Helen Derrin, Crocus plant doctor
Last updated July 2024
Although summer is still in full swing, many plants will already be starting to look a little worse for wear. Call in the cavalry and give your garden a boost with some of these little lovelies, which are just coming into their prime. Not just offering a quick fix, many of them will keep on flowering well into autumn.
Easy to grow yet very rewarding, this giant Mexican hyssop flowers abundantly for several months from midsummer, drawing in hordes of bees and butterflies while adding colour and structural interest to borders and pots. Thriving in hot, well-drained spots, and having anise-scented foliage, it works really well on the patio or beside a seating area. Alternatively, weave it through sunny borders and team it up with coneflowers, ornamental grasses, sneezeweeds and salvias for a sensational display that will press on until the first frosts take their toll.
First Introduced in 1912, this fab clematis still comes up trumps. Consistently performing well, and reliably producing masses of velvety-petalled, rich purple flowers, it has a string of accolades and awards, and was even voted ‘members favourite’ by the British Clematis Society. Earlier into flower than most of the other viticellas, it can be grown in a large pot if kept really well fed and watered, and it will also make a wonderful companion for climbing roses.
20% off
20% off
20% off
20% off
20% off
20% off
20% off
An elegant and versatile plant, 'Fascination' is equally at home in cottage gardens or prairie style planting schemes, where its lofty flower spikes blend really well with upright grasses. Its flowers are excellent for cutting and will attract butterflies to the garden - and they'll also provide a strong architectural presence towards the back of the border, while still retaining an airy feel. Prompt deadheading will often encourage a second (smaller) flush.
20% off
A first rate addition to wildlife-friendly planting schemes, ‘Magnus’ attracts masses of beneficial insects when in bloom, while birds are drawn to the seed heads, which develop as the flowers fade. Long-flowering, handsome and tough, it will offer interest well into autumn and the flower heads look super in both fresh or dried arrangements. Adaptable and easily grown, it’s equally at home in prairie, meadow, cottage or contemporary planting schemes.
20% off
A multitude of tiny, violet-blue flowers crown branching, silvery stems, which are underpinned with dissected (and aromatic) glaucous foliage. Forming softly splaying clumps, they provide an impressively long season of interest, and create a somewhat ethereal feel in the summer heat. Originating from rocky soil in the Himalayas and Central Asia, it’s a tough and tolerant plant which once established, will take drought and poor soils in its stride.
