August is probably my favourite month in the garden. The frenzy of sowing and planting that is spring and early summer is finally over, meaning you have much more time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labour. However, frustratingly, come late summer many traditional British garden plants can be looking long past their best, which is a bit of an annoying irony as you try to relax, cocktail in hand.
Fortunately there are some exotic horticultural superstars that are great at picking up the slack at this time of year, powering through to stretch summer colour out until October. All are available in full flower right now in garden centres across the country, allowing you to quickly plug gaps in patches that might be looking a little bare. They are all perennial too, so will come back year after year, helping you squeeze the most out of summer.
From the prairies of North America come the of dazzling daisy-shaped flowers of Rudbeckia and Echinacea, whose rich colours positively glow in the warm autumn light. With their soft black centres and golden yellow petals, I particularly love Rudbeckia maxima and R fulgida, which can carry on blooming through to as late as early November in a good year.
Once only available in polite purple, Echinacea now comes in loads of weird and wonderful varieties thanks to recent breeding work. In searing orangey red, ‘Hot Papaya’ boasts quirky pom-pom centres which force its outer petals back, causing them to dramatically recurve. ‘Summer Cocktail’ has show-stopping two-tone petals in translucent peach and hot pink, like living gumdrops.
The wilds of South Africa have given us the scorching flower spikes of Crocosmia, held above neat, clump-forming plants. To me it doesn’t get better than ‘Star of the East’, whose golden orange flowers peek out, half-hidden in their grassy foliage. The larger, more open petals of ‘Lady McKenzie’ look like upturned lilies and last phenomenally well in a vase, making them ideal for the cut-flower garden. ‘Limpopo’ is another stunner, with sprays of coral-coloured flowers with subtle tangerine throats.
If your tastes lie more on the understated side of exoticism, from the woodlands of East Asia come the pretty pink petals of the Japanese anemone. Its delicate-looking flowers belie a rugged constitution that will put up with almost total neglect. ‘Bressingham Glow’ has unusual semi-double blooms with a crown of frilly yellow stamens at its centre, surrounded by delicate elongated petals like mini water lilies. Unlike many double hybrids, this still retains the unique character of the species. The pure white flowers of ‘Honorine Jobert’ shine out in the darker days of early autumn, like little lanterns in the evening light.
Email James at james.wong@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @Botanygeek
