Five fabulous plants to have in your garden

Early autumn has brought us a good amount of rain already, followed by a sunny spell with dropping night-time temperatures.

The first frost crept in overnight on the castle grounds in Blarney, while the days were blessed with crisp air, blue skies, and golden rays of sunshine.

Autumn colours are starting to glow golden, orange and red in the garden and cold winds mark the changing weather.

It’s the right time of the year to admire early-autumn flowering perennials and tall, wavy grasses. Fortunately, I could combine a recent trip to Germany with a visit of the Hermannshof show-and trial gardens.

Situated in the south-west of the country, two hours from the French border, the climate there is rather mild and sunny in the summer, although frosts in the wintertime are heavier and longer than they would be here in Ireland.

The gardens are at the edge of a low mountain range, overlooking the plane towards the River Rhine, and vineyards decorate the hills all around.

On entering, we found densely planted borders, woodland, a lawn area with a pond and a wisteria walk.

Bought in 1888 by Hermann Ernst-Freudenberg, the gardens are now owned by the Freudenberg-Company, with a strong focus on maintaining high-standard perennial plantings as well as developing new plant combinations.

The original Freudenberg family collected some rare and exotic trees over the years, which can be admired in the present garden. There’s Magnolia denudata from 1890 in front of the conference house and Magnolia x soulangeana ‘Alba Superba’ from 1888 in the centre of the lawn.

Nearly all the plantings in this garden are very much in the style of the new perennial movement, often associated with horticulturist and plantsman Piet Udolf. The focus lies on naturalistic designs, incorporating plants with their full life cycle. That means dried seedheads and dead flower stalks are left on the plant, giving much appreciated structure for the borders in winter, as well as providing food and ‘housing’ for a variety of animals.

Remind yourself how great the seedheads will look on a frosty winter morning and it will be easier to leave them be this time of year.

Grasses are frequently used, and the plants must be hardy and durable in general.

Maintenance for this type of garden includes weeding out the plants that get too strong and disturb the balance of the planting scheme.

It is the opposite of an accurately planted flowerbed, with seasonal, tender plants, changed in spring, summer and autumn, and usually only grown for their flower.

That said, a perennial-planting can be nothing short of spectacular and unlike the bedding plants, works all year round.

Including annuals and borderline hardy plants into your perennial design will give it that extra bit of colour at the height of summer. I found amaranth in red varieties, Dahlias and all sorts of ornamental salvias to be especially well placed in the Hermannshof-gardens.

Here are my top five takeaways for your own garden at home:

Cynara cardunculus, the globe artichoke, makes a stunning addition to every naturalistic border. Big, silver foliage starts the show in springtime, followed by thistle-like purple flowerheads in the summer, much beloved by bees.

If left on the plant, 2.4 metre high flowerstalks provide food for finches in winter and structure for the winter garden. It needs full sun to thrive and, being a perennial, takes a few years to reach full potential.

Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’ is another great plant, producing masses of yellow, daisy-like flowers in late summer and throughout autumn. Also called ‘black eyed Susan’, it works particularly well in large waves and provides that warm, golden tone we admire in September.

Rudbeckia will perform best in full sun but is able to light up a partially shaded corner as well. Even better, there’s a more compact and smaller variety, ‘Little Goldstar’, that has the same features but works with limited space available. Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’ reaches up to a mete, ‘Little Goldstar’ caps at 50cm. Dead flowerheads can be left on the plant and admired in winter on frosty, bright mornings.

A grass that works in both sun and part shade is Calamagrostis brachytricha, or korean feather reed grass. It forms clumps of green, linear leaves, topped by feathery-grey flowers in late summer that sway in the wind and look just superb with morning dew and sunshine on them. The foliage turns yellow in autumn and the whole plant persists into the winter. It works well with Rudbeckias or Symphyotrichums (formerly Asters) and can grow up to 1,20m.

If you’re looking for a perennial well suited to shade, try Bistorta amplexicaulis. It prefers a moist ground and should be kept in check, as it can be a bit spreading if the conditions are right. Oval green leaves up to 25cm are the background for long stalks of pink and white flowers, born in late summer, which can grow up to 1.2 metres. Planted in a wave, it will make a big impression. But even for a smaller corner it will provide interest in shady spots.

Salvias add a profusion of colour for every planting, so try Salvia ‘Amistad’. Dark purple flowers bloom all summer long up until the first frosts, and while it is borderline hardy, you can easily take cuttings and make sure you save this stunning summer-flowering plant for the next growing season. In any case, it is worth the effort, with its unusual colour and masses of flowers that are loved by bees. It grows up to 1.2 metres and prefers full sun.