Plant Solutions. Nigel Colborn
of interest: Summer
Height and spread: Variable to 1m × 30cm (3ft 3in × 1ft)
Companion plants: Developed largely as competition blooms or cut flowers. Larger varieties are hard to place in mixed plantings; newer smaller kinds make attractive groups in a late summer border, among hybrid dahlias, perennial asters or taller phloxes.
Agapanthus (deciduous hybrids)
African Lily, Nile Lily Tender or marginally hardy bulb-bearing perennials
Deep green, shiny, strap-shaped leaves form dense clumps among which, in late summer, tall stems emerge, bearing at their tips short-stalked umbels of many six-petalled flowers in shades of blue or white. Varieties, whose leaves die right down in winter. Free-flowering kinds include the deep blue ‘Midnight Star’, ‘Jack’s Blue’, and ‘Loch Hope’ and ‘Bressingham White’.
Soil preference: Any well-drained
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Summer
Height and spread: Up to 1.2m × 75cm (4ft × 2ft 6in)
Companion plants: Good in containers, or in mixed herbaceous plantings among such late summer flowers as phloxes and asters, or to contrast with hot-coloured daisies such as rudbeckias, heleniums or coreopsis.
Bulbs for autumn
Colchicum speciosum
Autumn Crocus, Naked Ladies, Naked Boys Hardy bulb
Crocus-shaped flowers emerge directly from the ground at the end of summer, disappearing completely after blooming. In spring, glossy foliage appears and forms a bold clump, with seed heads carried at the base of the leaf. Flower colours are typically lilac or mauve, with pale petal bases, but C. speciosum ‘Album’ has soft white flowers.
Soil preference: Any free-draining
Aspect: Sun or part shade
Season of interest: Late summer, early autumn
Height and spread: Flowers to 20cm (8in), foliage 45cm (1ft 6in)
Companion plants: One to site where the coarse spring leaves will not be troublesome. Lovely naturalized in grass or in a border with softly coloured late perennials including aster and Sedum spectabile and dainty flowered hardy fuchsias.
Amaryllis belladonna
Belladonna Lily, Jersey Lily Near hardy bulb
Thick stems emerge naked from the ground in early autumn rapidly extending until the plump buds at their ends have opened to reveal a cluster of large pink flowers with white centres. The strap-like leaves follow in spring and summer. Bulbs flower best when congested and when baked in summer sun.
Soil preference: Free-draining
Aspect: Sun, very hot and dry
Season of interest: Autumn
Height and spread: 60cm × 15cm (2ft × 6in)
Companion plants: The flowers come as a delightful surprise, in autumn and are beautiful among Mediterranean shrubs such as French lavenders and silver, feathery artemisias.
Crocus speciosus
True Autumn Crocus Hardy corm-bearing perennial
Slender, wineglass-shaped flowers emerge, without foliage, in autumn, followed, in late winter, by the grassy leaves. The violet blue flowers are marked with darker pencil veining and have showy, orange stigmas. Slow to establish but superb in large numbers.
Soil preference: Any free-draining
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Autumn
Height and spread: 12.5cm × 10cm (5in × 4in)
Companion plants: Not a showy plant, except when grown in bold drifts, preferably in short grass, or among autumn flowering cyclamen such as C. hederifolium or C. cilicium. See also Crocuses.
Cyclamen hederifolium
Sowbread Hardy tuberous perennial
Loaf-like tubers lie just beneath the surface of the ground. From them come masses of pink or white flowers, each with five petals swept right back to give the typical cyclamen shape. Some races are sweetly scented. From late autumn the flowers are joined by decoratively marbled leaves which persist through winter until the end of spring.
Soil preference: Any, but not wet
Aspect: Any
Season of interest: Autumn, winter, spring
Height and spread: 15cm × 30cm (6in × 1ft)
Companion plants: An essential part of any wild or woodland garden, going well both with autumn colchicums and with spring primroses and other bulbs. The leaves are lovely with Anemone blanda popping up among them.
Leucojum autumnale
Autumn Snowflake Hardy bulb
Thin, dusky green foliage emerges in winter, looking like dusty grass. In early autumn, the tiny, fragrant, pinktinged-white, nodding flowers are hard to see as individuals but are beautiful when grown in drifts. A native of Spain and North West Africa.
Soil preference: Dry
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Autumn
Height and spread: 15cm × 10cm (6in × 4in)
Companion plants: Not spectacular, but charming if colonies are allowed to bulk up among such rock garden plants as alpine pinks, auriculas and Lithodora.
Nerine bowdenii
Guernsey Lily, Spider Lily Hardy bulb
A South African native which produces stems carrying umbels of brilliant pink flowers, whose petals are curled outwards and crisped or crinkled at their edges. The leaves follow in late winter and spring. Bulbs flower best when congested and when warmed by hot summer sun.
Soil preference: Any well-drained
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Autumn
Height and spread: 60cm ×