It’s time to mind the gaps
J amazingly fragrant & fabulously colourful I
UST when you think the garden’s ready for summer there they are: gaping gaps. It’s usually shrub and spring bulb borders that are crying out for colour by now but new beds that haven’t had time to fill out also need attention.
Glamorous plants such as dahlias, cannas and shrubby salvias are brilliant for dropping in to beef up the garden’s leafy bits as plain foliage makes a natural backdrop that sets spectacular flowers off to a T. Hearty use of colour in borders also helps to balance out tubs of eye-catching bedding plants close to the house.
And you don’t need to spend a fortune. A handful can make a remarkable transformation if they are thoughtfully arranged. Stand them temporarily in place while you decide where they look best, then dig a hole for each, tip them out of their pots and drop them into place.
Patio dahlias are great drop-ins to use near the front of a border. They come in most colours, blue aside, so you should easily find a selection that blends in well with your colour scheme. Why not be bold and try splashes of bright red against dark green leaves?
What makes patio dahlias particularly good drop-ins is that they are neat and compact, growing 12-30ins tall and they don’t wait until August to flower, blooming from late June or July. They will keep flowering well into autumn if you dead-head regularly.
Further back in a border, tender plants such as canna and hedychium (ginger lily) look superb when grown in between shrubs. They have large, tropical-looking foliage and flowers to match from July or August onwards. Too exotic for an English shrub border? As long as you use colours that don’t fight they look amazing and go well with a few compact dahlias in the foreground.
Another plant that is first class between shrubs is Nicotiana sylvestris, the cool, white, chic one with 6ft spikes topped with clusters of large, tubular white flowers.
You could go for the Hidcote look and tuck salvias in between shrubs. These unusual yet spectacular plants are the real stars of late summer, at their best from July until the first frosts. N Hampshire we can still have them flowering in November. You might know the bushy Salvia grahamii but let me also recommend red-flowered Salvia fulgens or tall spikes of blue Salvia guaranitica.
But do think ahead. An existing border is bound to have a fair crop of long-term perennial residents that pop up and down during the season and unless you know what’s already there you can have some pretty nasty colour clashes if you aren’t careful.
The best thing about using temporary tender drop-in plants is that at the end of the season you can collect them up, store them undercover and recycle them next year as an entirely new scheme.
What great value for money.