Well, here we are in the ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ and what a season it is! John Keats in his ‘Ode to Autumn’ really did the season justice although I have to admit that it is only the opening line that I remember from my school poetry days long ago! Having just reread it I was delighted to see the many references to nature and to plants in particular- vines, apples, gourd, hazel, poppies and sallow (willow). Weatherwise, September was an interesting month of two halves to coin the football analogy and I wonder what October will bring. Hopefully some bright, dry days and some chilly nights to bring out the best in the autumn colours.
Looking back through past October blogs I see that in 2020 I was looking at all the wonderful autumn colours produced by trees, shrubs, climbers and perennials as well as highlighting a few jobs for the month such as making leaf mould and planting container grown plants and spring bulbs. The 2021 blog came from Aberglasney where, as you would expect, there was autumn colour in abundance. In 2022 the blog was linked to the Old Railway Line’s ‘Apple and Cider Festival’ with sections on trees in general, fruit trees in both ‘natural’ and ‘trained’ forms and Apples in particular including root stocks, pollination and pruning. In the 2023 blog I was looking at a garden design topic- creating structure in the garden using both ‘hard’ (non-living) and ‘soft’ (living) landscapes, illustrated with reference to the Aberglasney gardens and our own, more humble, plot. In 2024 I started off with five ‘October’ plants that I wouldn’t want to be without- the shrubs Caryopteris and Pittosporum ‘Tom Thumb’, herbaceous perennials Verbena officinalis ‘Bampton’ and Calamintha nepeta and a rather large group of plants- Ferns. This was followed by the second part of item on naming plants using the binomial system which looked beyond the genus and species names at ‘varieties’, ‘cultivars’ and ‘hybrids’. There were also sections on taking hardwood cuttings, planting bare root trees, shrubs and hedging and making leaf mould.
Euonymus alatus ‘Compactus’ // Abelia mosanensis
Hylotelephium (Sedum) spectabile // Cyclamen hederifolium
There is no doubt that Buddlejas have always brought a great deal of flower power to the summer and early autumn, however, with the many new cultivars now available they are even more colourful and compact as well as blooming for longer than ever. They are easy to grow, undemanding deciduous shrubs with long panicles of small, colourful flowers that can be upright or pendulous. The colour range is truly impressive, from yellows to blues and purples, maroons, cerise, striking pink as well as a mix of more pastel shades. The only colour missing is a true red. They are well known for the generosity of their nectar-rich and scented blooms (not to everyone’s taste I must admit!) and all offer a valuable food source for a wide number of different pollinators- hence the common name ‘Butterfly Bush’. In an article in the September 2025 issue of the RHS magazine ‘The Garden’, Andrew Large, who grows more than 100 different Buddlejas on his Birmingham allotment and runs a specialist website- buddlejagarden.co.uk., shared some of his favourites. The genus was named by Carl Linnaeus in honour of Adam Buddle, an English clergyman and botanist. In his ‘Species Plantarum’ (1753) Linnaeus spelt the genus, Buddleja, and this is now accepted as the botanically correct spelling simply because it was the first written in a formal publication. This quite large genus of woody shrubs originates from the Americas, Africa and Asia with S. W. China a particular hot spot. Many of our garden species come from there, including the very well-known Buddleja davidii. This is one of the hardiest species and has produced scores of excellent cultivars. Some species flower in the spring from old wood, some flower in the early summer but the ones discussed here flower on new wood in the late summer and early autumn and as such benefit from a hard prune in March or April after the worst frosts are over. A good guide to the timing of pruning is to wait until the plants have begun to grow noticeably before reaching for the secateurs and loppers. B. davidii in particular has a reputation for self-seeding but this can be avoided by regular deadheading. This not only prevents seed ripening and dispersal, it will also reward the gardener with a second set of flowers and perhaps even a third going into the autumn. Many of the newer cultivars are sterile but it is still worth deadheading them to keep them looking tidy.
Of Andrew’s fourteen favourites no less than seven are some form of B. davidii which emphasizes its importance. These are- ‘White Profusion’, ‘Buzz Velvet’ and ‘Buzz Magenta’, ‘Berries and Cream’, ‘Summerhouse Blue’, ‘Autumn Beauty’ and ‘Darent Valley’ (another white). The ‘Buzz’ series of new cultivars from Thompson and Morgan are particularly useful as they are much more compact than most other Buddlejas. Andrew’s other seven choices are B. weyeriana ‘Sungold’ and ‘Moonlight’(cream flowers with a lilac flush held in loose balls both much favoured by bumblebees), ‘Pink Pagoda’, ‘Morning Mist’ (small, silvery leaves and scented white flowers), B. lindleyana (tubular purple blooms borne in long, pendulous panicles), ‘Pride of Longstock’ (deep purple) and B. x pikei ‘Unique’ (a sterile, pink-purple form of B. alternifolia which flowers continuously from late spring into autumn).
Buddlejas are not fussy plants, suffer from few pests and diseases and will do well in most gardens provided that soils are not waterlogged in the winter. A spring mulch and a sprinkle of, preferably high potash, fertiliser will produce a fine display of flowers later in the year. Andrew uses the larger species and cultivars at the back of mixed borders or shrubberies and gives them plenty of space as they don’t welcome competition for light and water. Smaller forms such as the ‘Buzz Series’ can be planted towards the front of borders or even grown in containers on a patio or balcony. Andrew thinks that with such a wide range of colours and forms, there is a Buddleja to suit any garden of any size and by choosing a range of plants gardeners can have a Buddleja in flower right through summer and autumn until the first frosts. All are valuable for wildlife but the late-flowering types are particularly important for nectar-feeding wildlife looking to build up their reserves for the winter. However, they are not just great for pollinators, their flower display is both spectacular and long-lasting to be able to please us humans too!
Buddleja davidii
A second article, this one about garden design, caught my eye in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday, September 6th by the celebrated designer Jo Thompson. In it, Chelsea Gold winner Thompson shared some ideas about making the most of a small garden, something which is of relevance to many of us. She recommends starting by looking at the hard landscaping materials already in use around the garden such as brick, stone, gravel and wood and then using some of them within the garden itself in order to link the garden with its surroundings but also to limit the choice of these materials to a maximum of three otherwise it can all look too busy. She is also not a fan of painting fences which once painted need painting again in the future! She prefers to allow fencing and trellis to age naturally as a background to the planting rather than drawing attention to them by adding paint which tends to draw the eye to the boundaries and make the garden feel smaller. As we have said many times, Jo advocates planting in numbers- fewer varieties but more of each plant in groups of three or five and repeated within the garden. She also firmly believes that bulbs are great for small gardens, especially dwarf forms which can be planted in pots and used on patios and tables near the house. These can easily be moved and changed when over or planted out in the garden after flowering. Fourthly, Jo is a great believer in planting roses even in small gardens. Their sheer beauty, scent and flower power, plus their ability to cope with hot weather once they have an established root system makes them a sure-fire winner. She recommends ‘Blush Noisette’ as a small climber that doesn’t get higher than 8-9 feet (2-3m) and the repeat flowering, scented, English roses such as David Austin’s ‘Olivia Rose Austin’, ‘Emily Bronte’ and ‘Kew Gardens’, all of which will grow happily in small spaces or in pots and bloom all summer. One mistake which gardeners often make in smaller gardens is to have garden furniture which is too large for the space. Built-in barbecues and permanent sofas are not necessary in small spaces and instead a moveable barbecue and folding tables and chairs which can be stored in a small shed or garage when not in use are much more suitable. Jo is also particularly keen that in small spaces we should look up, in other words use all three dimensions which are available to us. Planting up walls and fences and even adding obelisks or a pergola if there is room are ways to draw the eye upwards, creating an illusion of more space without taking up too much ground space. Another way of appearing to create more space is by avoiding the use of brightly coloured pots which can grab the attention and make the space seem smaller. It is also important not to go overboard with storage by thinking carefully about exactly what storage is needed, making it as small as possible and tucking it away in the least attractive corners to avoid making the storage features focal points. Also, in a small garden don’t assume that a lawn is essential especially since having a lawn also means having a lawn mower! In a shady garden, of course, it is very difficult to grow a lawn of any quality but don’t be tempted to get around this by having an artificial one. Not only are they useless for wildlife, they are unhygienic with cats, dogs and possibly even foxes peeing on them and in really hot weather artificial turf can actually burn skin! A much better low maintenance surface is gravel of some kind which is permeable, is ideal for sitting pots on or for seating areas and, if you want to walk through the garden bare-footed can have paving slabs/stones set into it as stepping stones. Jo is also very wary about the use of mirrors in small gardens which can often just end up looking like they have been put in to make the garden look larger. For example, an arch with a central mirror often simply draws the eye to it and gives the impression of an even smaller space. She advises that if mirrors are to be used, they are best placed behind the planting to give flashes of light and the feeling of more space in the background. The sight and sound of water in the garden is very attractive but in a small garden needs to be kept as simple as possible such as an easily maintained, simple but attractive trough with some form of a spout. Symmetry in a garden can be a great idea but in a smaller space it is best avoided particularly if the space is already rectangular or square. Such a shape with narrow symmetrical borders all the way round is not a good idea. Such narrow borders are fine for climbing plants but in some parts, both in sun and shade, borders need to be much wider in order to accommodate groups of plants suited to the conditions. Finally, in a small garden it is not possible to have different beds or borders for different seasons, especially for the most difficult winter season. The way around this is to have to have a few evergreen plants to give some structure and interest in the winter such as Ilex crenata (Japanese Holly) or Euonymus, plus some early flowering spring bulbs such as Crocus or Snowdrops both in the garden and in pots on the patio or tables near the house.
If you are gardening in a limited space then I hope that some of Jo’s ideas will help you to get the best out of what space you have. Just remember that seemingly small changes can make a big difference to the look and feel of a garden and as we come towards the end of this year’s growing season this is a great time to think about the overall design of any garden.
That’s all for this month but I will return in November with another blog and, although there is no talk at the Old Railway Line in October, I will be in the Tearoom around 10-30am on Saturday the 4th if any of you would like to join me for a catch up and chat about anything concerning gardening!
Keith.