Many of our early summer blooms have faded and can leave the garden looking untidy and browny-tinged spoiling all that lush green! It’s amazing how a bit of dead-heading and cutting down spent perennials can make everything look so much better but there are few plants we could hold back on that benefit our garden wildlife.
White tailed bumblebee on Cornflowers: Jenny Tweedie (rspb-images.com)
Sunflowers may look tatty but their seeds are one of the most valuable food sources for birds and small mammals foraging on the ground. Once the seeds have formed, they could be cut and placed somewhere less prominent or harvest the seeds yourself to put out with your other bird food.
Leave some spent blooms on roses as birds such as blackbirds, thrushes redwings and fieldfares will dine on the rosehips.
Cornflowers, Fennel, Rudbeckias, Jerusalem Sage, and Teasels also produce seed that birds love and Sedums leave a bold, structured shape through the winter and will be an autumn / winter shelter for tiny insects, which the birds will eat.
So while leaving some beneficial seed heads standing, it's good to keep deadheading Buddleia's which can otherwise seed prolifically in the garden and surrounding area. Keep on dead-heading the annual favourite Cosmos which can keep on blooming through to October! plus Geraniums, Holyhocks, Lavenders and Salvias to encourage new flowers to form rather than letting old blooms turn to seed.
There are lots of other flowering plants to benefit pollinators and keep the colour glowing throughout August and September.
Gardeners world feature their top ten plants for late summer nectar and Gardens Illustrated also offer their favourites for late summer colour. Many of these recommendations are big impact plants with good height such as Achilleas, Heleniums, Japanese Anemones, Phlox and the classic etherial Verbena Bonariensis, but for some of the lower later flowering plants for the front of the border, Asters, Echinaceas, and Sedums are good choices. Many of these will still be available as established plants from garden centres.
Bold and striking single flowered dahlias also allow pollinators to feed on their accessible nectar later in the season and are available in many colours. Choose these over the multiple petal and pom pom dahlias that have enclosed centres that insects can't access.
See more suggestions for late summer and Autumn plants for pollinators from Gardeners World (on TV tonight Friday 6th August 8pm BBC 2, featuring dahlias) plus late flowering perennials ideas from the RHS.
Even though some early plants have faded, our garden wildlife and flowers are still thriving and there's more to come!
For more inspiration on wildlife gardening, the Flatford Wildlife Garden, is open every day until October from 10.30am – 4.30pm. Entrance to the garden is free and well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome. Car parking is £5 at the Flatford National Trust car park and this gives you access to the stunning countryside walks around Dedham Vale in Constable Country.