August is the middle of our Summer and Holiday Time with good weather to enjoy our outdoor spaces so keep them looking vibrant and colourful.
The tubs and hanging baskets planted in May should be at their zenith so keep them regularly watered and fed with a liquid fertilizer removing flowers as they fade to encourage more buds.
Roses should be coming into a second flush of flowers so water and feed these weekly as well. Other shrubs and perennials will have given their earlier colourful show so cut back the old flowering stems to encourage regrowth before winter. Where areas look dull here are some suggestions for you to plant now to add colour back into these areas in mid and late summer.
For the front of a sunny border which has well drained soil plant compact Dianthus. They will continue to flower from now until October and then again from Spring to Autumn next year. Use a good compost with a “slow release” fertiliser added and some grit for drainage. New varieties are Dianthus Oscar and Diantica which come in several colours and have a rich clove scent. Remove spent flowers to maintain free flowering.
Hardy Asters, Michaelmas Daisies, are great for extending the summer colour into autumn. Mildew is no longer a problem with the new more compact varieties making them a great addition. Look for Aster Samoa 60cms with mauve pink flowers and Aster Magic Purple a similar height and vibrant purple flowers. Butterflies and Bees love them as a rich source of late pollen.
Salvia Greggii, the autumn sage, also grows to about 60cms with masses of small flowers ranging in colour from Salvia Mirage Pink Lips bright pink, S. Lemon Light soft yellow and S. Emperor deep purple. They are easy to grow in a sunny border, with no need for “dead heading” to keep repeat flowering until the first frost then cut back to 10cms to avoid winter damage.
Pennisetums are very attractive clump forming grasses. Varieties like Pennisetum Sky Rocket produce arching pendular green leaves with creamy white edges. The pink plume flowers appear in late summer slowly fading to cream as the season progresses. P. Fireworks is spectacular at about 1.2m tall with red plumes fading to chocolate brown. Both varieties can be grown in large tubs.
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides is the hardy form of Plumbago. The climbing P. Canariensis, although more colourful can only be reliably grown in a conservatory for winter protection. The hardy form is only 60cms tall and grows as a rounded clump at the front of the border or in a tub. C. Forest Blue has intense blue flowers from august onwards if grown in well drained soil in full sun.
Sedums or Ice plants with grey green fleshy stems and foliage are attractive even without the flowers which appear from late July onwards. I always leave the flowers on the plants throughout winter because they are particularly attractive when covered with early morning frost or a light covering of snow. They are resistant to drought as the thick leaves are slow to lose water and prefer to be grown in poor dry soils. There are 2 types Sedum Spectabilis which is about 60cms tall with flat heads of many starry shaped flowers and the creeping Stonecrops which are just a few centimetres tall and excellent for draping the sides or pots and hanging baskets or as ground cover. Look out for the following varieties Sedum Spectabilis Autumn Joy with deep pink flowers, S. Pina Colada with variegated foliage and pale pink flowers and Black Knight with deep burgundy leaves and pink and white flowers. The Sun Sparkle Stonecrops with impressive coloured leaves and flowers are S. Plum Dazzler with plum leaves, S. Dream Dazzler with purple leaves with pink edges and S. Wildfire with dark pink leaves and lighter pink edges. All have red flowers and are about 10cms tall.
Heucheras those excellent ground cover plants with an amazing array of different coloured foliage unsurpassed by any other species. They are evergreen, grow to about 30cms and produce grass like flower heads in summer. They grow well in sun and partial shade in rich humus soil and the leaves are a stunning source of all year colour from green with stronger dark markings, silver, plum, deep maroon, orange, lime green and yellow.
There's lots of choice to enhance the existing perennial planting in your garden.
Enjoy Summer!
