A while back I wrote an article on planting combinations for October. It featured some hot oranges to pick up on autumn colours.
My own garden however, is a completely different colour palette. Pink, blues, purples and white. And whilst most of these won’t last the whole of October like the oranges I thought I’d share the final flurry of flowering in my garden… (full tour coming in next week’s video!)
This mixture of Slavia East Friesland, Rosa Gertrude Jekyll and Verbena bonariensis with the Artemisia Powis Castle in the background do, admittedly look much better earlier in the year but it’s still nice to see the last of their flowers in October!
Here’s a closer look at that fabulous David Austin Rose – Climbing Gertrude Jekyll with the Verbena. Next to the the lavenders (can’t remember which variety I got in the end) are having a second flowering with Perovskia and a variegated Miscanthus in the background.
Another David Austin rose – Sceptre’d Isle is also having a second flowering alongside the Perovskia with Hydrangea arborescens fading in the background.
At the end of the garden I have a lovely large variegated Arundo donax alongside some purple Foxgloves and variegated Miscanthus.
A cheeky little Foxglove seedling is flowering away quite contentedly in amongst the grasses. And the Cosmos bedding flowers I popped in a gap nearby have flowered their hearts out all summer long…
I also copied my parents’ trick of popping in some purple petunias wherever they have a gap. As a garden designer, I’ve always been too much of a plant snob for summer bedding, but I must say, they have been superb and I may well plant them again next year. They have flowered non-stop for months!
Next week will be Successful Garden Design’s 16th anniversary – doesn’t time fly! So I’ll be doing a full video of my garden throughout the year as well as looking at some of my design students’ results.
If you’d like to attend one of my free online garden design classes, you can do so here: https://www.successfulgardendesigner.com/free-classes
