Choose longflowering plants
These heroic garden stalwarts represent excellent value and can top up the flower quota from early summer to the frosts
Growing plants that flower continuously or repeat f lower across summer makes the pursuit of year-round colour so much easier. If foliage represents the bones of your garden, these flowers are the ‘flesh’, filling out borders all summer long. Herbaceous perennials can bloom for up to four months and will come back year after year, which makes them a great investment. Long-flowering perennials include the Chelsea favourite, geum ‘Totally Tangerine’, scabiosa ‘Butterfly Blue’ with lavender-coloured, pin cushionlike flowers, and geranium ‘Rozanne’, said to be the longest flowering of all hardy geraniums. These emerge in late spring or early summer, others come into their own from midsummer onwards. Penstemons in pastel and jewel-like tones, sedums and asters all add late season colour, while helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’ pumps out flowers for up to five months.
Top up with annuals
Annuals, both hardy and half-hardy, can match perennials for flower power; some will bloom from June until the first frosts. Although these only stick around for one summer, they’re easy and inexpensive to grow from seed, but best of all they’re fast-growing, which is particularly useful in a garden where you’re starting from scratch. Good choices include cosmos – large, daisy-like flowers in pink, white or yellow – which comes in a variety of heights. Low-growing ones are great for the front of a border or pots and taller C. bipinnatus ‘Purity’ can be woven through the middle or back of a border. Rusty-coloured annuals can add a richness to planting towards the end of summer. The trumpet-like blooms of snapdragons come in a variety of colours from deep reds to cool yellows. Tender annual climbers such as nasturtiums, sweet peas and the exotic-looking Spanish flag (Ipomoea lobata), can add colour at height when left to scramble over plant supports. Dahlias and pelargoniums are also tender, so require protection from winter cold, but both are great-value plants for introducing a long season of colour. Pelargoniums and more compact dahlias can be used to create colourful pot displays while larger dahlias can be planted in among perennials and shrubs. The range of colours is incredible, from burgundy ‘Chat Noir’ to white ‘Karma Serena’ via an artist’s palette of reds, oranges, pinks, purples and yellows.