August was traditionally a dull month in the garden caught between the early summer spectacle and the Autumn glory.  Delphiniums, Campanulas, Lupins and the traditional herbaceous plants have run out of steam, the Michaelmas daisies and sunflowers are still budding up. This is when the half hardy plants and bedding come into their own.

Despite the wish to simplify our gardens and only grow hardy plants the fact is that  the more tender plants often have a much longer flowering period because they don’t realise winter is coming so have less urge to run to seed and produce next year’s babies or to put storage into their roots to survive the winter.

Cosmos sinuata is a wonderful bedding plant, tall and elegant with soft ferny foliage and clean pink  or white flowers for a really long time. Mine often start flowering in late June and some are still flowering in October when I have to pull them out in order to put in wallflowers for next year.