Find out how to keep that wonderful exuberant summer colour in the garden.
Question: My garden has been so bright over the summer. What can I plant now to keep it looking vibrant through the cooler months?
Garden designer, Caroline Tilston, says: September/October is a great time to plant; the soil is still warm and there should be enough rain to get everything bedded in. To keep that wonderful exuberant summer colour in the garden I'd go for a mixture of autumn-flowering plants such as sun-loving Chinese plumbago, a wonderful shrub with cobalt blue flowers. Mix these with orange Helenium autumnale 'Salsa' to keep the spirit of summer going.
Further into autumn, colour's a bit trickier to come by but the shrub Aster x frikartii 'Monch' will provide stars of lavender blue with bright yellow centres.
And try to find room for winter-flowering camellia; these bring unexpectedly exotic flowers at Christmas – Camellia x vernalis 'Yuletide' is particularly lovely. They do need acid soil so you may have to put them in a pot with special ericaceous compost.
Finally, looking even further forward, now's the time to plant early spring iris bulbs. These will start to bloom just after Christmas; choose a lighter blue-coloured flower such as Iris 'Alida', which will stand out against the dark soil.
Source: http://www.housebeautiful.co.uk