Grow six months of colour now

Summer-flowering bulbs are guaranteed to brighten up any garden with blooms of all shapes and sizes

When you want sparkling colour and exotic blooms in the garden, summer bulbs should be your first thought. With an amazing variety of shapes and colours they’re suitable for every garden style. Many are good cut flowers, too, and all are easy to grow and guaranteed to bloom.

You can plant a complete border with summer bulbs or pop them between perennials for extra colour, or use them as colourful flourishes among your bedding plants. Start most off now, on a windowsill in pots or plant some direct in the ground where they’ll flower, or plant in April for even later flowers.

With planning you can have months of flowers, from the beginning of June right through to the end of October, when the first frost will stop the display. Just find a sunny spot and improve the soil with compost and keep them watered as they get established

Prepare to be dazzled by rich colour and delicious scent.

RANUNCULUS

Flowers May to July

■ Buy as dried, claw-like li le roots for planting now

■ Plant in full sun or part shade at the front of borders

You can find these for sale now in garden centres with peony-like flowers packed with silky petals in a rainbow of colours. These have been grown in greenhouses to get them to flower early but you can also plant the claw-like roots in autumn or now, for later blooms. They’re not 100 per cent hardy but survive in mild areas if the soil isn't too heavy and wet. After flowering they die down early and are dormant in summer. Mark their position so you don’t accidentally dig them up.

BEGONIAS

Flowers May to October

■ Buy as dormant tubers now or as flowering plants in May

■ Plant in full sun or part shade in pots or at the front of borders

You can buy plants in flower in June or start dried tubers now. It can be difficult to work out which is the top and the bo om but the top is usually concave. If in doubt put them in a bag of moist compost in a warm place and after a few weeks pink shoots will appear on the upper surface and they can be planted. They need to be kept warm and away from frost and can be planted out, in sun or part shade, in late May. Tuberous begonias can also be grown from seed and plug plants and they'll produce tubers that can be saved at the end of the season.

LILIES

Flowers June to August

■ Buy as bulbs now

■ Plant in full sun or part shade in well-drained soil

Lilies are easy to grow and there’s one that's just right for your garden. They can flower from late June until the end of August, according to the variety. The upward-facing, scentless, Asiatic lilies tolerate lime and are among the first to bloom. Dwarf varieties are perfect for pots. Oriental lilies, with fragrant flowers, bloom in July and August and vary greatly in habit, though the colours are mostly white, pinks and cherry reds. They need acid soil. OT lilies, crosses between Oriental and Trumpet lilies, are vigorous and can reach 2m (6½ft) tall and aren't fussy about soil. They take several years to reach their greatest height but are easy to grow and fragrant. Among the latest is Lilium speciosum rubrum with arching stems and fragrant, pink-spo ed, white flowers in late August.

GLADIOLI

Flowers July to October

■ Buy as dormant corms to start off indoors now, or plant out from April to early June

■ Plant in full sun in borders

Gladioli add floral fireworks to borders with vertical stems packed with flowers in almost every colour you can think of. They can be planted from now until May and it’s worth planting a few of the same variety every few weeks to get a longer display of colour in summer. Plant about 10cm (4in) deep and apart. Each corm will only produce one spike of flowers, though this will last several weeks. Their growth is narrow and vertical so they’re perfect to pop through other plants that have flowered earlier to extend the display. Most flower in August, though later-planted corms will extend the colour. They should be lifted and dried in autumn to protect them from frost

and to remove and discard the smaller corms that aren’t big enough to bloom.

ACIDANTHERA

Flowers August to October

■ Buy as dormant corms now

■ Plant in pots in the next month to get them started and plant out in May or June for earlier flowers, or plant direct in April

Elegant and fragrant, acidantheras are stars of the late-summer garden. If started in pots in a greenhouse or on the windowsill they'll bloom in the garden in August. Later planting will result in flowers as late as September or October. Plant 5cm (2in) deep with six to eight per 10cm (4in) pot and

plant out as a clump in late May when frosts are unlikely. They'll grow to about 80cm (2¾ft) high with slender stems of white flowers with a central maroon blotch and a sweet scent. After flowering the corms are unlikely to flower again and they’re usually discarded, except in very warm areas.

EUCOMIS

Flowers July to September

■ Buy as dormant bulbs now or as growing plants in midsummer

Plant in well-drained soil in full sun

■ Pineapple lilies (eucomis) are so called because of the tuft of leaves on top of the flower stems. The small, starry flowers form a dense column of colour, usually in green, cream or various purple and pink shades that last for many weeks. Many of the most popular have wine-flushed foliage, too. Most grow about 45cm (1½ft) high but the new Aloha Series are dwarf and very colourful while E. pole-evansii is a giant, reaching 1.2m (4ft) in bloom. Plant the bulbs at least 8cm (3in) deep, improve the soil with grit and organic ma er and cover with a mulch in winter. They're hardy in most areas. They're best not lifted every year, allowing them to form clumps.

DAHLIAS

Flowers July to October

■ Buy as dormant tubers now or as flowering plants in summer

■ Plant in full sun. Dwarf types at the front of borders and taller types in the centre and back.

Dahlias are the best-value summer bulbs you can plant because they’ll continue to grow and bloom all summer until they’re stopped by the first hard frost. You can buy plants in bloom in summer but it’s be er to start with dried tubers now. You can plant these direct in the border in April but if you have a greenhouse or sunroom you’ll get earlier flowers if you plant them in pots now. Plant them in 12cm (5in) diameter pots, or whatever will hold the tubers nicely, so the crown, where the tubers meet the old stem, is just below the surface. Keep watered, warm and light and shoots will soon appear. If you’re careful you can then cut the tuber into pieces, so that each has a shoot, and repot to make more plants. Old bits of tuber with no stem will root but won't grow into new plants. Keep them cool and in good light and pinch out the growing tip when each shoot has three pairs of leaves to make the plants more bushy. Plant out in late May and keep the plants well watered and fed. Tall varieties may need staking.

TULBAGHIA

Flowers June to September

■ Buy as dried roots now or as growing plants in summer

■ Plant at the front of borders in full sun

These South African bulbs, often called society garlic, are related to onions and the leaves have the same smell, though the flowers are sweetly scented. They form clumps of chive-like leaves that may be evergreen in mild gardens. Once established they form dense clumps and can, when happy, flower from May to November. They prefer a well-drained soil and full sun and are useful for edging along paths as well as for pots. The most popular have clusters of starry flowers in lilac pink or white and they're useful for cu ing. Leave in the soil to establish and don't lift and dry them. Deadhead every now and then to prevent profuse self-seeding in mild areas. Height 30cm (1ft).

CANNA

Flowers July to October

■ Buy as dried rhizomes now or as growing plants in summer

■ Plant in full sun in rich soil or in large pots on the patio

Cannas are exotic, upright plants with large, paddleshaped foliage in green or purple and large, showy flowers in shades of yellow, orange, red and pink. They need to be grown fast in order to produce flowers in our short summers and need heat, lots of water and plenty of feeding while they're in growth. They vary in height from 50cm (1¾ft) to 1.5m (5ft) or more and the shorter kinds are best for patio pots. When each stem has finished flowering, cut it off at the base. Start the dormant rhizomes in pots in a warm place and water sparingly until they’re growing strongly, then plant out in a sunny, warm spot. The rhizomes should be lifted in autumn and stored frost free.