Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
TAKE YOUR PICK
It’s time to order seeds for spring – so here’s our guide to which flowers are the height of fashion this year
Spring may still feel a long time away but if you’re planning to grow flowers from seed, then it’s high time to get organised and get those seeds ordered. After all, a number of annuals can be sown indoors as early as February – the list includes cottage garden favourites such as snapdragons, sweet peas, cornflowers, monarda and larkspur.
With plug plants so readily available, you may be wondering if it’s worth the bother of sowing seeds, but do give it a try because I guarantee you will find it strangely addictive. There are few things that match the thrill of seeing your tiny seeds develop into sturdy plants, and all sorts of things that are hard to find in nurseries – such as cleomes, tithonias and the climbing Cobaea scandens – are easily grown from seed. A heated propagator is a definite advantage when germinating seeds, but a container placed on a sunny windowsill can also work perfectly well.
Seed catalogues are packed with desirable plants and I usually end up with a ridiculously long list of varieties that I simply have to have. In an attempt to whittle down my selection to a more manageable level, I asked some of the country’s leading seed companies about which flowers they thought would be all the rage in 2018.
Sally Redhead of Chiltern Seeds (chilternseeds. co. uk) says f lowers in shades of peach, salmon and apricot are hugely popular at the moment. ‘Peachy cream Phlox drummondii ‘Crème Brûlée’ and Calendula officinalis ‘Touch Of Red Buff’, which is beige-pink with darker brown petal tips, are all doing really well,’ she says. ‘But our bestseller right now is Rudbeckia hirta ‘Sahara’, which has that “vintage” look that’s so in fashion,
with flowers in subtle shades of caramel, copper and warm pink.’
David Turner of Mr Fothergill’s Seeds (mr-fothergills.co.uk) detects a continuing trend for ‘wild-inspired flowers’. He explains, ‘These are not necessar i ly Br itish natives but they feel as if they are – plants like poppies, cornflowers, foxgloves, calendulas and cosmos, which all suit a relaxed planting style. There is also ongoing interest in growing flowers that are particularly attractive to bees and other beneficial insects.’
Each year, the seed companies get together and choose their flower of the year. In 2016 it was cosmos, last year it was zinnias, and this year it’s marigolds. ‘We have a superb new variety of French marigold, ‘Fireball’, with crested blooms in an appealing mix of orange-red shades,’ says David. At Suttons Seeds (suttons.co.uk), Claire Hart singles out the brisk-selling sweet pea ‘Sublime Scent Mixed’, which has strongly scented blooms in white, pink and crimson. Claire is also very excited about the annual poppy ‘Laurens Grape’, a striking plum-purple colour with silvery green leaves (it’s near the top of my list, too), and zinnia ‘Molotov Mix’, which comes in a range of pretty candy colours. ‘We think it’s going to be a big hit,’ she says.
Peter Freeman of Thompson & Morgan (thompson-morgan.com) sees edible flowers as a major trend for 2018. ‘And as this is the Year of the Marigold, and marigold petals look fabulous as a decorative salad garnish, we are expecting them to sell really well,’ he says. ‘ We have two particularly exciting varieties: ‘Strawberry Blonde’ and ‘Fireball’.’ Peter is also enthusiastic about a new poppy, Papaver rhoeas ‘Supreme’, which has large double flowers in shades of pink and orange, contrasting with a white centre.