Many gardens look at their best at this time of year. There is no fear of frost and all the work of raising annuals and the brightest of the perennials has come to fruition, so the main job to be done is the deadheading and just tidying up of the displays.

To make a permanent background for these colourful sets we need some shrubs to set the scene, and to give the whole picture a good background. Sometimes the setting does not need any extra summer bedding or flowers – the shrubs can be enough on their own.

One corner of my garden does this, the view, framed by the blue cedrus atlantica glauca, includes the golden conifer, chamaecyparis stewartii, blue green chamaecyparis allumii, a purple berberis and gold physalis.

In the front is escalonia woodbridge, which has red flowers on anyway. Abelia is a good shrub that flowers now, and lasts until winter.

Frances mason is a golden leafed variety which makes a lovely background for summer flowers.

I grow it against a wall, but that is only for support, it could be held up by a few canes or lean against other shrubs.

An excellent shrub for August and September is the euchryphia, which is evergreen.

It is covered in flowers just now, and the glossy green leaves make a wonderful background for anything planted in front.

Dahlias make a glamorous splash of colour from now until the winter frosts, but they do need to be protected from wind as they get quite tall.

An apple tree or a large shrub will help considerably to support the stems.

A good shrub to hold up other plants is the osmaria, which has white, scented flowers in early spring. It can be used as a prop to hold up a whole border if they are put close together inside the stiff stems of the osmaria.

Even roses are suitable to hold up other plants, and can be planted with dahlias or annuals, which will fill up the border with colour to supplement the roses later in the year.

The border must be prepared well to feed such a lot of plants, so should be given a good mulch of manure or compost before planting.

By Pat Edwards