Autumn Plants To Continue the Interest in the Garden

There is a common misconception that when summer ends, that is it for the garden until Spring – where did the colour go!

However, there are many late-flowering perennials, shrubs and bulb-based plants that keep your garden looking amazing for longer. It is therefore important that when you are having a planting scheme designed, it incorporates drifts of these plants to keep the interest, so your garden retains its beauty.

Garden Planting & Designs in Autumn

DP Garden Design will provide an insight into some of these gems for the garden:

Japanese Anemone

Hardy and tolerant, these plants have delicate flowers that come in shades of pink or white. There are low-growing varieties for the front of beds, or tall options such as Anemone x hybrida ‘Honorine de Jobert’ for the back of beds, providing height.

Asters (now Symphyotrichum)

Classic autumn plants with daisy-like flowers, which again come in a range of heights. Favourites like Novi-belgii or Michaelmas Daisy can range from 30cm to 120cm and go wonderfully well alongside Anemones. They provide late-season nectar for pollinators and cope with a shaded environment.

Hylotelephium spectabile (Sedum or Stonecrop)

This is a personal favourite. Provides beautiful succulent foliage from early in the season, then produces striking pink, red or white blooms into autumn. Drought-tolerant and enjoy well-drained soil. Again, excellent for supporting wildlife, and you can also leave the seed heads into winter to provide interest and texture in the beds. They look amazing with frost amongst the dried seed heads.

Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan)

Cheerful, vibrant yellow petals with a black centre are a robust and tolerant plant that will bloom up to the first frost. Combines well with the contrasting colours of plants such as Asters.

Hydrangea paniculata or quercifolia

Both of these Hydrangea shrubs provide beautiful displays in autumn. The paniculata produce large conical blooms that start white or light green and often turn to shades of pink as the weeks pass.

The quercifolia with beautiful oak leaf-shaped foliage that turns bronze/purple or red in autumn produces large pinkish – white star-shaped florets. This is recognised by the RHS with its award of Garden Merit (AGM).

Acers (Maples)

Valued for their attractive and distinctive foliage, these trees or shrubs produce vibrant autumn colour, with some having ornamental stems and bark, such as the Acer griseum with its paper-like bark. With many varieties, they are options for beautiful specimen trees or more shrub-like trees for small gardens and for growing in containers.

Nerines

This is a bulb-grown plant, sometimes known as Guernsey Lilies, that brings a vibrant pink to the garden in autumn. Planted as bulbs in late spring or early summer, they have slender stems and clustered flowers, thriving in full sun, maybe against a south-facing wall or fence.

Ornamental Grasses

Prairie style planting in the UK is becoming increasingly popular, and when it comes to autumn, there are a number of options, including Miscanthus sinensis, that provide a gentle movement to the garden, backdropped by autumn sunlight with delicate foliage and plumes. Again, interacts well with other late-season plants, which can be viewed through the moving haze of the grasses, which provide added height to a garden. They will also provide winter interest, much like the Sedum with frost particles hanging from the grasses, providing beautiful backdrops in the wintery garden.

Creating Beautiful Garden & Planting Designs

These plants present just a fraction of what is available to extend the beauty in the garden beyond the summer. The key is successfully incorporating them into your planting schemes with the correct combinations and using the right plants in the correct soil and light conditions. If you are looking for any help with this or any other planting plan designs and implementation, please contact me at DP Garden Design – info@dpgardendesign.co.uk or via the website.

For further blogs on gardens and gardening, please also visit https://dpgardendesign.co.uk/blog/.