Wealden Times | WT264 | May 2024 | Love Your Home Supplement inside

ut these are evergreen and it has
the added advantage of handsome
lime coloured bracts in spring.
A useful, if diminutive, group of plants
that seem to grow in any situation,
including tricky dry shade, are the
Heucheras. There is a striking, almost
black variety called ‘Obsidian’, several
cultivars come in opulent maroon shades,
but there are lighter colours too, and for
a splash of orange, try H. ‘Marmalade.’
An Annual Blast
You can’t beat annuals for a long and
colourful season. Their short, but actionpacked
lives are focused on flowering.
Annuals only have one short year in
which to complete their life-cycle. If you
can thwart them in their life’s purpose
by continually dead heading, they will
keep trucking along, flowering until the
frosts. Floriferous and reliable annuals
include Cosmos – usually in shades of
white and pink, but some orange and
yellow varieties too, – Antirrhinums
that bring a rainbow of spires, and
Tithonias and Zinnias that sing out,
acid bright in the sunshine. For the
shadier parts of the garden, use scented
and muted tones of Nicotiana, or low
growing Impatiens (busy lizzies)
Colourful Containers
Annuals and tender bedding plants in
pots will bring instant colour and impact
to key areas – terraces and paving are
the immediate thought, but you can
even put pots into gaps in the borders,
or places where the interest is flagging.
The great thing about bedding plants
is that they flower for a long period.
Remember to look after them – water
containers daily in warm weather and
if you planted them up in late spring
for a summer long show, the multipurpose
compost only has enough
food in it for 6 weeks, so after that
they will need a weekly feed of liquid
seaweed, or a high potash fertiliser.
Pelargonium are a good old stalwart,
but there’s a multitude of container plants
on sale right now at the garden centres –
choose your colour scheme, but also think
about shape. Depending on the size of
the container (and in summer try to use
larger containers as they won’t dry out as
quickly), you will need a tall central plant
– an Antirrhinum majus, a tall tobacco
plant or spire of some kind will work well,
Mauve foxgloves
Pastel tulips
Alchemilla and Geranium
‘Johnsons Blue’
then mid height and with a contrasting
flower shape – large flowered like a
Petunia or Zinnia and then something
to spill over the edges – Nemesia, Diascia
or Lobelia, even ivy. The phrase used in
container gardening circles (I’m guessing
there are such things) is ‘thriller, filler,
spiller’ to remind us of the types of
plants that make good shapes in a pot.
Seasonal Colour
The quality of light changes through the
year – furthest away and weaker in the
winter, blazingly close in the summer.
The seasonal light of the sun will affect
the colour palette of plants too. Pale
winter light favours silhouettes and husky
shapes. Most of the late winter and early
spring flowers are white, yellow or cream
to signal more strongly to pollinators in
low light. Spring is all new and green,
interspersed with fresh blues, yellows
and froths of pink. As the light gets
stronger and the sun rises higher in the
sky, the colours strengthen – to attract
in sun-loving butterflies and bees.
Our cottage garden favourites –
geraniums, lupins, delphiniums and geum
will have finished flowering by July and
can also have quite straggly foliage by that
time too. Keep the June blooms coming
by being ruthless – cut them all back
A raised bed in late summer
– right down to the ground as soon as
they’ve finished flowering and by the end
of August they will be back with a repeat
show of flowers and tidy new leaves.
During late summer and early autumn
the palette changes again as the light
softens and sinks lower in the sky.
Bring in Heleniums and Rudbeckias in
russet, gold and mellow orange, the
deep blue of Echinops and brighter hue
of Ceratostigmas, Salvias in a myriad of
colours and the dusky pinks and mauves
of Asters. The flowers of Sedum spectabile
are a magnet for butterflies and bees and
are a great addition to the front of the
border, providing long lasting colour right
through the autumn too, as the nectarpacked
flowers fade into attractive seed
heads in shades of russet and bronze.
Every season brings in a range of
different colour choices – I once gave each
month a colour (but we know that way
madness lies). In the end it will always
be down to personal preference – the
important thing is to enjoy the colours
of your garden, calm harmony or riotous
assembly – it’s entirely up to you.
Join Jo for a gardening class at her
garden in Woodchurch. Call 07923
969634 or see hornbrookmanor.co.uk.
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