Although climate change could never be called good news for our planet, it’s not all doom and gloom for the gardener. It’s more swings and roundabouts at the moment. The weather seems more turbulent and aggressive. Winds seem stronger and rain more prevalent with periods of drought in between. This erratic pattern (which I prefer to call climate chaos) seems to have replaced the ambient summers of three fine days and a thunderstorm that I fondly remember as a child. But the upside is the garden goes on for longer.

Sharp September frosts used to halt the show without fail. Now most of us can bank on a frost-free September and gamble on a warm October as well. So there is no excuse for a dull garden. It’s not difficult to supplement the traditional asters with a range of frost-tender plants and salvias bred from South American species.

They positively sparkle in October, producing vivid purple, dark-blue, regal red and mulberry pink flowers. They are not limping on like so many other plants. They are in a purple patch and I long to grow more of these jewel-box plants.

I’m even more keen this year because I was lucky enough to visit a private garden close to Oxfordshire early this month. There must have been up to 50 different salvias mingling among dahlias and verbenas in a formally laid out walled garden. It was as colourful as a Gauguin painting of a sweet shop. Some flowers, like those of the grey-leafed Salvia leucantha, had a velvet-texture to their pale, tubular flowers. These were enhanced by dark calyces clasping each flower. There was also a completely purple form of this softly tactile salvia called ‘Purple Magic’.

S. leucantha will have to come in for the winter unless you are in a very sheltered position. You could remove the plant. But most are best raised from cuttings and these can be taken in September and October if you have a heated bench. If not, it is best to take them by September.

I use trays of horticultural sand and these are kept in an unheated greenhouse. The trays are kept on the dry side in winter and covered with fleece in cold weather. Cuttings are cut just under the bumpy leaf node and any flower shoots are removed. The ideal cutting should not contain a flower bud.

I also spotted the classy lime-green and almost black Salvia discolor or Blackcurrant sage. This Peruvian native looks best sprawling over a pot and it’s another one to take in for the winter. This is subtle and almost minimalist. But not far away the upright, dark-red ‘Mulberry Jam’, a S. involucrata hybrid renowned for flowering from summer until the first frosts, blazed away.

Salvia microphylla is a very useful hardy plant, although less showy. It billows out to form a wiry shrub and wide-lipped flowers in pinks and red appear from darker buds. ‘Icing Sugar’ (from Hayloft Plants – 01386 562 999) was new last year. But I also like ‘Kew Red’ and the bright-pink ‘Watermelon’.