At this time of year my garden is full of big mop-heads of flowering shrubs, and on the lower storey, flat-headed sedums in shades of cerise-pink and crimson.

I like to think they provide easy landing spots for the exhausted butterflies and bees and lazy wasps that are still buzzing around my borders.

This Clerodendrum bungei suckers everywhere, but its flowers in late summer are well worth the required vigilance.

Hydrangea ‘Annabel’, purchased at Great Dixter nursery a couple of years ago, has romped away in the shade and its heads are now turning green;

The lace-capped white one (above) has flowered for the first time after I found it at the back of a border, and the one by the house has been full of pink flowers all year, and is now turning to the deepest, richest red.