Blooms hit greater heights
AGRUMPY gardener? What, me? Well, yes; when it comes to bedding plants. The thing is for years the only sort we’ve all been able to buy at most nurseries and garden centres are dwarf ones, as tall varieties have largely disappeared.
Admittedly it’s for the very best of reasons. For decades, gardeners have demanded instant results and compact bedding plants are already in full bloom in trays at nurseries and garden centres and ready to plant. Short varieties are also more convenient as they travel well so there’s less risk of stems being bent or broken on the journey home.
Above all they’re fashionable and their diminutive size makes them tailor-made for tubs, hanging baskets and window boxes.
So naturally plant breeders produce more dwarf varieties.
Tall varieties haven’t had a look-in for a long time, except as curiosities sold individually at plant fairs and by specialist nurseries to enthusiasts who know their potential.
The trouble is, tall varieties take time to grow big enough to reach flowering size.
YOU plant them around the end of May and while their dwarf cousins are already in full bloom, most of the tall forms don’t start flowering properly until July.
These floral giants, however, are worth the wait. Some are truly spectacular, cheering up any dreary garden.
Start now and a fabulous summer show can be yours for the price of a few seeds. Just check the height in the small print on the packet.
Look for the 3-4ft cosmos such as Purity, whose huge, single, flat white flowers look like pale faces turning towards the sun. For twice the effect team it with spider flower (cleome, an unusual three-footer with attractive, cannabis-like foliage and tall stems topped with pink, mauve or white spidery flowers).
As combinations go this one is a real head-turner.
Tobacco flower is something else that looks better tall.
Nicotiana sylvestris reaches 4ft or more, the upright stems clad in the sort of leaves that wouldn’t look amiss in Havana’s cigar plantations, topped by long, narrow, refined white trumpets.
Tinkerbelle is a three-footer whose sensational terracotta-pink flowers have startling lime-green backs, while Nicotiana langsdorffii is also distinctive, another threefooter with apple-green flowers and a superb “filler” in a border of big, bold flowers.
One of the biggest and boldest annuals of all is Love-lies bleeding, an old-fashioned flower whose tall forms, when you can lay your hands on them, are trafficstoppers.
Look for Amaranthus caudatus Pony Tails, which has trailing red and green ropes of flowers and Fat Spike, which has podgy, upright, red pokers (available from Thompson & Morgan).
Plant them together, with dark red dahlias to contrast shapes.