FLASH PLANTS

Pantone’s Colour of the Year is Living Coral and coincidentally fiery-coloured plants will be everywhere to keep pace with hot summers.

Hortus Loci’s Mark Straver says the summer-loving echinacea will be big in 2019.

B&Q’s Tim Clapp backs colourful pot bedding and impatiens.

While garden designers see this type of bedding as amusing kitsch, Straver also tips “posh”annuals in large pots, such as Nicotiana ‘Lime Green’ and Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Rubenza’

(see left) and Didiscus caeruleus. The purple heattolerant Agapanthus ‘Fireworks’ will also be big.

Yellow plants are in, with fashion feeding into plant palettes. John Lewis consumer trends for 2018 show bold colours were in, with a 401 per cent increase in yellow dress sales linked to Amal Clooney wearing one at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding. Men’s yellow clothing sales also rose by 92 per cent. Everyone knows budget cuts are hitting local services and, if an allotment is threatened with development, there will be a social media campaign to stop it. So, in this climate (and under the radar), many councils are ceding authority to allotment committees.

Some plot holders tell me this can lead to friction as overzealous committees micro-manage plots. Hot topics include messy plots, setting up businesses on plots, animals on plots and over-enthusiastic encouragement to volunteer and take part in events.

The National Allotment Society

(Nas) supports self-management but says volunteers still need support from councils to deal with tricky issues – and plot keepers. Nas’s Di Appleyard says the society is seeing devolvement all over the country and recently supported Rugby council’s transfer of allotments to devolved management.

The allotment committees have the same responsibilities as any other organisation with the chairman, secretary, treasurer format. Applying rules fairly and having policies in place is important – on hen and bee-keeping for example, and not running businesses from plots. Growing food for your family is the main purpose of an allotment although sites are always most successful if they have a good social side.

DRINK FOR FREE

A Defra/Keep Britain Tidy campaign launched recently featuring images of wildlife eating or tangled in rubbish. Keep Britain Tidy runs the Green Flag award for parks, and revealed that 54 per cent of sites surveyed have plastic drinks bottles on them. To counter this, a £5million fund has been launched for new water fountains in London parks.