Making sure your garden looks lovely throughout autumn is not as hard as you might think. In his North Yorkshire garden botanist and director of the Yorkshire Arboretum, John Grimshaw, uses a wide range of plants to extend the flowering season into autumn.
You can see John's garden in the October 2023 issue of Gardens Illustrated. Subscribe so you never miss an issue.
How to plant a garden with autumn interest
The browns, reds and yellows of autumn have their own beauty which can be enhanced, as John has done, to extend your garden’s season of interest much further into darker months thanks to modern planting.
Ornamental grasses, such as Miscanthus, Calamagrostis and Ampelodesmos mauritanicus are key to an autumn garden, adding soft textures and pale buffs of their seedheads that act as a foil to vibrant flowers, leaves and berries.
Asters are an autumn stalwart, available in white, blue, purple, pink and every shade between. In full sun these are easy to grow, vigorous plants that will hold clouds of flower from late-summer to the first frosts.
Bulbs, more commonly thought of for spring, can be used in autumn too thanks to late flowering Nerine bowdenii, Colchicum autumnale and Cyclamen hederifolium, which grows from a bulb-like corm.
Bistorts, still known to many as persicarias, are invaluable late season flowers that often have some hints of colour in the leaves in autumn. Shrubby salvias will also flower well into autumn with enough sunshine, available in a range of colours.
John has supplemented interest in the garden with potted tender plants such as small chrysanthemums and pelargoniums, as well as gorgeous foliage of many succulents including agaves and echeverias. These are moved into a small greenhouse or inside for protection during winter.