The autumn planting selection is almost more exciting than spring. Seeds, bulbs and bedding plants promise colour through the drab winter and the change of season in the food garden brings a whole new harvest to the table. Let's face it we all love spring but with the exciting plant selection for autumn ... What's not to love about it?
New and definitely worth planting is the new introduction of the dwarf Cordyline selection. Cordyline Electric Flash has a caramel and creamy yellow variegated leaf. A great contrast to the pink and plum varieties or just to add texture to a garden bed. The leaves are longer and wispier adding movement to the landscape and growing to around a meter they also are ideal in narrow gardens and also make perfect container specimens.
Indigenous Treasure
Our indigenous flora puts on a show for autumn and early winter making sure the birds and the bees have some sustenance for winter. They have stood up remarkably well to the recent heavy rain which just shows how nature still looks after its own.
Blue Plumbago, Yellow Cape Honeysuckle, Orange Bauhinia and the beautiful Strelitzia's are just a few. One of the best known of our indigenous plants in the world is Strelitzia Regina. Also known as a Crane Flower or Bird of Paradise because of the long stems and finger shaped flowers.
It is an evergreen, clump-forming shrub with long stalked, tough, leathery, blue-green leaves. The striking flowers start in autumn and continue through the winter on established plants. The rest of the year it is a glorious and very tropical looking foliage plant. They are water wise, semi-hardy and grow best in full sun to slight shade. The yellow and blue flowering variety - Mandela's Gold is quite spectacular.
Get an early start!
Many of the summer bedding plants have finished off early this year. The cooler temperatures expected also means it's the perfect weather to plant your winter and spring colour. Primulas, Poppies and Pansies always steal the show. Planted now the plants will grow bigger than normal and you will get more flowers than usual - a hidden benefit from all that rain.
When preparing the soil, dig in as much compost as possible to loosen the beds compacted by the rain. Add 2:3:4 planting fertiliser to replace washed away nutrients and to help boost strong root growth of the young seedlings. Once planted feed them regularly with Multifeed Classic to get the plants growing at their best.
Sweetpeas
Very few people don't like the sweet scent of Sweet peas. As they flower and fill the garden with their perfume they attract not only the planter to the garden but also birds, bees and butterflies along with many other beneficial insects.
Sweet peas produce masses of highly scented flowers With their unique, eye-catching colour patterns, Kirchhoff's Sweet Peas are perfect for any garden.
Sweet peas have tendrils and will attach themselves to most any type of support such as a bamboo tepee or obelisk. Feed them every two weeks and with regular deadheading or cutting for display it will keep them blooming longer.
To grow the best Sweetpeas is easy; find our handy guide here.
Autumn feeding
Autumn is one of the most important times of the year to feed your garden and container plants. This restores the balance of nutrients which are leached away after all the summer rain and supports growth on all the winter growing plants.
Remember that most plants even though they are not pushing out new leaves in winter still have the roots growing. Stronger roots through winter gives you an earlier flush in spring and generally healthier plants. With so many products on the market we have simplified it for you with our Eckards fertiliser quick guide, find it here.