What to Plant in Late Summer for Autumn Colour and Wildlife

By late summer, most gardens are not crying out for a complete redesign.

They usually need something much simpler.

A gap has appeared where an earlier plant finished. One end of the border has gone rather brown. There is plenty of green but not much colour. Or the bees are still arriving and there suddenly seems to be far less for them to visit.

That is a much better starting point for late-summer planting than wandering around a nursery looking for anything with the word autumn on the label.

August is still summer. Most of the garden is already established, so the aim now is to fill the obvious gaps, stretch the season a little further and make sure wildlife still has food and shelter as summer begins to fade.

Look at What Is Actually Missing

Before buying anything, stand back and look at the garden.

If there are still plenty of flowers but one area looks flat, you may need foliage or height rather than more blooms.

If most of the garden flowered earlier in summer and has now gone quiet, a couple of genuinely later-flowering plants may be enough to carry some colour towards autumn.

And if the garden still looks good but wildlife activity has dropped, the answer may not involve planting very much at all.

Late summer is often about adding one or two useful plants, not filling a trolley.

For Colour Now, Buy Plants That Are Already Established

Starting small plants in late summer and expecting a magnificent display a few weeks later is asking rather a lot of them.

If you have an obvious gap that needs filling now, established plants are the sensible option.

Autumn-flowering cyclamen are particularly useful beneath shrubs, deciduous trees and along the shadier edges of borders. Their flowers begin appearing as summer fades, often before the leaves fully develop, and they can gradually spread into a lovely natural-looking patch.

Heucheras are useful for a different reason. Their foliage does the work.

Burgundy, bronze, lime, amber and deep green leaves provide colour long after many flowering plants have finished. They are particularly useful in smaller gardens because they do not rely on a short flowering period to justify the space they occupy.

Ornamental grasses can also transform a tired border surprisingly quickly. By late summer many are producing seed heads, which catch the lower light beautifully and continue looking good well into autumn.

Sometimes adding shape, movement and foliage is more useful than trying to squeeze another flush of summer flowers into the garden.

Autumn-Flowering Bulbs Can Still Have a Job to Do

Spring bulbs get most of the attention, but there are bulbs and corms that flower later in the year too.

Autumn crocuses can appear surprisingly quickly after planting, producing small pockets of colour as summer gives way to autumn.

Some also provide useful late pollen for insects that are still active on mild days.

Cyclamen corms can also be planted around this time, although buying established flowering plants gives a quicker result if you want colour this year.

The important thing is to check the variety rather than buying something simply labelled as a crocus. Some flower in spring, some in autumn, and they are not interchangeable just because the packet looks promising.

Add Late Flowers Where They Make Sense

There is nothing wrong with adding a later-flowering perennial in August if you find a healthy established plant and have the right place for it.

Late salvias can be useful in a warm, sunny position. Many continue flowering for weeks and are regularly visited by bees.

Flowering heathers can also add colour, particularly in containers or areas with suitable soil, and their small flowers can provide nectar when fewer plants are available.

The point is not that everyone should suddenly plant a collection of late-flowering perennials in August.

If the garden already has asters, rudbeckia, echinacea or other late performers growing happily, leave them to get on with it.

Add something new only where there is a genuine gap.

Do Not Dig Up Something Useful Just Because It Has Finished Flowering

This is where gardens can lose a surprising amount of wildlife value.

A plant finishes flowering, looks slightly untidy and immediately gets cut down.

But a finished flower is not necessarily a finished plant.

Seed heads can provide food for birds. Hollow stems can give insects somewhere to shelter or overwinter. Dense foliage gives spiders, beetles and other small creatures cover, while fallen leaves create hiding places at ground level.

That does not mean abandoning the garden until spring.

Cut back anything diseased, remove plants that have collapsed across paths and tidy the bits that annoy you.

Just avoid automatically cutting every border down as soon as the flowers finish.

Leaving some seed heads, stems and fallen leaves gives garden wildlife food and shelter as the weather begins to cool.

Keep Some Herbs Flowering

Late summer is also the point when many herbs are trying very hard to flower while we keep chopping their heads off.

Leaving a patch of oregano, thyme, mint or another flowering herb alone can provide a remarkably busy feeding area for bees and other pollinating insects.

You do not have to sacrifice the entire herb garden.

Leave one section flowering and keep harvesting from another.

It is one of the easiest ways to extend the wildlife value of a garden without buying anything.

Plant Now for Next Year Too

Not everything planted in late summer needs to earn its keep immediately.

Late summer and early autumn can be a useful time to add hardy perennials, shrubs and grasses because the soil is still warm while the strongest summer heat is beginning to ease.

They can start establishing roots before winter and be in a much better position when growth begins again next year.

So if you notice that the garden always starts looking a little bare or tired in late summer, make a note of where those gaps appear.

Perhaps that area needs a grass that will develop attractive seed heads later in the season. Maybe a shrub with berries would give you colour and provide food for birds into autumn. Or perhaps you simply need one later-flowering perennial among all the plants that finish earlier.

Fixing that late-summer gap for next year is often much more worthwhile than desperately trying to manufacture instant colour this year.

Water New Plants Properly

There is one catch with planting in late summer.

The garden may look as though the season is beginning to change while the soil is still surprisingly dry.

New plants have not yet developed the root systems that established plants rely on, so they need watching carefully.

Water thoroughly when planting and continue checking the soil rather than assuming an occasional shower has done the job.

A layer of mulch around the plant can help retain moisture, but keep it away from the crown and stems.

A plant that spends the next few weeks quietly establishing itself is far more useful than one that produces three flowers and then expires dramatically.

Autumn Colour Does Not Have to Mean More Flowers

Some of the best late-summer additions are plants that quietly improve everything around them.

A grass filling an awkward gap. Cyclamen appearing beneath a shrub. A few late flowers keeping bees moving around the border.

And sometimes the best thing you can add for wildlife is nothing at all.

Leave some seed heads. Let a few herbs flower. Keep a patch of fallen leaves beneath a hedge. Allow the garden to move gradually from summer into autumn instead of clearing everything away overnight.

Late summer planting works best when you stop trying to restart the season.

You are simply helping the garden move into the next one.