Despite the lack of sun and recent hints of autumn we manage to keep colour the top of our list when it comes to the late summer border at Genus HQ. Dahlias that we leave in the ground and which made it through last year's dreadful winter are now in full bloom - weekly deadheading keeping them in tip-top condition.
Helenium are superb late season performers and we have several clumps throughout the garden. There are plenty of varieties to choose from but we find ‘Moorheim Beauty’ to be one of the most reliable - of medium height staking is often unnecessary and it’ll flower right through into September.
Perennial sunflowers are excellent for this time of year too. ‘Lemon Queen’ 5-6 feet tall, is quick to produce sizeable clumps, and is great at the back of the border where it goes well with grasses and dahlias. Delphiniums the flowers of early summer also give us a good show at this time of year. Cut to the ground after their first flowering and well watered they quickly come back sending up more spikes of their stunning sky blue flowers.
Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ with their fiery red flowers are another favourite of ours at this time of year. The clump we have is positioned under a Malus and have started to flower less and less in recent years. Our plan is to dig up and thin out the corms this autumn which, with the addition of some fresh compost, should kickstart them for next season to give us their usual stunning pillar box red display.