Late summer container

As summer begins to think about fall, your containers may be a little tired now. After weeks, even months of nonstop blooming, some plants will be on their last legs

They’re all for your flower festival. It’s always sad when the displays are over and the containers are left sitting empty in the garden. But there’s absolutely no need. Give them a little more flower power and keep the floral extravaganza going for months to come. If only one or two plants in each pot have given up the ghost, cut their root balls off with a trowel to limit damage to the remaining plants as much as possible.

Add some fresh compost and a controlled-release fertilizer like Miracle Row All-Purpose Continuous Plant Food, and you’ll have a planting hole ready to fill with new, eye-catching specimens. If your plants are too bad for the wear and tear and there’s no way they’ll make it. After the next couple of months, dig them all up and get a compost pile and replant.

At this time of year, garden centres and nurseries will have lots of great plants to choose from. You may have some suitable plants already growing elsewhere in the garden, which you can lift and transplant into containers if you are careful. Some plants, such as lamium, ajuga, vinca and ivy, will take root as they grow, and you can dig up these new plants. Water the soil well the day before you lift them.

1. Golden sun

Bring sunshine into late summer by using strong, warm colours such as yellow, orange and red. Rudbeckias are one of the stars of summer and autumn. Starting to flower in July, they will continue to shine happily wherever they are planted until October. Annual varieties are best suited to small containers, as they are short and very compact, growing to around 60cm tall. In very small pots, go for the dwarfs 'Becky', 'Sonora' and 'Toto', which only reach 20-30cm. For a permanent display, keep the perennials alive by refreshing them Or refresh the pots to continue the colour for an extended display Cultures such as 'Goldsturm' and the double yellow 'Goldsquelle', are excellent choices, growing

2. The dark side of the sun

The pale flowers will be inconspicuous on their own if they are not placed against a dark background. But you can really complement them and set them off with dark foliage. Dwarf dahlias are brilliant and perfect for summer and autumn colour, blooming from the first to the hardest frost. The Happy Single series is excellent and has beautiful dark foliage, is much sought after and is now very popular. 'Happy Single Party' produces Canary yellow flowers. Also look out for coreopsis and yellow-flowered crocosmia. For a 60-75cm tall centrepiece, try 'Herbstsonne', towers to 1.8m tall, but needs a deep pot to support this growth.

The soft, flowing foliage of the grass Hakonechlova macra 'Aureola', rudbeckias or brightly flowering coreopsis soften the plantings and this feature sways beautifully in the breeze. To soften harsh edges, use small trailing plants such as violas. Plants with strong purple- or dark-leaved leaves, such as Ipomoea batatas 'Sweetheart', are great edging plants that will help to highlight the purple' or Oxalis tricolor, light yellow and peach, and create a striking look. Dark-leaved dahlias.

If you want the plant to shine extra brightly, brighten things up with gold and yellow-leafed plants, such as Vinca minor 'Illumination'. Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea'.

3. Indoor-outdoor pot

Many houseplants don't like to spend the summer indoors too hot and stuffy. So, give them a holiday and move them outside to a warm, sheltered position. Remember to bring them back indoors before the temperatures drop in the fall! Aloe vera is a beautiful green succulent with attractive green-yellow summer flowers. It's also easy to stay outside if you've been bitten, stung, burned by a barb, or exposed to too much sun!

Tradescantia pallida 'Purpurea' has beautiful dark, trailing foliage. It adds extra interest with its perfect foil and its bright pink flowers. It looks great against the deep red leaves of the coleus and helps set off the color of the peachy begonia flowers. To maintain aloe succulent theme, place containers with all your other succulent houseplants, as well as money plants (Crassula ovata) and let them enjoy their summer vacation outside. Most houseplants It does not appreciate the situation and receives hot, burning sunlight.

4. Sparkling Orange

The star of this container is the large-leaved heuchera. There are now varieties of this versatile perennial with a range of leaf colors. Great Choices for summer oranges include 'Caramel', whose leaves are revealed in light red and apricot, turning golden caramel as they mature, with pale pink summer flowers. Also, consider the smaller 'Blondie' with dark red stems and leaves, and copper and pale yellow flowers from late spring to early fall. 'Peach Flambe' is another beauty, with leaves revealed in orange in spring, turning peach in summer, then purple in winter, and cream flowers in spring and summer. Soften and shape the rounded leaves of heuchera and sedum.

More upright foliage. Grasses and coppers are perfect for this, and Uncinia rubra, the red hook sedge, has a colorful foliage with shiny red-brown leaves and black flower spikes in summer. Or use the deciduous grass Japanese blood grass, Imperata cylindrica ‘Rubra’, which produces clusters of upright, linear green leaves topped with dark red and narrow silver flowers in late summer. A deep wooden container is a perfect choice for permanent plantings