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Best autumn flowers that last until the first frosts: Ursula Buchan applauds the border warriors
For gardeners, one of the most cheering phrases in the English language is "will flower until frost". It warms the heart to see a plant brave equinoctial gales, torrential rain, insect attack, shortening days and lower light levels to provide colour well into the autumn.
The combination of summer flowers with autumn leaf tints and colourful berries is an especially winning one, since we don't really expect it. Yet there are dozens of tender and hardy perennials, as well as a few shrubs and climbers, which will provide that flower colour all through September and October and sometimes even into early November.
These days, in my garden in the Midlands, I do not expect frost of any consequence until late October or early November, although I am conscious that they come earlier to the north and on higher ground, and later in the south and west. I choose plants which I hope will give me colour until then, only taking precautionary measures to ensure that I don't lose them accidentally in the winter.
Our love affair with the dahlia continues undimmed, and the capacity of this colourful tender perennial to flower through the autumn is one of its very best features. What might seem brash in May seems cheerful in October.
But abutilons, argyranthemums, cannas, fuchsias, gazanias, osteospermums, pelargoniums and salvias all add to the bright throng. Salvias are especially valuable, since a number of them grow more than 3ft tall. They also suit those gardeners not enamoured of the lush, sub-tropical look provided by cannas, fuchsias and dahlias.
At one time, tender salvias equalled dumpy scarlet bedding plants. But new species have been discovered and good garden cultivars selected of, for example, Salvia microphylla. We appreciate the range of colour, from the blue Salvia guaranitica cultivars 'Indigo Spires' and 'Blue Enigma', through magenta S. involucrata 'Bethellii' to sky-blue S. uliginosa and pale yellow S. jamensis 'La Luna'. The shrubby salvias, such as S. microphylla, can survive the winter in sheltered places, even if the top growth is killed by frost; the herbaceous ones need to be protected in situ with a thick mulch and propagated by cuttings in September as a precaution.
The many frost-hardy penstemons add gaiety for several months from summer to autumn and they are joined in August by Gaura lindheimeri, which is also very slow to call it a day. The delicate butterfly flowers on long shoots open over a very long period and add a springlike freshness and delicacy to the autumn border. Nor should we forget those hardy plants which come into flower as the days shorten. Hardy chrysanthemums and the late asters should definitely be added to the mix. Among the best of the late-flowering chrysanthemums are the bright yellow 'Nantyderry Sunshine', the bronze-orange 'Cottage Apricot' and the pink 'Emperor of China'. Good, late-flowering Michaelmas daisies include blue-mauve Aster oblongifolius 'Fanny's' and white, yellow-centred Aster pilosus var. demotus. I weave late-flowering grasses such as Miscanthus sinensis 'Kleine Fontäne', Panicum virgatum and Pennisetum orientale 'Tall Tails' among them to create much-needed movement and provide contrast in habit.
There are even shrubs, such as Fuchsia magellanica and its cultivated forms, which have difficulty leaving the party, while Viburnum x bodnantense, which we think of as a winter-flowering shrub, actually starts to flower before the leaves have dropped. Roses which can still provide a reasonably generous show in October include the Hybrid Musk shrub roses, as well as the golden yellow English rose 'Graham Thomas' and the white cluster-flowered 'Iceberg', both of which grow either as shrubs or climbers. And, while on the subject of climbers, Clematis flammula has white, starry, scented flowers which last well into October, and can be associated with yellow Clematis tangutica cultivars, such as 'Golden Tiara'.
The long game
There are cultural stratagems we can adopt to make plants flower for longer in autumn. It goes without saying that many tender annuals – petunias and nicotianas, for example – will, if deadheaded, flower for months on end, because their whole existence depends on it. But, if we sow some in May rather than March, we can ensure a brave display which starts later but continues until the plants are scythed by the first frosts. This approach suits zinnias, which only really get going in the warmest months of summer.
Each year, the seed catalogues carry a longer list of first-year-flowering perennials, and these will tend to flower later in the summer of their first year than those which have overwintered. Some of these perennials, such as Agastache aurantica 'Apricot Sprite', Rudbeckia hirta 'Prairie Sun' and Verbena rigida can be short-lived but they are so easy to propagate from bought seed that we can happily treat them as annuals.
Crunch time
But what should we do with tender plants when the frosts do come? It's a game of grandmother's footsteps with dahlias and cannas, picking the last possible moment for digging up the rhizomes before they risk becoming frosted. The rule of thumb is to remove them to cover when the top growth is first blackened and before the frost is sharp enough to damage the roots.
With salvias, pelargoniums, osteospermums and argyranthemums, the best strategy is to take cuttings in August or September. These can be overwintered in a frost-free place, preferably under glass. Having back-up supplies means that you can enjoy the flowers in the garden as long as possible, then gaily abandon them to their fate.
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