Stars of August

August is a month of music festivals and bank holidays; a month of high hopes for long and balmy summer evenings sitting out on the patio with long drinks. It's a month when you want the garden to look at its best - it's on show! - but it can be difficult month in terms of generating summer interest.

After all, by this month all the spring-flowering perennials will be looking a little tired. Digitalis purpurea (Foxgloves) and Lupinus perennis (Lupins) will have flowered and be reduced to a spike of seed-setting greenery. Hanging baskets need constant attention to avoid them turning into plantless bird nests. And the spring flowers of shrubs like Choisya ternata (Mexican orange blossom) and trees such as Magnolia grandiflora are forgotten in a mass of verdant summer growth.

However, beds of droopy spring-flowerers and monochromatic shrubs can be avoided by careful selection of eye-catchers that give continued interest right into midsummer. Here are six of my particular favourites.

Cynara cardunculus (Cardoon)

The Cardoon is neither humble nor modest. From huge pale green leaves emerge fibrous stems which in August support bizarre, almost sci-fi, flowering heads. What's more, a relative of the Globe Artichoke, the Cardoon is technically a perennial vegetable: if blanched, the stems can be eaten; they are savoured in the form of a Christmas soup in Italy.

(c) Howard Bristol

Lathyrus odoratus 'Anne Gregg' (Sweet Pea)

Sweet Peas may now have been bred to come in all tones and colours, but what the new cultivars have in showiness they often lack in scent. Nothing can really compare with the delicious heady fragrance of traditional Sweet Peas such as 'Anne Gregg' - it's an aroma you just want to bottle, and it explains how the flower came by its name.

(c) Howard Bristol

Echinops sphaerocephalus (Globe Thistle)

Similar to the Cardoon, the Globe Thistle is a fantastic statement plant that really comes into its own in August. Atop its 1.5-2 m stems are purple globe-shaped flower heads. Bees seem to absolutely love them, and the thistles have an ethereal halo when you look at them against the light. And once the stems have dried out in winter, I like to remove the leaves and use them as rustic-looking canes to create a cottage garden feel.

(c) Howard Bristol

Agastache foeniculum (Anise Hyssop)

While the leaves of Anise Hyssop can be used as a herb for their delicate aniseed-fennel flavour, it's in August that this perennial herb truly shines: with Lavander-like flowers atop 50-cm stems, Anise Hyssop becomes a magnet for bees and other pollinators - as well as a point of interest in your summer border or herb garden. 

(c) Howard Bristol

Papaver somniferum (Poppy)

The petals of the Field Poppy may be short-lived, but the bulbous seed head (or 'censer') gives the plant enduring beauty after it has flowered. A raggy-petalled mutant grows pretty rampantly in my garden. I like the interest it adds when spotted among other herbs, and it never becomes too much of a problem as it can't stand having its roots disturbed. 

(c) Howard Bristol

Crocosmia paniculata (Montbretia)

For most of the year, Montbretia forms long, bandy leaves that look how grass may look to an ant. But August is the month for Montbretia - it expresses itself with orange or red trumpets held on spikes. It's a great ground cover plant, and both the leaves and flowers give a plentiful supply of midsummer colour and body for cut flowers, too.

(c) Howard Bristol