WHAT’S FLOWERING NOW?

BLOOMING SUMMER BEAUTIES FOR YOUR GARDEN

A QUICK walk around some local gardens this week has discovered a great range of early summer flowering annuals, shrubs and perennials for your garden.

Enjoy this week’s pictorial expose on these bloomin’ beauties!

1. One of the toughest of the Hibiscus clan, this is H. syriacus, or the Rose of Sharon. Actually from China and Korea (not Syria), this hardy deciduous shrub will do well in a range of soils, and can handle extremes of temperatures, from frosty mornings to scorching summer days. Grows to about 3m high, 1.5m wide, and can be easily hedged (but remember it loses its leaves in winter).

2. One of my favourite garden perennials, this sea holly (Eryngium maritimum) is not only unusually beautiful, but hardy as well. They’ll handle hot, dry positions in your garden, but won’t like wet feet during a cold winter.

Growing to about 50cm high, they will love a full sun position, and regular deadheading will prolong the flowering through to autumn.

3. If you’ve grown buddlejas before, you know they can normally grow quite large. This is Buddleja “Nanho Plum”, a dwarf form of the butterfly bush which rarely grows higher than 180cm.

A great plant for a garden corner, “Nanho Plum” bears these gorgeous purple-plum flower heads in summer. A severe haircut to 80cm high in winter will ensure great blooms the next summer.

4. This is the oak-leaved hydrangea, Hydrangea quercifolia, growing in a position that gets some afternoon shade during summer. Not only does this very hardy deciduous bush display these beautiful white heads of blooms and bracts during summer, it will put on an awesome show of red and orange autumn foliage as well.

Grows to 2m high. They will need some moisture during hot weather.

5. A low hanging branch of the classic Australian flame tree (Brachychiton acerifolius) shows detail in the flowers that most people wouldn’t see due to their height. A fairly fast growing rainforest tree, it will reach around 15m high in cultivation.

Unusual due to its deciduous nature just before flowering, this tree is particularly outstanding when grown near Jacarandas as they generally flower simultaneously.

6. Agapanthus always love to bloom in summer, and this “Cloudy Days” variety is particularly floriferous. A strong, reliable plant, it can be counted on to produce multiple umbels of white and blue flowers at this time of year. Bred for disease and frost tolerance, it’s also less likely to self-seed as some species do. Needs full sun to bloom well.

7. Growing to about 90cm x 90cm, this is Teucrium betonicum, a tough evergreen shrub hailing from Madeira. Sporting pink/purple spikes of blooms in late spring and summer, this plant likes a full-sun position and is well suited to life in a perennial border. It does well on meagre water rations as well.

8. Hanging on and still flowering in early summer is one of the best blue-flowered annuals for your garden, the cornflower (Centaurea cyanus).

In the right position, that is full sun, and protected from strong winds, this hardy annual will bloom from spring right through to autumn. Being blue, it will also attract bees and butterflies to your garden.