A new plant selection for autumn

At last, a new season has arrived. Autumn offers a new selection of flowers that thrive in the mild days and cooler nights.

It also allows soft-hearted gardeners to put struggling summer annuals out of their misery and consign them to the compost heap.

March and April are great months for gardening. The heat has lost its edge, the soil retains water for longer, and plants are less stressed.

What to do in March

Don’t feel as if you have to ring the changes all at once. Start with rejuvenating containers and hanging baskets. Then, as you clear away summer flowers, sow spring annuals, like Namaqualand daisies, or plant cool season annuals that provide a show before pansies and violas make their presence felt.

After Easter, at the end of March, it is time to plant spring bulbs and finally, fill in with pansies, violas, poppies and primulas by the end of April.

Thrillers, fillers and spillers is the term that’s been coined for mixes in containers or hanging baskets.

The thriller is the central feature plant, like a pelargonium or fuchsia. The filler provides the bulk and is usually compact and full of flowers, like alyssum, diascia or lobelia.

Spillers are planted around the edge and are trailing or cascading plants.

Zonal Geranium “Turkana” (dark leaves) or “Kariba” (green leaves) produce large flowers, in a range of vivid colours, including striking bicolours.

Geranium Turkana is compact for containers.

The compact plant makes a statement without overgrowing the container. It does best in a position with morning sun and afternoon shade. Feed once a month and remove dead flowers.

Boost flowering

Diascia “Diamond” is a hybrid of our indigenous diascia, with extra-large flowers in seven different colours.

It is vigorous, upright growing, and produces an abundance of dainty blooms from autumn to spring. Besides being a filler, or even a thriller, for a container/ hanging basket, it works well as a groundcover or border plant, for sunny winter beds. Fertilise once a month, to boost flowering.

Suitable spiller

Another filler is Alyssum “Stream”, a new variety that is particularly suitable for hanging baskets and containers.

Plants are low-growing and covered with lightly fragrant flowers in shades of lavender, white, raspberry or purple.

The slightly spreading growth (35cm wide) makes them equally suitable as a groundcover. “Stream” is heat and cold tolerant, giving it a long flowering season. Water regularly, but make sure the soil drains well and trim if necessary, to keep the plant in shape. Fertilise once a month.

Diascia diamond has extra large flowers.

Spectacular spiller

Bacopa (Sutera cordata) “MegaCopa” is a trailing plant that spills over the edge of a container, with flowers from top to bottom. Its name comes from its noticeably larger flowers compared to other bacopas.

As they grow, the stems mound and trail down, mixing well with other plants in the container. It is not necessary to dead head, as spent flowers drop cleanly off the plant.

The best position

Plants should not dry out completely, as flowers and buds will drop from the plant. Growing bacopa in a container makes it easier to provide the consistent moisture they need.

The best position is morning sun and afternoon shade.

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