Choosing flowers for summer displays
Garden flowers put smiles on faces and almost magnetically draw us toward them. If on close contact they are found to also have a fragrance, the visual attraction becomes a heart-warming experience. This thought is offered as we peruse the garden centre in search of suitable candidates for our summer displays.
Certain annuals, also shrubs, climbers, herbaceous perennials, and herbs can deliver such rewards.
Honeysuckle (Lonicera) fragrances and midsummer evenings were made for each other, whether you find them cultivated in a garden or as wild woodbine (Lonicera periclymenum).
There are several species and cultivars to choose from if you want a perennial plant that’s happy to climb the support you offer or scramble up through an existing ornamental tree.
In this respect the double, dark pink flowers of Crataegus (hawthorn) “Paul’s Scarlet” followed by fruit clusters, makes an ideal host for many of the most popular varieties.
Look out for the vigorous Japanese honeysuckle “Halliana”, whose pure white blooms fade to deep yellow, and the long-flowering “Graham Thomas” (white changing to yellow).
Evergreen honeysuckle cultivars are easily propagated from softwood stem cuttings taken in summer.
Deciduous types are best raised from hardwood cuttings pushed upright into the autumn garden.
There is also the option of sowing seeds of species in a cold frame once ripened.
Trachelospermum jasminoides (star jasmine) is not a reliably-hardy perennial climber, so we have to plant it against a protective wall.
Nor are the 10cm long, dark evergreen leaves outstanding in springtime, but everything changes with the seasons.
Summer brings pure white flowers with a super jasmine aroma, followed by reddish-bronze leaves in autumn/winter. The plant is raised from softwood stem cuttings.
Lilac (Syringa) “Madame Lemoine” currently has embryo flower clusters, come June, these will burst into glorious white blooms whose fragrances will drift across the garden.
Philadelphus (mock orange) has double white blooms.
Deutzia scabra is smothered in white, and those of Choisya ternata (Mexican orange blossom) are also white.
Add oriental hybrid liliums for a heavenly scent.