What a beautiful day, not a bit like late October. Wall to wall sunshine. We ate our lunch in the polytunnel and got too hot!

Most plants have finished flowering now but Aster ‘Monte Cassino’ is looking fantastic in the garden. The bees love it, so do flower-arrangers because as a cut flower it lasts for about two weeks in water. If you grow it it is best in reasonably well drained soil but the best way of over-wintering it is to leave the old stems on until the spring. It will look scruffy but it it is worth it to have such a good flowering plant at this time of year.

One other plant which I wouldn’t be without is Savia uliginosa. This tall and elegant plant (which doesn’t need staking) starts to show its beautiful sky blue flowers in September and will keep flowering into November. This also benefits from not being cut down til April and although the books say its not hardy I’ve successfully kept it from year to year without any problems.