To be honest, its way too late for annuals - its very easy to grow them from seed,, but by the time they're ready to flower if you sowed now, it would be autumn.

You could make a trip to the garden centre and pick up some taller dahlias maybe, or perhaps they will still have some annuals such as Nicotiania available in pots.

Thanks, Bamboo. I'm off to the garden centre now. I'll look out for dahlias and nicotiana.

just got this at 7.30 as just got back from south wales. Nigella is mid height and sowings now will flower in about 4-6 weeks.
but as bamboo says unlikely to get annuals now. perhaps some gladioli or acidanthera in pots would also work and then you can either keep them and re use next year or discard. It took me 5 yrs to get rid of acanthus in one area, now working on another.

Know what you mean Seaburn! The b.. stuff pops up everywhere however much you try to dig it out, so it's not a good idea to plant anything perennial there yet.

Thanks, Seaburngirl and Honeysuckle. I bought a Helenium Mardi Gras at the garden centre, even though it's a perennial but it will tolerate being dug up and divided in autumn or spring. I've now decided on sunflowers, if I can still find the tall, single-flower sort at another garden centre. They only had bush-like sunflowers, including Brown-Eyed Girl, at yesterday's garden centre. Helenium and sunflowers will also please the insects and birds.