The swifts have left which always seems like the end of summer but the garden is still full of colour and will be for a month or more. Our NGS open days are next weekend 2nd and 3rd September. We chose this late time because we think the garden looks lovely at this time of year. Perhaps not with that fresh loveliness of early summer but mellow and relaxed with subtle shades of blue, pink and yellow. Blue perovskia has more or less taken over a sloping bank and is a beautiful foil for the intense blue of the late agapanthus. Many shades of pink and red sedums are at their best now. We began with beauties like Red Cauli, Munster Red and Matrona and some now seem to have interbred so we find luscious combinations of scarlet, rose, crimson and madder some with purple or bronze leaves adding subtle highlights among the grasses. Oh and i should not forget to mention the wonderful orange hips on Rosa moysii ‘Geranium’. I do not understand why some people hate yellow flowers. To me they are notes of happiness and joy. They need to be balanced with others with a similar weight of colour to avoid being garish but with a little care in the placing yellow flowers enhance most plantings. I love potentillas too. Limelight is a special favourite and is covered in delicate lemon flowers for months. The somewhat tender Cestrum parqui which I bought years ago from Great Dixter is in full flower at this time of year and the clear soft gold of the Spanish broom, Spartium Junceum, has been lightening the border for weeks.
