Practical Gardening
COLOUR in the garden is for most gardeners their main objective, particularly in the summer months. I’m not a total advocate of the colour only approach as there are many unusual and charming plants that are overlooked that are purely of foliage interest. As an example I came across a plant, new to me, last week called the holly fern [Cyrtomium falcatum] which as the French so beautifully phrase it has a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ without bashing me on the head with showy flowers.
Long summer bloomers what we are looking for to bring colour into our gardens over the next few months. Bedding plants are widely used for this but need replacing every year. Repeat flowering roses will gamely provide colour in flushes sometimes into late autumn and beyond. These are not the only options however as there are many long flowering plants we can use to brighten our gardens and therefore lives that bloom for four or five months weather depending. Give these plants as much sun and shelter as you can to get the longest flowering time.
In the shrub department Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’[perennial wall flower] is a small evergreen sub shrub that must be top of the list. It will flower from April to November without a pause. Some bamboo and wire support is recommended for this plant as winter storms can rip it from the ground.
Fuchsia magellanica ‘Alba’ with dainty white flowers will make a medium sized shrub that will bloom from April until the frosts. All hardy Fuchsia will flower from June till frosts. Euryops pectinatus with bright yellow daisy flowers on a compact evergreen grey/green shrub flowers from May until August and sometimes again in early winter. Abelia ‘Edward Goucher’ is an evergreen/ semi evergreen medium sized shrub with small tubular pink flowers in abundance from July till early winter. Shrubby mallows, Lavatera, will flower with pink saucer blooms from June through late autumn. The sunny side