Alan Titchmarsh has named five plants you can add to your garden to enjoy a spot of colour in the autumn. In the latest instalment of his YouTube show, the horticultural icon is gearing up for the "lovely" month of September, turning his attention to late-season blooms, hedges, grasses and the bulbs gardeners should be getting into the ground for their spring displays.
Alan says September is agreeable because the worst of the summer heat has "abated", rain is back, and the soil is warm and damp and ideal for planting, adding that it's a "busy time of year".
The secret to long-lasting colour
He said: "Adding late summer flowering plants to your beds and borders is the secret to having a garden that's as colourful as possible for as long as possible. Here are five that I'm adding to my garden this year."
As the name suggests, Alan explains that late-summer flowers are those that start blooming in July and continue into the autumn, and even until the first frosts in November in some instances. He also shares some "beauties", including honourable mentions for Japanese anemone, Russian sage, helenium autumnale, rudbeckia hirta and hydrangea paniculata.
Alan's five picks
5. Crocosmia
Alan said: "Some of them start flowering in early July, others come later on in the summer. But choose a range of them like this one, harlequin, which has flowers of rich, deep tangerine and a much lighter orange, hence harlequin. It's two different colours. And you can make sure that your crocosmias will flower right the way through the summer. They're easy to grow. They love a warm, hot, sunny spot. They last for ages. And when they do start to get overcrowded, you can dig them up and divide them."
4. Echinacea
Alan says people might know this plant for its medicinal properties, but it does Alan a "power of good" when he spots it in his borders. He highlighted an "almost luminous" pink-and-red variety called "delicious candy". He pointed out that it was a reasonable height but wouldn't become too "tall and floppy". Delicious candy grows to about 2ft and continues to grow right through September and October. Alan says you'll enjoy it "hugely".
3. Sedum 'Hot Stuff'
Alan said: "Sedums are referred to as the ice plant because if you feel their thick, fleshy, succulent leaves, they seem so much colder than the foliage of other plants around them, almost icy cold. So, it's ironic that this particular variety of sedum is called 'hot stuff'." He explains that when the flowers on this variety open, they turn a rich shade of pink. Others, meanwhile, are "really dark, almost dusky mauve", and some even have purple leaves. He adds that the plant is drought-tolerant, and that bees and butterflies "love them".
Blooms for late summer and beyond
2. Kniphofia (aka red hot poker) 'Papaya Popsicle'
Alan says some kniphofia flowers early in summer, but the "papaya popsicle" variety is a "good later bloomer". Growing to around a metre tall, he calls it an "absolute corker", with pale orange blooms that work best planted around three or four feet back from the front of a border.
1. Dahlia
Alan said: "And finally, at number one in my list of favourite late summer flowers, well, it has to be the dahlia. Dahlias were out of fashion for years. They were thought to be vulgar. Heaven knows who by because I've always loved them. They grow from a tuber and you plant it in spring in your beds and borders. Up it comes and flowers like this from midsummer right the way through to the frosts of November."
Catch Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh on ITV today (August 30), from 9.30am to 11.25am.
