At the end of September, I visited Houghton Hall in Norfolk for the first time.
There is an expansive deer park, a dramatic country house, a toy soldier collection (mmm, not doing it for me yet)...and a big walled garden (NOW you're talking).
Although the garden was looking a bit tired by the time I visited (as many do by the autumn), there was one area which really caught my eye, visually and from a wildlife perspective. In a kind of raised-bed parterre, they had planted these:
It is just a simple mixture of Chocolate Cosmos (Cosmos atrosanguineus), Heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens) and scented-leaf pelargoniums. In fact my photo doesn't do it justice - there must have been 10 beds of these.
If you haven't smelt Choccie Cosmos, it does indeed have a surprisingly convincing Cadbury's-type waft. And I can't resist a quick rub of the pelargoniums.
And I thought, together, it was quite an inspired combination, still looking really fresh even by this stage of the season and with plenty of blooms.
And to boot, it is a trio with really good bee-appeal. Honeybees in particular use the Cosmos and the Heliotrope, while Common Carder Bumblebees enjoy the pelargoniums, such a far cry from the uselessness of the typical hanging basket/window box pelargoniums.
I just wanted to copy it immediately. If only I had a bigger garden...
I’m giving Chocolate cosmos one last go, this time it is in a raised bed in the driest part of the garden. It is a plant which hates having its feet wet in winter so tends to rot in my soil. I also have some Heliotrope seeds and I’ve taken some pelargonium cuttings so I’ll try this combination next year (be it on a much smaller scale). I’ll tuck a few cosmos at the back, I find these are great at this time of the year, and the seeds are Goldfinch magnets too.