August checklist
Extend summer’s colour with late-flowering perennials
Without a doubt the late-season floral stars are the asters, and the brightest star in the firmament is x ‘Mönch’ with its large, lavender-blue flowers that continue for months. Another plant I would x ‘Honorine Jobert’, its silky white petals surrounding golden stamens. I like it for threading through planting schemes without looking like you are trying too hard. Equally hard to resist are the sedums, or hylotelephium. On the Great Terrace at Iford I grow ‘Purple Emperor’; from fleshy purple leaves and stems emerge wide, flat heads made up of myriad tiny flowers that persist until felled in spring.
