GARDENING Summer spice Create an explosion of seasonal colours in your garden and brighten up borders

Drama comes to the garden as the summer heat arrives. The months of May and June are filled with genteel roses and pastel herbaceous flowers, but in July things heat up.

It’s great to move into a different mode in the garden with some excitement, colour and exoticism. This might come in the shape of the flowers, architectural foliage, strong scents or vibrant colours.

Here’s my choice of some summer spice to add to your garden whether it’s in a container on a balcony, a pot in a courtyard or borders by the lawn.

Ricinus communis is the castor oil plant. This will create an instant jungle feel with its handsome foliage and scarlet flowers. It will look at home among cannas and dahlias, and although it will grow in tropical areas to become a small tree, here we grow it as a half hardy annual.

To grow it, soak seeds overnight and sow indoors in a heated propagator (set to around 220C) in February or March and plant out in late May after the risk of frost has gone. But be warned – it’s highly toxic, particularly the seeds, if ingested as it contains ricin. This is the poison allegedly used in an umbrella tip to assassinate dissident Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov in London in September 1978.

Salvia Hot Lips is a bushy ornamental sage, which can grow to around 90cm in height. It has eye-catching bi-coloured flowers, which are white with a red lip. But for many gardeners it’s bit of a Marmite plant – they either love it or hate it. The love camp like its floriferous exuberance, size and delicious aroma as you brush past it. Other gardeners prefer to stay with calmer blue and purple singlecoloured sages.

It’s easy to grow if in full sunshine although it might be a little tender the further north you go, in which case bring indoors if in a pot or cover in horticultural fleece for the harsh winter months.

Lilies bring exotic beauty and are ideal for small gardens as they do well in pots and