Here comes the summer

Garden centres are throwing open their doors and for frustrated gardeners all those shelves bursting with blooms are a sight for sore eyes and colour. Everything you needed for hanging baskets and containers was on display – begonias, argyranthemums, fuchsias, bedding verbenas and calibrachoas all waiting for new homes to settle into. There were simple terracotta pots planted with instant mini gardens – pink geraniums planted with the deliciously scented Dianthus ‘Pink Kisses’ and a trailing Blue Bacopa to complete the picture. So if you’re looking for inspiration, there’s plenty to admire. Here are some plants that stood out for me as good performers for the summer. The wallflower section beckoned me over with its perfume. The queen of wallflowers is ‘Bowles’s Mauve,’ an evergreen perennial that in milder areas seems to have flowers all year round. It does run out of steam after a couple of years but it is easily propagated from cuttings so you can replace it. A variety called ‘Fragrant Sunshine’ caught my eye – lots of bright yellow flowers and the smell was really gorgeous. This would be ideal along a path in a sunny spot. I also spied Salvia ‘Sensation Blue,’ a compact sage which is packed with blue spires of flowers. Sages are easy to grow, no-fuss plants with aromatic foliage and are good for beginner gardeners. They will flower to the end of September, attracting bees and butterflies. They’re drought tolerant once established, so if our run of