August the Garden Looks Tired by August Especially If There Has Not Been Much Rain
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August The garden looks tired by August especially if there has not been much rain. Everything seems to flop listlessly and you realise that you have never done as much dead-heading and cutting back as you should have. The dahlias which looked so sturdy and strong in July should have been staked or just as they are full of flowers they start to flop. The light is too strong for pastel colours now and the garden seems full of daisies. People who grow lots of annuals are now smug as their gardens are ‘riots of colour’ which is nice if you like that sort of thing. I just grow a few annuals to fill in empty spaces. I love the easy-to- grow white Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Purity’ and the pink one with quilled petals called ‘Seashells’. Another easy annual is the tobacco plant, Nicotiana. I love green flowers, and the green flowered Nicotiana alata is wonderful for flower arranging. There is another green flowered tobacco plant with lovely green bells called Nicotiana langsdorfii. The stately Nicotiana sylvestris with sprays of white tubular flowers grows up to 6 foot. It seeds around in my garden without me having to do anything about it. For some reason it comes up every year in my vegetable garden. I believe this is pollinated by hawk moths and like many white flowers is fragrant at night. My favourite tobacco plant is one from Mexico which has only been available here for the last ten years. It is Nicotiana mutabilis. It grows very tall and it is named this because its flowers start off white and then change to pink. Each plant has an abundance of white and pink flowers at the same time. A group of this lovely plant makes quite a statement. Nicotiana belongs to the Solanaceae family so it is poisonous. Although I can’t believe you would want to eat it. Nicotiana alata 'lime green' Nicotiana mutabilis Another gorgeous annual which Oswald Simpson grew and sold at our wonderful party in his garden this year is Tithonia rotundifolia ‘Torch’. This Mexican sunflower grows to about six feet and has sumptuous, velvety leaves and orange flowers. Sarah Raven suggests growing it with black dahlias but I think I will try it next year with orange cosmos. Tithonia rotundifolia 'Torch' The perennial Lobelia x speciosa ‘Fan Series’ is an F1 Hybrid so it is no use trying to save seeds. It comes in a range of colours and as long as you have a damp spot it will clump up and brighten a late summer border. It comes in crimson, purple or various shades of pink. It has upright, well branched spikes of tubular flowers. I grow my salmon pink one with Echinacea and a salmon pink Agastache. Lobelia x speciosa 'Fan salmon' Another star this month is the pineapple plant, Eucomis. The name is Greek and means ‘beautifully haired’. This South African bulb looks quite exotic but it seems to be hardy as long as the bulbs are planted quite deep. I protect them with a bit of leaf mould in winter. They are wonderful for pots, especially the large Eucomis comosa ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ which has long red leaves. Each flower stem is made up of starry flowers and is topped with a cluster of bracts like a badly made toupee. They smell a bit unpleasant because they are pollinated by flies. There are eleven species of Eucomis ranging from the enormous Eucomis pallidiflora ssp. pole-evansii to the very small Eucomis schiffii. I like the green Eucomis autumnalis which seems to be bulking up in my garden. But they are all lovely. Eucomis comosa 'Sparkling burgundy' Eucomis autumnalis A late summer flowering plant for a pot is the gorgeous Coral Drop or Bessera elegans. I grow it in the greenhouse and bring it indoors when it is in flower because its lovely coral-orange flowers need to be looked at close to. It comes from Mexico and grows from corms which need to be kept dry in winter. It is a good idea to cram as many corms as possible into a pot for a stunning impact. It has grass-like leaves and the flowers dance on wiry stems. It has drooping umbels of dainty flowers which are striped inside. The stamens are very long and the pistil is purple. It certainly makes a nice change from the ubiquitous Phalaenopsis orchid which flowers for so long you ungratefully tire of it. Bessera elegans Liz Wells.