GINA PARKINSON sings the praises of a favourite plant that comes into its own as the garden falls towards autumn.

AT ITS best in September, one of my favourite plants brightens the spirits as the rest of the garden is beginning to collapse into autumn.

Hydrangea aspera villosa group is a large plant with long woody stems that can grow ten feet or more in height and width. It will take some time to get to its mature size and when young the stems are easily damaged, so is best grown near other shrubs that can provide a little support.

Once the branches thicken up and become woody, they can go their own way, holding themselves above other plants in the bed.

Hydrangea villosa has long mid-green down soft leaves carried along the length of the stems at the tip of which is the flower.

The bloom begins to emerge in early summer, just a few small brownish buds that are forgotten about for weeks in July and August when other things in garden are more interesting.

Then, seemingly suddenly, there are the beautiful flowers, large sterile florets around the edge of a central fluffy mass of tiny fertile flowers. Colour will vary a little from plant to plant, but is usually shades of lilac and lavender that shines out in the light shade this plant prefers. Underplanted with variegated hosts and ivy, this is a lovely sight.

Like most other members of this plant family, Hydrangea aspera villosa group needs moist, well-drained soil. Unlike some of the others, it dislikes sun and will droop rapidly in an exposed site, making it perfect for a lightly shady site.

Young plants can be pruned hard back for two or three years to encourage plenty of side shoots, after which the shrub can be left to grow how it wants.

This hydrangea can also be grown as a wall or fence shrub by tying the stems loosely to a framework of wires or trellis from which it will protrude a metre or so from the support.

Weekend catch-up UNDER the flopped flower stems and old leaves of many of the hardy geraniums will be a crop of new leaves.

There is still time to cut back the old stuff and expose this fresh growth that will fill the empty space for the next few weeks. There might even be a few more flowers to come. As it is late to be cutting these back, care needs to be taken and it will be best to snip individual stems rather than using the shears to trim everything at once.

This latter method can be used in July when the new leaves are hardly above ground but now they will be getting tall and easily snipped in error.

Gardening talk ASKHAM Bryan College (ABC) Gardening Club will present an illustrated talk by Dr John Grimshaw, director of the Yorkshire Arboretum Trust.

The talk is entitled ‘The Yorkshire Arboretum: Inspiration, Education, Conservation’ and looks at the 120-acre garden of trees from around the world that is set in the landscape of the Castle Howard Estate. John is a gardener and botanist and has a degree in botany and doctorate in African forest ecology.

The talk will be held in the Conference Hall at Askham Bryan College, YO23 3FR and will begin at 7.30pm on Tuesday September 10. Entrance is free to ABC Gardening Club members and £5 on the door non-members.


In the veg garden

THE leeks I planted in June are almost ready to pull up, but I have a second crop to put in this week. It’s getting towards the end of the time for planting leek seedlings, but a September planting should provide us with some welcome fresh winter veg.

The weather is set to be fair for a while longer so they will have a decent amount of time to get settled into the warm soil.


Open gardens

Tomorrow

In aid of the National Gardens Scheme Boundary Cottage, Seaton Ross, YO42 4NF, five miles south west of Pocklington. No-dig garden with more than 1,500 plant varieties providing year-round colour made by Roger Brook, creator of Bolton Percy churchyard garden. The one-acre garden has large island beds, sweeping views and holds the national collection of dicentra. An artist will be working in the garden and there are friendly rheas in the field next door. Open 11am-4.30pm, admission £4.

Stillingfleet Lodge, Stewart Lane, Stillingfleet YO19 6HP, on the B1222 six miles south of York. Large garden subdivided into smaller areas which include colour-themed beds with an emphasis on foliage, a wild flower meadow and natural pond, 55-yard double herbaceous borders and a modern rill garden. Rare breed poultry wander freely around the garden and the adjacent nursery will also be open. Open 1pm-5pm, admission £4.50 adult, 50p child.


Gardening TV and radio

Tomorrow

8am, BBC Radio Humberside, The Great Outdoors. With Blair Jacobs and Doug Stewart.

8.30am, BBC2, Around the World in 80 Gardens. Monty Don explores Mediterranean gardens.

9am, BBC Radio York, Julia Lewis. News and features from Yorkshire gardens.

9am, BBC Radio Leeds, Tim Crowther and Joe Maiden.

9.30am, BBC2, The Beechgrove Garden. Jim McColl shows how to prune hedges.

2pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Chris Beardshaw, Pippa Greenwood, Anne Swithinbank, Rosie Yeomans and chairman Eric Robson answer questions from the audience at Sparsholt College in Hampshire.

Friday

3pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Chairman Eric Robson is joined by panellists Toby Buckland, Pippa Greenwood, Bunny Guinness and Matthew Wilson at the GQT Summer Party 2013.

8.30pm, BBC2, Gardeners’ World. Carol Klein looks at growing brambles in the garden and a champion vegetable grower prepares for the biggest show of the season.