We usually associate September with late flowering plants that are often quite vividly coloured such as Helenium, Rudbeckia, Canna lilies, Crocosmia and Dahlias, but looking around my garden this week I was surprised to find so many pinks and whites still enjoying the sunshine. And sunshine there was! An unexpected shot of heat at the beginning of the week had me running inside for the shade after attempting some cutting back of unruly plants. Sadly by Wednesday we had returned to the typical Cornish mizzle, though fortunately without the promised lightning storms.
(1) Amarine ‘Anastasia’ again. But a much better photo than last week. Having waited three years for this I’m going to make the most of it! And OK Anastasia is not a shy pale pink, rather a ‘in your face’ ‘full on shouty’ vibrant pink!
(2) Cosmos Apollo sonata – I have moaned about these plug plants all summer, but now, eventually, they are all in flower. And looking very pretty. Just a couple of months late! I like these Cosmos because they don’t get too leggy.
(3) Abyssinian gladiolus, Gladiolus murielae (formerly known as Acidanthera murielae) is a striking plant with lovely sword-shaped foliage. Unfortunately it seems to be very stubborn in producing the delicate-looking star-like fragrant flowers with a distinctive maroon blotch, but when it does they are rather special. My two pots still only gave me two spikes again this year, despite being in full sun all summer as they like to bake. I take them indoors during the winter and don’t water them. Maybe one year they will surprise me!
(4) White flowering Garlic Chives in the herb bed are doing well this year. Bees love them. Though apparently not when I was taking this photo.
and finally a couple of my pelargoniums. They have been slow growing this year as I have pretty much replaced the older plants with cuttings which I cut back hard in the spring. Now they are coming into flower and should hopefully last until October if we don’t have too much rain. Regal Pelargoniums need to be brought indoors over winter.
(5) Regal Pelargonium ‘Carisbrooke’ is a soft shell pink with purple feathering on upper petals.
(6) Regal Pelargonium ‘Dark Secret’ which is not one of the pastels, but with its flowers of mahogany red with a deep burgundy blaze on each petal it complements the pinks well. The flowers contrast beautifully with the bright green foliage.
If anyone has any advice about #3 I would appreciate it. I am wondering if I planted too many bulbs in each pot?
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Cornwall in Colours 
I was gifted a handful of Abyssinian gladioli bulbs about five years ago. I planted them as a border in my rose garden and they all sent up lovely green leaves and one single flower, which was beautiful. Since then, they reshoot every year – lots of leaves but never again has there been a flower. When you find out how to deal with them, let me know.
Fortunately the leaves are quite attractive, but more flowers would be nice. I might remove mine from the pots this year and plant them in the spring – fewer bulbs in each pot – see if that makes any difference.
Nice to be still seeing pinks. I noticed an acidanthera blooming in a front garden down our lane this week and although we have had a dry summer it will have been in almost continuous shade! Not being a gardener’s garden, I suspect it will have come from a packet of supermarket bulbs too… Your amarine is lovely and such a pretty colour – I have a red amaryllis x amarine in the Coop which has just flowered but the bloom only lasted days and I didn’t manage a photo in time 🙁