Monty revisits one of his classic books, Gardening at Longmeadow, in an occasional series.
As summer moves into its second half I rely on the half-hardy and tender annuals to provide colour and form. The most dramatic of all late- season annuals – and one of my favourites – is the sunflower.
The knee-jerk response to sunflowers is the child’s drawing of huge plants topped with flowers as big as dinner plates radiating petals like the sun. These are fun to grow, especially for children, and I love them.
‘Russian Giant’ is an old favourite, guaranteed to grow exceptionally tall, but stake it early and well otherwise it will inevitably crash to the ground. Often this will not damage the plants, but they very quickly turn to find the sun and start growing with a crick in their neck so that when you right them again they are permanently bent.
Monty Don shared his advice for growing sunflowers, as he reveals the best varieties for adding a luxurious richness to borders. Pictured: A glorious display of sunflowers
When it comes to selecting the colours of sunflowers I find that the velvety rusts, plum, burnt orange and browns that you find in varieties like Helianthus annuus ‘Prado Red’ and ‘Velvet Queen’ add a luxurious richness to a border that exceeds any other plant in late summer.
‘Velvet Queen’ remains my favourite, but then she was the first that I ever grew. Each flower is not huge but the size of a good saucer and comes in colours ranging from deep crimson through a burnt orange to brown with golden points of pollen dotted about the centre.
‘Claret’ and ‘Prado Red’ are both remarkably similar, with a plum undertone to their light-sapping colour. In the shade they are darker and can seem to be almost brown.
The ‘Prado’ series has masses of flowers and is practically pollen-free, which means that you do not get the staining if you brush against it.
All these dark sunflowers have long been essential components of the Longmeadow Jewel Garden borders and work well with the late-summer palette of crocosmias – especially the orange ‘Emily Mackenzie’ – as well as the large range of marmalade and plum-coloured heleniums, red dahlias, bright orange tithonias and humble calendulas.
At the other end of the spectrum, I like the pale varieties such as ‘Vanilla Ice’ or ‘Moonwalker’, as well as the perennial sunflower ‘Lemon Queen’ with its mass of delicate miniature sunflowers.
Monty (pictured) explained that he stops dead-heading sunflowers from the middle of September because he wants the birds to have something to eat
Sunflowers respond to dead-heading (removing the spent blooms) by providing waves of smaller flowers.
‘Velvet Queen’ is naturally multi-headed, like a great set of candlesticks two metres tall, but others that instinctively produce one dominant huge flower will produce extra shoots at the junction of leaf and stem if you keep cutting off the flowerheads.
I stop dead-heading from the middle of September so that the birds have something to eat.
The finches love them, clinging to their centres and greedily pulling out the seeds from their individual compartments as they store up body fat for winter, and I have seen a crow trying to copy this, balancing with all the grace of a drunkard walking a tightrope.
Your kitchen garden: Blackcurrants
Monty said blackcurrants grow best in rich soil and needs lots of sunshine for fruit to ripen
The blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum) was introduced in the 17th century, but for 200 years it was restricted to being medicinal. Few plants have more vitamin C, and in the Second World War young children were issued a ration of blackcurrant juice.
They do best in moisture retentive (not waterlogged), rich soil and need a thick mulch of manure or compost every spring. They need lots of sunshine for new wood and fruit to ripen.
However, they crop best with exposure to cold weather in winter. Unlike red or white currants which fruit on spurs taking a few years to develop, blackcurrants produce fruit from the stem.
In the first year they produce some fruit, lots in the second year and the crop falls off after that.
So prune by cutting the oldest stems down to the ground straight after harvest. They take easily from hardwood cuttings, keeping any buds, put in the ground in autumn and transplanted after a year.
‘Ben Sarek’ is good for a pot or small space but you get a bigger harvest from ‘Ben Lomond’, ‘Ben More’ or ‘Boskoop Giant’. Birds love them and they must be netted as soon as the berries ripen to the last picking. A fruit cage is worth it if you have many bushes.