Posts by janet

Plants are in bloom earlier this year due to the dry weather which brings on flowering before the “normal” season. Colour this autumn comes from Rudbekia fulgida Goldsturm, a jolly yellow daisy like flower with a black centre which flowers for weeks if kept watered. They do best in a heavier soil that retains moisture and need to be split and replanted every few years to maintain their flowering. Another flowering perennial that is...

After the dry period in early summer that caused some plant to die, many late summer perennials will be flowering less. Plants that enjoy the dry weather in late summer include Echinops ritro or Globe Thistle. They will grow to 1.5m tall and have soft thistle shaped leaves with tall stems bearing golf ball sized blue flowers. The need support but do well at the back of borders in full sun and well drained soils. Another blue plant is...

July and August are dominated by flowering perennials to bring colour into your garden. Visit one of the flower shows or some of the gardens open in July to get ideas for planting schemes to try at home. A few shrubs are in flower at this time including the classic Lavender. They revel in gravelly dry soil so are ideal for dry gardens. If you have a wall that needs something to drape over the edge, grow the English Lavender with pale...

There are many beautiful perennials flowering in June and it is difficult to choose which ones to have in the garden. I would love to have delphiniums but the slugs get them in my heavy soil. However, if you can keep the slugs off, they can pop up each year with tall spires of rich blue, pink or white flowers. In autumn many will flower again if you cut the dead flowering spikes off in summer. Another reliable perennial for damper...

After a long cold winter we can welcome a variety of trees, shrubs and perennials that flower in May. Laburnum x watereri is a smallish tree (4 to 8 metres tall) with long racemes of bright yellow flowers in late spring. Note that all parts of the tree are poisonous including the seeds so not one to plant where small children or animals are around. However the flowers are stunning and if you had time to train over an arch you could...