THE autumn weather has been wonderfully kind to us this year and gardens are still full of colour despite being well into October. Pelargoniums are heavy with blooms with plenty of buds promising more to come if the frost stays away, and lobelia still fills summer containers, taking over where other plants have finished and giving a delicate covering of small blue and white flowers.

The inevitable will happen and a sharp eye needs to be kept on the weather, for if frost or a dramatic drop in temperature is forecast, these and other tender plants will need to be protected straight away if they are to kept for next year.

In our garden michaelmas daisies and sedum are at their best while annuals such as pot marigolds and nasturtium come a close second. For a 'good doer' Aster frikartii 'Monch' can hardly be beaten among michaelmas daisies for flowering period and colour and this year our five or six-year-old specimen has surpassed itself.

Starting in July it has flowered non-stop ever since and, although the number of blooms is gradually reducing, it is still giving a good show. The large, yellow-centred lavender-blue flowers are held on one-metre tall stems which tend to flop if left unsupported.

It looks best grown through another sturdier plant although a honeycomb type support will do the job if it is put in place as soon as the new growth starts in spring. 'Wunder von Stafa' resembles 'Monch' but is more branching in habit while Aster thomsonii 'Nanus' is lower growing but with similar rayed blue flowers and long flowering period.

The autumn flowering Sedum spectabile, popularly known as Ice Plant, is common in gardens and deservedly so with its glaucous foliage filling spaces through spring and summer and large flowerheads attracting butterflies and bees at the end of the season.

The foliage is cool to the touch, hence the common name, and it starts as tiny, pale green rosettes on the surface of the soil, slowly growing taller and darkening until the stems are 30-40cm tall.

Flowers begin to form, green to start, deepening to pale pink and gradually darkening to various shades of pink or red depending on variety.

These include dark pink 'Brilliant', red 'Metoer', white 'Iceberg' and salmon-pink 'Autumn Joy' whose blooms fade to rusty brown and stay on the plant for several weeks or months after finishing. Sedum spectabile thrives in full sun and will quickly grow to form a large clump, which will need dividing regularly to stop it becoming too big.

Updated: 09:18 Saturday, October 12, 2002