52 S MAGAZINE ★ 4 AUGUST 2019
Alan Titchmarsh
of pink, white, or coppery red
flowers depending on the variety.
In mild weather, they will appear
in sequence until November.
Lily turf (Liriope muscari) grows
in clumps about a foot high but
spreads to create a knee-high
carpet of grassy leaves. It flowers
from August to November,
producing upright stems topped
with what look like tiny violet grape
hyacinths just above the foliage.
Lily turf needs fairly well-drained,
lime-free soil, but it is happy in
sun or light-dappled shade.
For bigger borders there’s
Cimicifuga simplex. This elegant
perennial has good foliage and
delphinium-like pokers of whitein deep, fertile soil that contains
plenty of well-rotted organic matter,
otherwise the ground can’t retain
enough moisture to keep them
growing during dry seasons and
fuel late flowers. And if there’s
no reasonably regular rainfall in
summer, they will benefit from an
occasional thorough soaking.
Faithful late starters like Sedum
spectabile and perennial asters
mark the beginning of the autumn
flowering season. But there are
more unusual late perennials you
can add for extra punch. Kaffir
lily (Schizostylis coccinea) forms
a tuft of what looks like coarse
grass growing 2ft tall. But come
September, it’ll burst into spraysseason that positively encourages
late flowers to fulfil their promise.
Quite a few long-flowering
perennials are worth adding to your
borders. Echinops (globe thistle),
kniphofia (red-hot poker), eryngium
(sea holly) and echinacea (cone
flower) bloom in July, continue into
September or October and fare
quite well even in a dry summer.
Other species are more demanding
of moisture. They include
heleniums, rudbeckias, phlox,
monarda (bergamot), solidago
(goldenrod) gaura and phygelius.
For these to flower into the
autumn it’s essential they growS
ome gardens look
spectacular in spring,
some peak at the height
of the rose season in
early summer and
others look sensational well into
August. But then a good many
simply peter out. That’s a shame
because, given the right plants,
most gardens could have a late
lease of life that keeps them
looking colourful well into autumn.
Years ago, only the keenest
enthusiasts bothered with
late-flowering perennials because
for four years out of five they’d be
a flop. But in those days winter
started early. Nowadays, autumn
is a longer, slower, milder, gentlerThe late late show
HeleniumPink phlox
blossomsTorch lilies in full bloomCyclamen
hederifoliumGETTY IMAGES