Gardening expert Alexandra Campbell plans colourful borders

Now is a prime time to plan for colourful borders later in the year. Alexandra Campbell takes some expert advice.

WINTER isa good time to plan changes to your borders, or to plan a new one. I’ve been looking through plant catalogues all winter, and there’s just such a lot of choice.

So I’ve asked three garden designers, Jack Wallington, Lee Burkhill of Garden Ninja and Posy Gentles, for their advice on planning a border.

There are five elements to a good border. Start with a tree (or more than one), shrubs, perennials, annuals and bulbs.

The colour of flower borders used to be focused around annuals and biennials, known as “bedding plants”.

Recently, though, there’s been more emphasis on perennials (plants that live in the ground for two or more years).

In fact, all the elements have a part to play.

Posy Gentles suggests that you always start a border with a shrub.

Shrubs have been forgotten about recently, but they offer year-round structure and interest, even when they lose their leaves.

Posy recommends rediscovering some old favourites, such as weigela, philadelphus and hebe.

“After spring shrubs such as weigela have flowered, remove around one in five of their stems from the base.

“That will leave more space for perennials, bulbs and bedding plants.”

Lee Burkhill suggests that you decide on your flower border colour scheme before you go shopping or order from the catalogue.

“If you just buy all your favourite plants or whatever catches your eye, your border can look a bit like a pick-and-mix sweet counter,” he says.

“There are two kinds of colour scheme – monochromatic and contrasting.”

Monochromatic means picking just one colour – for example, pink.

If this is your preference, buy plants that flower in a wide range of pink shades.

This kind of colour scheme is romantic and calm.

At the other end of the spectrum, use two colours that contrast, such as blue and yellow, purple and yellow or red and white.

These colour schemes are vibrant and eye-catching.

Lee also advises you to check the eventual height and width of a plant.

“Plant for the size the plant will be in a year or two,” he says.

“If you try to fill the border completely with new, young plants, then some will out-compete others, which will die. So you’ll get a muddle.”

Jack Wallington is the author of “RHS: The Gardener’s Book of Patterns”.

Jack suggests including plants with patterned leaves – such as variegation – and plants with a strong structural outline, such as fatsia.

Above all, repetition creates patterns. You could plant a trio of different plants at one end of the border, then repeat several times along the border.

Or, Jack says, just repeat one plant to create an informal pattern, which is similar to nature.

Posy advises against trying to plan your flower border all at once.

“Start with a shrub and build some perennials around it, but add more as the summer continues.”

That’s where bedding plants are so useful. Posy uses these – she likes cleomes and cosmos – to fill gaps in the border later in the season.

Posy (www.posygentles. co.uk) also does online consultations for individual borders.

Lee (www.gardenninja. co.uk) does online garden consultation, too, and Jack’s “Gardener’s Book of Patterns” is available from www.jackwallington.com, www.rhs.org.uk and bookshops. ■