Gardening and outdoor experts hope popular flower shows can inspire a trend for ‘green fingers’ this autumn.

The professionals at GardenBuildingsDirect.co.uk hope many current autumn themes can capture the imagination of households across the UK over the coming months.

Here in the UK, some public flower shows were moved from their usual place in the spring and summer to the autumn season or even postponed and cancelled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. This meant an unexpected public platform to showcase autumn plants, blooms, fruits and berries.

A spokesman for GardenBuildingsDirect.co.uk said: “Coronavirus meant there has been changes to the scheduling of some flower and plant shows, so they have taken place in the autumn. As a result, there are lots of seasonal plants and produce on display across the UK, which may otherwise not have been exhibited.

“There is much to explore and celebrate outdoors in the autumn months, and such is the popularity and reach of flower shows, it bodes well for some lesser-known plants to become more sought after this season.”

Here were some of the current autumn trends:

Ferns – This non-flowering plant is well suited to the autumn season, and gardeners have been praised for their displays of ferns this year. Ferns are highly versatile and hardy plants which come in a wide range of colours and which require little care and attention and are largely untroubled by disease and pests.

Asters – Asters bloom in late summer and early autumn, and can flower until late autumn. They resemble daisies and come in a wide variety of sizes and colours and are easy to grow. They do need around six hours of sunlight a day so it is best they are not positioned in the shade too much.

Dahlias – These flowers can bloom well into autumn, and until the first frosts appear. The more you pick them, the more flowers they will produce. They come in a range of different colours so can bring some brightness to any garden at a time when other herbaceous plants are starting to fade.

Fruit and berries – Shrubs and trees with autumn berries attract birds and provide a vibrant array of colour to any outdoor display or garden.

There are a wide range of shrubs and plants with berries which ripen in autumn including winterberry, crab apples, red-twig dogwood, beautyberry, elderberry and chokeberry.

Nerines – Popular plants with lily-like flowers which produce pink and red blooms and thrive in borders and in containers.

Some nerines need to be grown in a greenhouse but others such as Nerine bowdenii are more hardy and can grow outdoors in the autumn. They grow from bulbs.

Camellias – Autumn and winter-flowering camellias can be grown in sheltered gardens or containers in the conservatory or greenhouse over the winter period. They sometimes have scented flowers and have single, semi-double or peony or anemone-form flowers with soft petals.