Border Edit

Pep up fading borders with some late summer additions: Perennial Dahlias, Heleniums, Crocosmia, Echinacea and Asters will enliven any scheme and unlike annual bedding plants, they will go on performing year after year. Add some foliage specimens like Cotinus coggygria, evergreen Euphorbias and shimmering grasses for a border that will keep on singing right through the autumn and, if you add in plants with berries and bark, through the winter too...

Worth the wait

We have to wait a long time for the late summer shrubs to show themselves, but they provide a welcome shot of colour and structure in the borders at the tail end of the season. Buddlejas and Hebes are among the most popular with butterflies and bees, but need pruning so that they don’t become too leggy. Large flowered Hibiscus look exotic, but are surprisingly frost resistant and hardy. Hydrangeas are good value and their big, blousy flowerheads (actually papery bracts) last well into the autumn.

Daisy daisy

Daisy, daisy

Bring some late summer cheerfulness to your garden borders with Echinaceas, Asters and Rudbeckias. August can be a tricky month in the garden, but these stylish perennial daisies will provide a splash of colour when many of the other flowers are beginning to fade. They mix well with grasses and other plants that like an open sunny position.

Heleniums

Helenium 'Moorheim Beauty'

Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm'

Snapping the bees

Bees and flowers work together for their mutual benefit - the bee above is heavy enough to push down on the snap dragon and cause it to open so that the bee can gain access to the nectar and cover itself in pollen in the process. A perfect partnership in action.

Late summer at Kew

The Hive at Kew Gardens is a spectacular sight - especially when seen from within. It has lots of lights on it too, so must look even better in the evening. There were no bees inside it, thank goodness, but plenty buzzing around outside on the wildflowers.

This lush border was looking gorgeous outside the Princess of Wales glasshouse - lots of large leaved Cannas, Begonias and Busy Lizzies in sumptuous sizzling colours.

Cut some flowers

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).

Late summer border edit

Pep up boring borders with some late summer additions: Dahlias, Heleniums, Crocosmia, Echinacea and Asters will enliven any scheme. Add foliage plants like Cotinus, evergreen Euphorbias, dogwoods, grasses and the border will sing on right through autumn and winter 

Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple'

Dhalias

Asters, Persicaria, Miscanthus and Dahlias - a happy autumnal mix at Great Dixter

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