Nurserymen's favourite: August

Sanguisorba officinalis ‘Red Thunder’

My soil is too well drained to give most sanguisorbas the moist conditions they prefer. This one, though, copes well with my dry soil, although it never reaches the height of 2m that it will in rich, damp soil. The flower stems branch in every direction, with a dark red, tightly packed flower on the end of each. The plant is so floriferous that you get a cloud of red flowers through to the end of September. I am growing my plants with Panicum virgatum ‘Squaw’, which at the end of summer starts to turn the same deep red as the flowers of the Sanguisorba.

HEIGHT/SPREAD 2m x 60cm.
ORIGINS Seedling selected by Piet Oudolf from plants collected in Korea.
CONDITIONS Sunny and moist.
SEASON July to September.

To see eight more plants for midsummer glory, chosen by John Hoyland, buy the August issue of GARDENS ILLUSTRATED (Issue 176) available 29 July.

Photograph by Rachel Warne