There are some flowers that need to be cut on a regular basis - Cosmos and perennial Dahlias will keep on blooming until the frosts if regularly dead-headed, but if you take a bit more stem you can enjoy the flowers in a vase and savour those summer moments - there are still lots of lovely warm days to come, I'm sure, but the garden is responding to the falling light levels and it is much cooler at the ends of the day...
Choose your colour scheme - these oranges and yellows are flowers - Dahlias, sunflowers and interloping Crocosmia from the veg patch...
... while the pastel shades come from the main garden, where it's all a bit more demure. There are less roses about, but lots of late summer Asters, Penstemon and a second flush from the monster Lupin (smaller and more delicate in its second flush).
