Summer-flowering shrubs for a little patio magic
Early summer is when gardeners can indulge themselves by trying some of the flamboyant shrubs we see on holiday in warmer climes. Some are fast growing and high performing, making them ideal for a potted patio feature, either on their own, as a centrepiece or temporarily placed in a sheltered border as part of a subtropical bedding scheme for floral zing.
While not generally hardy, all the plants here can be pruned back at the end of the season for easier storage in a frost-free greenhouse or conservatory for winter. They can then be encouraged to reshoot in spring before being brought outside when the danger of frost has passed. Grow them in any multi-purpose compost, with added John Innes and Perlite for drainage. Tease out old compost from the rootball, replacing it with fresh, when repotting overwintered plants.
There are so many different types of abutilon, with bell-like hanging blooms in a wide variety of colours, from orange, red, pink, yellow and white, often with a contrasting red calyx and/or veining on the petals. Habits differ too, with some more compact while others more thin and spindly. Another mallow relative is anisodontea, a compact, upright shrub with a succession of chaliceshaped blooms in shades of pink.
F uchsia arborescens is a stronggrowing shrub, ideal in a pot on its own, producing substantial heads of small, cerise-pink blooms throughout summer. After the flowers, small, edible, sweettasting berries are produced.
S olanum (lycianthes) rantonnetii is a fast-growing, shrubby potato relative producing a succession of blue flowers. A vigorous grower, it can be trained as a standard and clipped into floral decked globes.