Scent of summer in pretty parcels
FOR a pretty vintage look, sweet peas are your go-to in the garden.
These pretty plants come in a rainbow of colour, with a scent that is pure English summer.
They are versatile too. Tall varieties can be trained on to netting or up bamboo canes to make a flowering screen. They look lovely on a wigwam or as a feature in a flowerbed.
The short-growing varieties are useful as colourful edging as well as in containers. A timeless classic is Snoopea, which produces big flowers in a kaleidoscope of colours on plants that grow like ground cover.
It performs well in a hanging basket, producing stems that trail to 60cm.
Fill your garden, popping a few around the base of a climbing rose or clematis to provide colour and scent, cleverly using shrubs as supports.
Without a helping hand they will scramble through any shrub that otherwise looks dull in summer.
Flamboyant
Their nectar-rich blooms attract pollinators, such as bees, making them useful on the veg plot too. Grow them as a companion to runner beans, which flower at the same time.
The most fragrant varieties are the old-fashioned grandiflora types. The frilly, flamboyant Spencer can also be selected for scent, as can some of the modern introductions. These are usually a combination of both types and feature large, striking blooms that can be bi-coloured, with striped markings as well as picotee edges.
Sow them outdoors where you want them to flower in March or April, although it is a better idea to start them off in pots in a cold frame.
You can soak seeds overnight to soften the hard coat but they still germinate without that in a week.
Pinch out the growing tip when there are three pairs of leaves, reducing the plant to 3cm-5cm in height.
This promotes side shoots and bushier plants.
Mulching helps feed roots, retain moisture and protects against slugs by encouraging blackbirds.
Carry scissors when tending plants and snip off tendrils that are emerging at the end of a leaflet. If left, they can grasp on to buds, causing havoc.