Give yourself an autumn garden

Having a decent autumn garden is a matter of choice.  You simply choose plants which make your garden look great in the autumn months.  It took me a long time to realise this as a gardener.  Occasionally as a thought-experiment I consider how one could have an exclusively autumn garden, where the garden looks indifferent in summer but amazing in autumn.  In practical terms that isn't necessary: a garden can look great in both seasons.

Writing this piece in mid-September, my garden is reminding me of three ways to extend the season of the Bold and Brilliant garden into autumn.


1. GROW LONG-FLOWERING PLANTS

Pelargoniums, heleniums, alstroemeria, roses, begonias, may all look good coming into the autumn.  It depends on the variety.  The task of the gardener is to select and plant the choice varieties which will put on a colourful show over a very long period.

My garden on 15 Sept - still colourful

2. GROW PLANTS WHICH FLOWER IN AUTUMN

Asters (Michaelmas daisies) and hardy chrysanthemums are perennials which flower exclusively in autumn.  There are some red and bright pink asters whereas hardy chrysanths come in a fuller range of bold and brilliant colours, including orange, red, yellow and bright pink. 

The right time to plant asters and hardy chrysanths is in the spring.  One of the joys of later-flowering hardy chrysanths is that they give you something to look forward to in November!  They also make excellent cut flowers for indoors.

For a few years I tried growing orange hardy chrysanths then I changed my mind and now I grow bright yellow ones instead.  The reason for my volte-face is that the orange in hardy chrysanths is always slightly brown or "chestnutty", and therefore in my opinion too "much of a muchness" with the browny shades of mid-to-late autumn.  The yellow ones by contrast shine out.  I can recommend one which doesn't seem to have a proper variety name yet; it is sold by Cotswold Garden Flowers as Chrysanthemum "Late Semi-Double Yellow".  I site my clump where I can see it from indoors in late autumn.  Yellow chrysanths are a success for the same reason that daffodils are a success in March; you need the more vibrant colours in the darker months. 

3. USE FOLIAGE AND BERRIES

In autumn, really good foliage comes to the fore.  Exotic foliage goes hand-in-hand with bold and brilliant flower colour in the Bold and Brilliant Garden.

I am presently savouring the red-brown leaves of a vine, Vitis coignetiae "Claret Cloak".  This relatively new variety has an autumn growth-spurt.  It is presently turning my garden into an exotic jungle and has just this morning succeeded in climbing to the top of my cordyline palm tree. In due course I would also like to try out another new-ish vine Vitis vinifera "Spetchely Red" which boasts wonderful glowering red foliage and reasonable grapes.

The exotic, large foliage of vitis "Claret Cloak"

Finally I must extol the value of pyracantha, a vigorous wall shrub, for providing orange berries - or yellow ones, or red ones.  If you have space try to combine two of the colours; plant an orange-berried one next to a yellow-berried one for instance, but leaving a big gap between the two because they love to grow.  I have seen that combination done to good effect in other people's front gardens.  

I have an orange pyracantha next to my French windows and it will provide me with orange for the next four or five months, extending boldness and brilliance into deepest winter.

Pyracantha (left) gives both evergreen foliage and orange berries


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