Keep Them Coming

By late summer, colour is often fizzling out in containers, especially as bedding plants start to wane. But now our autumns are so much milder, we’re able to extend the show. In late May we encourage this by sowing a crop of late bedding plants, such as cosmos, cleome and the weather-resistant French marigold ‘Konstance’, which often flowers well into November. Other ingredients we divide to make more of, or we propagate with cuttings, for in summer plants grow fast. Foliage is the ingredient that makes late-summer containers interesting, so I plant with this in mind. As the flowers of bedding plants wane, foliage takes over, adding extra freshness and a boldness