at this time of year and add so much colour and depth to the borders.

I love seeing the hydrangeas, they are a strong and colourful plant during July and August and in autumn their flowers still look gorgeous as their colours fade and their lacy caps become tinged with shades of gold and creams. Again, they contribute so much to the beauty of the garden in autumn.

We also have so many salvias and wallflowers too, still bursting full of flowers - they've been flowering since early spring and are still going strong as we head towards the winter months. Cotoneasters full of red berries tipple over walls and rocks and of course the apple tree is laden with apples ready for picking and cooking. Bright pink sedums are always a favourite of mine at this time too - they never fail to liven up dull corners and spots around the borders.

My favourite of all at this time of year has to be the michaelmas daisy, as their delicate purple and yellow heads rise high towards to the late warm sunshine. One of our back garden borders has burst back into full bloom and they're looking stunning.

And, of course, there's still the last of those summer bedding plants - geraniums and begonias especially, squeezing the best of the milder weather before the frosts begin. It's soon going to be time to tidy up and redo the pots and baskets with winter bedding.

Roses at Wrest Park

Autumn rose

Pretty Pots

We had a little tidy up of our pots at the front of our cottage, adding a little bit of late summer colour with some cyclamen, violas, pansies, wallflowers, heathers and marigolds amidst the ivy and the cotoneaster plants. Hopefully they will last well into the autumn before they need sprucing up again. 

Plants for late May

So much has come into bloom during May I can't keep up with it! Here are a few more plants that are blossoming and will probably last into summer.

Climbing hydrangea

This climber is by our front door and gives a beautiful display through summer. I love its big, broad blooms coupled with delicate sprouting smaller flowers. It still looks attractive when the heads fade back giving subtle autumn colour. The flower heads can also be picked and dried for flower displays. 

Foxgloves. I know you find foxgloves in the wild, but I love the 'cottagey' look they give to the garden and how they pop up in different places in the borders each year. You never know where you will find them next. We let them just get on with it and seed themselves where they fancy. It always guarantees a surprise for next year! 

 

Catmint. One of my favourites for good ground cover - saves a lot of weeding and gives a lovely blue, whispy summer's day look to the garden.

Valerian. With its fierce bright flowers this plant grows easily, even in paving cracks. We have it in a wild area amongst some blackberry bushes in a dry raised bed in the wall of the front garden and it has seeded itself amongst the plants in a shady, dry bed under conifer trees. It is a common wild plant, but there's always room for a wild plant or two in our garden if they can put on a colourful and vibrant display! 

This border is in a small, shady and dry patch underneath the conifer hedge and between the parking space on the front garden. It is looking lovely and probably at its best at the moment. It is a mix of low growing golden conifer shrubs, blue aquilegas, californian lilacs, blue cornflowers and in the foreground valerian. 

Just when the yellow marigolds have finished blooming by the pond, the golden irises have appeared. I love irises. 

The poppies are back again too in shades of scarlet red and peachy pink. They never disappoint and never fail to give a fabulous display. They need to be staked though or they will be squashed down with the rain. Thank goodness we managed to do that just in time with the weather we have had this week! 

Dianthus. This small little alpine flower grows easily anywhere around the garden. Its name means 'divine flower'. It does well in pots, troughs, raised beds or any little corner of a rock garden. 

First signs of the pink geraniums. These are another plant that are great for ground cover. They can be split and planted in pots and borders around the garden each season. They will be full of flower in June and continue flowering well into autumn if you dead head them now and again. 

In the foreground is a small weeping tree called a cotoneaster.  It starts to bloom with small white flowers at the end of May and looks at its best in June. After the flowers have finished they form small bright red berries, which give off another superb display in autumn and during winter. 

More of those foxgloves peeping out! 

French lavender, this one was a gift from a friend, another favourite plant of mine. It flowers before the other lavenders we have in the garden and heralds a taster of what is to come. It is a favourite with the bees too! 

A closer look at the delicate weeping cotoneaster flower.

Heuchera. I love these plants with their dark copper evergreen leaves and their panicles reaching for the sun, filled with starry delicate flowers. 

May has been a busy month in the garden. I enjoy May, whatever the weather really, as it feels like the start of summer. If we happen to get good weather there is that feeling of a long everlasting summer ahead; if it's bad, then you just think, 'oh well, there is still all summer yet for some better weather.' 

In the meantime the garden is still growing frantically whatever the weather is doing, getting it ready for you to enjoy the summer whatever!