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Give your garden lasting colour with these easy-grow foliage favourites

Few plants offer as much versatility as heucheras. Their colourful evergreen leaves bring interest throughout the year, while their delicate summer flowers add extra appeal. Available in shades from bright green and rich purple to soft pinks and oranges, they work well in borders, containers and hanging baskets.

Here are six simple ways to make the most of them in your garden.

Just as box hedging or lavender can define the edges of borders, heucheras make excellent edging plants.

Using heucheras avoids problems with box blight and provides a wide choice of foliage colours, along with airy flowers in summer. Choose a single shade such as deep purple or fresh green for a more formal look, or mix colours together for a bolder display.

Heucheras prefer well-drained soil, making them ideal for hanging baskets where compost can dry out quickly.

Mix different foliage colours together for a low-maintenance display. Pair them with tufts of carex and trailing ivy to create contrast in shape and texture. Their flowers provide extra interest in early summer.

A splash of colour can make a big difference during the darker months.

Choose bright lime, pink, purple and orange heucheras to bring vivid colour to the garden when many other plants are less eye-catching. Their evergreen foliage provides interest right through winter.

Native to woodland areas of North America, heucheras can cope with a good amount of shade.

Purple-leaved varieties perform particularly well in shadier conditions, although many of the hundreds of available cultivars are suitable. They mix well with hostas and can be used to add colour beneath trees, without attracting the slug problems often associated with hostas.

Heucheras are excellent container plants, whether planted on their own or combined with other favourites.

Different foliage colours can be mixed together, or teamed with bedding plants, perennials and grasses. Simple combinations are often the easiest to maintain. Try pairing carex with heucheras, or combine ajuga, cyclamen, abelia, carex and heuchera ‘Marmalade’ for a colourful display.

While some heucheras stand out as feature plants thanks to their bright foliage, they are also useful as ground cover.

As plants grow and form larger clumps, they help fill gaps and suppress weeds. Try _Stipa tenuissim_a, ophiopogon, salvia ‘Mainacht’ and heuchera ‘Beauty Colour’ for a striking planting scheme.

Heucheras grown in containers can be affected by vine weevil. Apply nematodes in autumn or spring to control grubs and help prevent infestations. If a plant is affected, remove and wash off any grubs, repot the remaining plant into fresh compost and water it well. Although the roots may have been badly damaged, the plant may regrow and recover.

Bees love heuchera flowers and will visit them throughout summer, stopping at each individual bloom in search of nectar.

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Perennial asters are flowers no autumn garden should be without. They are dependable and bring valuable colour as the year starts to wind down. They can also cope better than expected in heat and drought, although they will look even better with a good soak once or twice.

There are many varieties for mixed borders and perennial borders. Some are knee-high, others reach head height. You can find neat, compact sorts for containers or the very front of the border, as well as taller plants that will rise through planting or appear behind old roses. Many are excellent cut flowers. Dwarf types, often sold in flower at garden centres, also make useful emergency fillers later in the season.

• **‘Blue Star’ (heath aster):** Prolific clouds of small lavender-blue daisies fade almost to white, with eyes that turn from purple to yellow. Mildew resistant. 60cm.

• **‘Coombe Fishacre’ (****Aster** **hybrid):** Repeatedly branching flowerheads give a long season of purplish-pink flowers, with primrose eyes that soon turn purple. Mostly mildew resistant. 90cm.

• **‘Golden Spray’ (heath aster):** Dense heads packed with small flowers, white petals and a rich golden eye. Mildew resistant. 90cm.

• **‘Fellowship’ (New York aster):** Elegantly open sprays of double, pale pink flowers late in autumn. Not mildew resistant. 1m.

• **‘Forncett Flourish’ (Italian aster):** Prolific, purple-tinted, rich blue flowers with golden eyes on self-supporting plants. Mildew resistant. 45cm.

• **‘Helen Picton’ (New England aster):** Mildew-resistant plants topped with unusually rich violet-purple flowers. 1.2m.

• **‘Little Carlow’ (****Aster** **hybrid):** Upright, often self-supporting growth with bright yellow-eyed, lavender-blue flowers. Mostly mildew resistant. 1.2m.

• **‘Rosa Sieger’ (New England aster):** Very striking, with unusually large flowers in especially vivid rose pink. Mildew resistant. 1.2m.

Asters are versatile plants, but it still pays to choose the right one for the right place.

**Containers:** ‘Professor Anton Kippenberg’ is robust, reliably short and has full-sized lavender-blue flowers. It is often available in garden centres as well as by mail order. 30cm.

Mixed borders: ‘Prince’ has attractively bronzed spring foliage, topped with red-eyed pale daisies. 50cm.

Instant fillers: For an easy filler that starts flowering earlier than most and keeps going well into autumn, choose the large-flowered ‘Rudolf Goethe’.

**Perennial borders:** ‘Ringdove’ forms strong, tight clumps topped with clouds of pale lavender flowers with primrose disks. 1m.

Autumn asters make excellent perennials for cutting and can be used in several ways:

• Plant four or five varieties together in different colours for picking

• Pair their airy sprays with larger blooms, such as roses or dahlias, for a balanced mix of big and small flowers

• Use them in informal, cottage-style arrangements

• Cut stems when about a third of the flowers in a spray are open. Strip off the lower leaves, at least all those that would sit under water in the vase, and use flower food.

• **‘Monch’:** Larger than average lavender-blue flowers with bright yellow eyes. 90cm.

• **‘Monte Cassino’:** Clouds of bright white daisies that suit almost any arrangement. 1.2m.

• **‘Ochtendgloren’:** Branched heads of pink flowers over an unusually long season. 1.2m.

Powdery mildew can be a major issue on autumn-flowering perennial asters. It shows as a white, dusty coating on the leaves. Foliage then turns brown and crisp and drops off.

In general, infection is limited to one group: _Symphyotrichum novi-belgii_ (New York asters). However, this group has more varieties than any other, so avoiding it can greatly reduce your choices.

There are still plenty of options from other groups, including _Aster amellus_ (Italian aster), _A._ _frikartii_ (hybrid), _Symphyotrichum ericoides_ (heath aster) and _S._ _novae-angliae_ (New England aster), offering a wide range of styles. In some seasons, especially when plants are challenged by hot, dry weather, resistance can partially break down.

**Situation:** All these plants grow poorly in shade. They do not always need full sun, but most do well in open positions that are not shaded from above.

**Planting:** These asters are best planted in spring.

**Drought:** In dry spells, plants often lose their lower leaves. In the recent drought, many lost foliage and ended up with branched flowerheads on bare stems. An occasional soaking makes a big difference.

**The Chelsea chop:** Taller asters are ideal for the Chelsea chop. In mid to late May, around the time of the Chelsea Flower Show, cut taller varieties back by half. This encourages shorter, bushier growth that should not need support. Flowering will be delayed, but that is often helpful.

**Deadheading:** Deadhead promptly after flowering to stop plants looking untidy, reduce self-sown seedlings and avoid weakening the plant.

In recent years, botanists decided the plants long known as asters are too varied to sit under one botanical name. A few remain as Aster, but many, including most covered here, have moved to Symphyotrichum. Others are now called Eurybia or Seriocarpus.

Nurseries are understandably cautious, but if you ask for an aster, you should still get the right plant, whatever name it is sold under.

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Hydrangeas were once dismissed as dull. In reality, they are some of the most dependable and versatile plants you can grow. As shrubs or climbers, and even bred for ground cover or baskets, they reward simple, regular care with long-lasting colour.

Flowerheads come in a wide range of shapes and shades, offering more choice than many gardeners realise. The key is choosing the right type for the right job. Here’s how to pick the perfect hydrangea for your garden.

A tough, resilient and naturally compact shrub, best known for the classic ‘Annabelle’. Its huge white summer flowerheads can be so heavy they weigh down the branches. Garden centres now offer more choice, including ‘Pink Annabelle’, with soft pink blooms opening from deeper pink buds.

**Pruning guide:** Light pruning encourages smaller, self-supporting flowerheads Cut stems down to 15cm for fewer but much larger blooms

A bold, shade-loving hydrangea for borders with neutral or acid soil. The large leaves are softly hairy and attractive from spring through summer. In July and August, domed buds open into large lacecap flowerheads. A ring of soft purplish or bluish florets surrounds a mass of tiny central flowers.

• ‘Hot Chocolate’ with purple-tinted foliage, reddish undersides and pink lacecap flowers

• ‘Gold Rush’ with golden leaves turning green in summer, then orange in autumn

On limey soil, grow in a large container for best results.

The traditional hydrangea, known for its rounded heads of colourful florets. These plants tolerate a wide range of conditions but give their best display in a sunny spot.

**Mopheads:** Large, rounded flowerheads packed with bold florets

**Lacecaps:** A ring of colourful florets surrounding a centre of tiny, less showy flowers

Hydrangea colourant from garden centres can encourage blue flowers on limey soil.

Easy to control in size through pruning. The harder they are pruned, the larger the flowerheads and the later they bloom, making it easier to fit them into your planting scheme. Cone-shaped flowerheads usually open white and mature to pink.

• ‘Limelight’ with lime green spikes ageing to pink

• ‘Pinky-Winky’ whose white flowers quickly turn pink, creating bicoloured spikes

The well-known climbing hydrangea. Its stems cling to brick, stone or wooden fences without causing damage, attaching in a similar way to ivy. Huge white lacecap flowers appear in early summer. Mature plants are also valued by nesting birds.

‘Mirranda’ is a variegated form with cream-yellow leaf edges.

The oak-leaved hydrangea is grown as much for its foliage as its flowers. Large, oak-shaped leaves create impact throughout the season. In late summer, conical white flowerheads appear. In autumn, foliage turns golden. Try ‘Little Honey’ which offers:

A naturally compact Japanese hydrangea, well suited to smaller spaces. The prettily toothed leaves add to its appeal. Lacecap flowers are:

Autumn foliage colour adds further interest.

‘Bluebird’ is an outstanding choice for small gardens on acid soil.

The correct name for climbing hydrangea has returned to _Hydrangea petiolaris_. Alongside it is a close relative that looks very similar: Schizophragma hydrangeoides. This self-clinging climber produces lacecap flowerheads up to 25cm across. The variety ‘Moonlight’ has silvery foliage that turns yellow in autumn. A superb choice for covering walls and fences.

Many varieties of Hydrangea paniculata make excellent specimen plants in both small and large gardens. Size is easily managed through pruning:

• Light pruning produces smaller, bushier plants

• Hard pruning encourages larger growth and bigger flowerheads

RHS Award of Garden Merit winners include:

• ‘Phantom’ with large white heads turning coral pink

• ‘Pink Diamond’ with very large white florets ageing to pink

• ‘Silver Dollar’ with very upright growth

• Choose varieties whose colours develop attractively from bud to maturity

• All hydrangeas are straightforward to prune

• Climbing types usually need little or no pruning until they fill their space

• H. paniculata varieties are excellent for cutting, so consider planting extra where a few stems can be taken

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Ornamental vegetables have been gaining attention since the late 1980s, when a planting scheme at Kew’s Palm House featured herbs and veg in a summer display. The effect was striking, especially from potatoes in full flower. Since then, gardeners have embraced the idea of growing veg for both looks and taste.

Here are some of the best options to bring colour and interest into beds, borders and containers.

Most broad beans produce white flowers with black markings, often hidden among the leaves. One stands out from the rest. ‘Crimson Flowered’ carries purplish red blooms with black marks, and the flowers are far more visible. It brings welcome colour to the veg patch while still producing a reliable crop.

Many beetroot varieties have dark green leaves, but a few offer rich foliage colour.

• ‘MacGregor’s Favourite’ has broad, glossy purple-red leaves

• ‘Bull’s Blood’ produces narrower foliage in a similar shade

Both work well alongside marigolds, where their dark leaves contrast beautifully with bright blooms.

Red cabbages spread their red or purplish leaves long before forming tight hearts. This early growth creates bold colour and structure, often with a soft blue haze over the foliage. Try:

Grow them through a low carpet of trailing pearly lilac petunias to make the foliage stand out.

Traditional Brussels sprout plants are dramatic but rarely described as beautiful. Two varieties change that.

• ‘Red Bull’, a modern introduction

Both develop rich purple foliage from early growth through to Christmas harvest, creating impressive, upright plants in the garden.

Carrots earn their place for their fine, feathery foliage. The soft texture contrasts well with broader leaves such as heucheras. All varieties offer similar ornamental value, so experiment with how you sow them. Instead of neat rows, sow in patches between perennials or annuals. This not only looks more natural but also helps confuse female carrot flies searching for plants on which to lay their eggs.

Chard is one of the most colourful leafy vegetables. Related to beetroot, it is grown for its bold leaves and vividly coloured midribs rather than swollen roots. Stems may be:

Seeds are available in single colours or as mixes such as ‘Bright Lights’, which produces a vibrant blend.

Many herbs would be grown for their foliage alone. Sage and rosemary offer year round structure, even without their culinary uses. For extra leaf interest, look for:

• Curly parsley such as ‘Curlina’ or ‘Envy’

• Curly parsley makes an excellent foil for low growing annuals and patio plants. It also responds well to regular snipping for the kitchen.

Ornamental lettuces can leave gaps when whole heads are harvested. Cut-and-come-again types solve the problem.

Simply snip or pick the outer leaves and allow the plant to regrow from the centre. Good choices include:

• ‘Red Salad Bowl’, an oak-leaved favourite

• ‘Lollo Rosso’, with finer foliage

Both add colour and texture without leaving empty spaces in beds and containers.

With runner beans, it's all about the flowers. While traditional varieties produce red blooms, there are other options:

• ‘Celebration’ with pale pink flowers

• ‘Painted Lady’ with red and white flowers

• ‘Hestia’, a dwarf red and white variety ideal for containers

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