NOVEMBER blustered in last Sunday on the back of muscle-flexing gusts and fierce squalls of rain, something of a change from the balmy end of October.

Plants that had glowed in their hot late colours in the no-coat-needed warmth of Hallowe’en awoke with shock on All Saints’ Day to find themselves drenched and thrown this way and that by arm-wrestling winds that flung the last of their leaves on to the soaked ground.

And so we find ourselves at the end of autumn and moving inevitably towards winter and a quiet time in the garden.

Luckily, there are still things to enjoy outside in the garden as plants shake off the summer and descend into their winter sleep.

The conical flowers of Hydrangea paniculata ‘Grandiflora’, for instance, have turned from young green to green-tinged-white through to pure white, as the months have progressed until now when the blooms are perhaps at their most attractive, their petals mottled pink and green.

The autumn colours of this plant vary from year to year. Last autumn, our young shrub was wonderfully splashed in deep shades of orange and red that picked up the colours of fading geraniums.

This time, the palette is more subtle and, interestingly, the fading flowers are now echoing the pink and white flowers of the viburnum planted next to it.

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Grandifora’ does, as the name suggests, have exceedingly large flowers. I’ve seen them described as grotesque in one reference book, which is perhaps a little harsh.

A mature shrub left unpruned can grow three metres or ten feet tall with a similar spread, which at the height of flowering in mid to late summer would be a magnificent sight. Luckily so, given the limited space ours has.

‘Grandiflora’ can also be pruned in spring to restrict its growth and improve flowering, although bear in mind that hard pruning produces the largest flowers.

On a young plant, the blooms can make the stems top heavy and they may need to be propped up away from the soil, but as the shrub matures and grows taller, stiffer branches will be better able to carry the blooms and the effect of the whole plant is more in proportion.

Another hydrangea looking good at the moment is Hydrangea petiolaris or climbing hydrangea, a self-clinging species that spreads along shady walls making a network of mid-brown stems which are covered in flowers in late spring and early summer. The white blooms are scented and cover a mature plant for a short while, before gradually fading to brown, and on a young plant, the flowers are few.

It can take a number of years for this climber to settle and the stems may need fastening against a wall initially to encourage them to cling, but once it gets the idea, Hydrangea petiolaris will romp away and cover a large area.

In autumn, the leaves turn custard yellow before they drop, covering the wall in a buttery spread of last-minute colour. Then they disappear, leaving the peeling skeleton of branches dotted with the dried flowerheads of summer.

Weekend catch-up

NOVEMBER is the traditional time for planting tulip bulbs. This reduces the risk of them developing tulip fire, a fungal disease that causes the plants to grow poorly and produce malformed shoots.

Sometimes the emerging leaves are covered in fuzzy grey fungus and flowers may fail to open.

If this does happen, dig up and destroy any affected plants and avoid planting tulips in that area for at least four years, since tulip fire fungus can survive in the soil for several years.

Tulips need well-drained soil in a sunny site. If the soil is on the heavy side, mix some horticultural grit in with the planting mix and put a layer of grit in the bottom of the planting hole too for the bulb to sit on.

Cover the bulb with about twice its height in soil when planting. It is also a good idea to mark the planted area, as it is all too easy to dig the area in spring forgetting about what lies below the surface.

Gardening TV and Radio

Tomorrow.

8am, BBC Radio Humberside, The Great Outdoors. With Blair Jacobs and Doug Stewart.

9am, BBC Radio Leeds, Tim Crowther with Joe Maiden.

2pm, BBC Radio 4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Anne Swithinbank, John Cushnie, Chris Beardshaw and chairman Eric Robson are in Cornwall where they are guests of Linkinhorne Horticultural Society. Chris Beardshaw meets a man who has collected more than 200 varieties of Cornish cherries, pears and apples and the gardening weather forecast is at 2.40pm. (Repeated from Friday).

Friday.

3pm, BBC Radio 4. Gardeners’ Question Time. The team are in the capital where Chris Beardshaw, Bob Flowerdew, Pippa Greenwood and chairman Eric Robson are guests of Transport for London at the London Transport Museum. The gardening weather forecast is at 3.40pm. (Repeated on Sunday at 2pm).

Saturday, November 14.

7am, BBC Radio York, Julia Booth. Presenter Julia Booth and horticultural expert Nigel Harrison discuss gardening problems in their weekly plant surgery. Telephone number 01904 641641.