Add colour to your summer border

It’s a good time to think about what plants you’re going to add to your border for added summer colour. There’s some concern that “bedding plants” are wasteful, that they use up resources and are transported long distances, but all borders need a few flowers to fill gaps.

I find that even half a dozen colourful annuals can make all the difference, as there will always be a plant somewhere that hasn’t grown as much as you expected or isn’t doing as well as you hoped.

One of the most economical ways to create summer colour is to grow plants from seed yourself. One of the easiest and most longflowering summer flowers is cosmos, and you can plant cosmos seeds under cover now.

Cosmos comes in various colours from Thompson & Morgan (www.thompson-morgan.com) and many other seed specialists. Or you could order cosmos as plug plants/seedlings from Sarah Raven (www.sarahraven.com). I’ve often found that having just three or four cosmos plants fills a border beautifully.

Verbena bonariensis is another very worthwhile plant to grow from seed, and it looks so much better when two or three plants are grouped together to create a cloud of airy flowers.

If you love rich colours in your border, then snapdragons (Antirrhinum) are easy to look after and come in glorious shades. You can get seeds easily (www.chilternseeds.co.uk, www. plantsofdistinction.co.uk and others) and plug plants from Suttons (www.suttons.co.uk) and Thompson & Morgan.

Looking at the plant company websites as I write, it seems that there are still some supply chain issues in the horticultural industry, so it may be easier to buy seeds than plug plants.

If you don’t normally grow from seed, maybe this is the year to try sowing just one tray of seeds on your window-sill. However, I’d advise against trying to plant seeds or seedlings directly into an established border. The other plants are likely to crowd the tiny plants out. Pot them on until they’re big enough to survive.