Planting the
Now’s the time to plant up a treat and you can even get ahead for next spring
IT’S a busy time in the garden – I’ve spent several long and enjoyable days pulling out weeds, deadheading, and planting up summer pots.
We’ve had plenty of sunshine so I’ve been doing lots of watering too, mainly pots but also moisture lovers such as my tree ferns, astilbes and rodgersias. As a self-confessed plant addict, I’ve also been doing a bit of planting.
My echium pininana obsession continues – at last count I had 63 and that was just in the front garden. All of these came from one parent – it self-seeds very freely.
Some of the tall blue spires are reaching 15ft tall and the pale lavender flowers are always humming with bees.
This week I planted a pink variety, ‘Pink Fountain’, which will mix things up a bit.
Echiums are biennial so it will be next year before the flower spikes emerge.
If you’re sowing from seed, summer is the right time to sow biennial seeds. It gives them time to settle in before autumn and you’ll be delighted next spring that you remembered to do so when you see them flower.
Echium pininana is from the Canary Islands so isn’t hardy in heavy frosts but a good alternative is our native Echium vulgare, Viper’s bugloss.
It is one of the best wildflower sources of nectar, which it produces throughout the day making it a hit with bumblebees and honeybees. Unusually, the nectar is protected by the flower so it doesn’t wash away in wet weather or vaporise in hot weather. It’s drought-tolerant and has vibrant blue flowers.
The biennial group contains many of our favourite cottage garden plants. Foxgloves (Digitalis) are probably the best known and a joy to come across in the wild in early summer.
The tall elegant spires are covered in bell-shaped purple blossoms, which bees crawl into. They self-seed freely but you need to be careful when weeding that you don’t remove the seedlings.
Alternatively you can propagate them in seed modules or pots – scatter on the surface of pre-wetted seed compost and don’t cover as they need light to germinate.
Good cultivars are the charming ‘Suttons Apricot’ and the pristine white ‘Albiflora’.
Hesperis matronalis is the deliciously scented sweet rocket which produces purple or white flowers that are very similar to honesty (Lunaria). It is adaptable and will grow in sun or shade and looks so pretty rambling through a partially shaded border.
Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) is also a must for perfume lovers. Technically it is a short-lived perennial but sow every year to ensure plenty of flowers the following year.
Oenothera biennis or evening primrose is a tall biennial of up to 1.5 metres with yellow flowers.
These only open at night to release their fragrance – this is done in order to attract night-time pollinators such as moths. It’s a good choice for poor soil so long as it’s well-drained and in the sunshine, and once you have it, it will self-seed happily.
Teasel (Dipsacus) is one for the birds. It’s a statuesque native plant often found growing in damp wastelands. It forms a conical prickly purple flower head and is one of those plants that still look good in winter when it goes to seed.
Birds, particularly gold finches, love to feast on the seeds.