What will grow quick now??

I have a huge perennial bed in the garden, full sun, chalk soil. (Some people very near to us have clay, but we have a chalk ridge running through the garden. Is it possible to have a mix, as it does seem quite clay like in places?)

There are areas which are quite void of flowers, lots of foliage, or from things that have already flowered, like the aqueliga and bachelor buttons (if I snip off tops of bachelor buttons will they come again?) and I'd like to plant something now which will shoot up and give me some colour, but will compete in height with the other things in there (30cm at lowest)

Anyone have any ideas, am I too late for bedding? I am not a huge fan of the really flourescent colours of some busy lizzies and petunias.

 

I recently planted two apple trees on my land. I dug the whole for the first one, and it was really workable sandy, loamy soil. I dug the hole for the other one about 20ft away, and it was just solid clay. So I guess you can get sudden significant changes in soil within just a few feet.

 

Your not too late for bedding plants. I'd reccomend salvia and geranium too but there are loads out there to choose from, I suggest a trip to the garden centre

 

I reckon a quick trip to the GC too, there are quite a lot of plants you can bung in now-I always like helichrysums to fill out a void and it grows like the clappers but anything "bedding" will do the trick.


Happy spending-I've run out of money alas.

 

Late flowering perennials are always a good bet - asters, rudbeckia, kaffir lily (I just got one!) to name a few.