I made this bouquet as an example of pink British flowers that are available in early September. Annual asters (Callistephus) and dahlias are the primary pink showstopper flowers that I grew this season. This was my first year growing annual asters and I was pleasantly surprised at how drought-tolerant they were through our hot, dry summer. The beautiful, pale pink, fluffy asters in this bunch are ‘King size apple blossom’ and the peachy ones are ‘King size apricot’, both grown from seed in March.

The dahlias aren’t so easy to spot, but I’ve included pink ‘Homey’ and purple ‘Mambo’ (the latter only visible as the tips of purple petals at the lower right-hand side). Homey has performed really well for me this year - I grew the tubers in a large pot, feeding them with comfrey tea throughout the summer, and they rewarded me with lots of blooms on lovely long stems.

My rose ‘Desdemona’ produced a late flush of flowers, so I tucked one barely-pink stem in at the very front of the bouquet.

I added a bit more pink colour with a few pleasingly bendy stems of Anemone hupehensis and Phlox drummondii ‘Creme brûlée’.

White anemones, feverfew and jasmine and eucalyptus foliage filled in the rest of the arrangement.

It’s the time of year when we’re just starting to think about welcoming the colours of fall into our gardens, but it’s still possible to celebrate late summer with a bit of pink!