Seasonal stunners

Add these plants to your garden for summer colour:

• Eucomis, with their topknot of leaves that give them the everyday name of pineapple plants, and the elegant summer hyacinth (Ornithogalum candicans) with its spikes of fragrant white bell-shaped flowers, are two desirable bulbs best planted in bold groups as accent plants in borders.

• Arums grow from tubers and are ideal for pots; their flower spathes are attractive in shades of yellow, apricot, pink, ruby and deep maroon.

• Tuberous begonias with their manypetalled flowers in a variety of colours bloom abundantly. Grow upright varieties in pots and those with cascading growth in hanging baskets in light shade and in a sheltered position.

• Tigridia pavonia is a Mexican bulb with exotic-looking flowers. Also known as the peacock or tiger flower, it bears red, yellow, pink, purple and orange blooms with contrasting spots. Individual flowers last a day, but each stalk produces numerous blooms.

• For patches of bright annual colour, scatter seeds of cosmos, Linaria, marigold, zinnia, nasturtium and sunflower in a sunny spot.

• Perennials that give great value – flowering for many weeks – include agapanthus, Inca lily, day lily, Diascia, Echinacea, gaura, Penstemon, Rudbeckia, salvia, Shasta daisy and scabious.