TAKE TO YOUR BEDS
Get ready to plant up your plot for vibrant summer glory
Easter is a crazy time for gardeners. every task is urgent and plants are selling faster than hot cross buns.
Most gardeners are suckers for anything pretty in the nurseries or garden centres and love impulse buying. But what looks great on display may hate your garden’s soil or conditions.
that’s why it helps to know what you’re buying. How hardy is your chosen plant and how long-lived? Will it cope with wind, heavy shade or hot, dry conditions? When such preferences are known, you can then select colours, sizes and styles.
In beds or containers, twotone schemes work better than random mixtures. red geraniums with blue lobelias may seem clichéd. But if well grown, they’ll look prettier than a jumble of rainbow colours. Limited colour schemes are effective in containers. You can boost interest by including several different plants while maintaining colour harmony.
silver-grey leaves, for example work beautifully with soft pinks and mauves. Golden or creamy foliage looks great with bright blues, orange or reds.
CONTAINED JOY
MANY of us garden in small spaces, perhaps with just a few containers. Plan carefully to cover the pots. Pendulous ivyleaf pelargoniums, Plectranthus or Helichrysum petiolare are excellent for that. trailing petunias and Calibrachoa are more colourful and come in a gorgeous range including tans and near-black.
Paired colours such as blue with white, red with yellow or pink with silver may seem a bit hackneyed. But with well chosen plants, such combinations can be harmonious and restful or wonderfully stirring. For cooling tones, trailing lobelia varieties such as ‘Monsoon’ or paler ‘Blue Cascade’ mix beautifully with silver leaved Dichondra.
soft blues are also pretty with lime green leaves or with cream to lemon yellow flowers.
For hot schemes, grow begonias such as ‘Cascading Fireball’ or ‘apricot shades’ either in groups or as solo plants. You could also go nuts with fiery-coloured nasturtiums or trailing yellow Bidens. Include little tomatoes such as ‘ Cherry Cascade’ for snacks and colour.
For gorgeous leaves in red, orange or gold, pick Solenostemon — formerly Coleus. Dark bronze, gold or striped foliage go well with hot flowers.
HOT BEDDING
SUMMER borders should be drop-dead gorgeous from June to October. they’re more flexible than containers and benefit from a different approach.
Blending in tender summer bedding will broaden the range and provide seasonal highlights.
summer bulbs such as gladioli or Eucomis provide distinctive focus. Dahlias are among the finest tender plants, flowering with pizazz until november. Bee-friendly choices include penstemons, cosmos tall verbenas and new World salvias.
strong or hot colours work best in sunny positions. softer, paler colours are better in semi-shade. My hot plants this year are orange and yellow lantanas, purple heliotropes and dahlias in maroon, apricot and yellow. Intense blue Salvia patens and taller, purple-blue
S. ‘Amistad’ give cool contrast. For twilight, night- scented flowers are gorgeous. Best for that is Nicotiana alata whose flowers are fragrant after sunset. My twilight choice is graceful Agrostemma ‘Ocean Pearl’, whose white blooms almost glow in the dark.