Garden Plants - Autumn gardening - Flowers for arrangements

Autumn offers a paradox - it's the time of year when we have Harvest Festivals and many County show, and yet it's the most difficult time of year to get a decent display of cut flowers from the garden. Here are a few suggestions for flowers that will make a stunning display in the vase, but not require hours of care in the garden.

A real favourite of mine is the white Gladiolus callianthus. Don't fear the horror of the Gladioli, this plant is more like a wonderful white crocosmia and the flowers appear in September on tall stalks. They are sparkling white, hooded, slightly tubular and drooping blooms, each with a startling maroon throat, on a spike that is around two and a half feet tall. If you can't buy it under the botanical name, try the old name of acidanthera.

Helenium autumnale is a cheerful red to deep yellow, rather shaggy, daisy like flower with a pronounced deep coffee brown centre which is great in vases but equally good ranged with ornamental grasses at the back of the border where it can reach four feet tall, although three is more common.

Brachyelytrum japonicum - is a stunning flowering grass from Japan which forms clumps -around two feet tall, of strong rather than drooping stems that bear neatly pointed herringbone seed heads arranged like a bottle brush. One of the major qualities of this plant is the way it offers great autumn colour ranging from pale green through to a good strong biscuit shade. It will stay in the garden through the winter as a structural plant or can be cut for vases. To offer its best, you need to plant it in shade or part sun with adequate moisture.

Viburnum bodnantense - one of the many Virburnams, but this is probably the earliest to flower, offering blossom from late autumn until spring. The flowers hang together in clusters, giving the impression of blossom. Dawn has darkish pink flowers and a strong scent while Debden has slightly larger white flowers but no scent to speak of.

Autumn flower arrangement photograph by tanakwho, used under a creative commons attribution licence