A sumptuously colourful garden has the extraordinary power to lift the spirits no matter the time of year. Yet many people struggle to create their own colour combinations that are suitable to site and soil, and which take their gardens through the seasons. This new book provides inspiration and practical advice for gardeners wishing to improve their plantings, both in appearance and in use. Val Bourne shows how varied and vibrant plantings can enhance the look of beds and borders, and how - with a little planning - they can be beautiful features for much longer than one season. Colour in the Garden is particularly useful for those with small gardens, where every inch of space must work hard for as long as possible. Written by a true plants woman and experienced gardener, with an in-depth knowledge of plants and how they behave, as well as a strong and creative sense of colour, this guide will revolutionise the way we think about colour in our gardens and ensure that no gardener will ever feel at a loss again. Hardback
This completely unique Rosebud Geranium will transform your baskets and gardens with a summer long show of their stunning double flowers in a confection of pinks, reds, whites and purples, and everything in between. Renowned for their tolerance of drought and heat in summer, yet they perform really well in our more normal rainy Summers too! In our view, one of the very best choices for summer bedding and reliability you can buy, and our customers think so too - this is regularly in our top 3 bedding plant best-sellers. As they are about to burst into flower in summer, you will notice gorgeous buds in clusters, each one looking just like a tightly budded rose waiting to burst open, to create a simply incredible show of colourful, double flowers. Plant them in baskets, window boxes and containers anywhere where they can trail spectacularly, and you will not be disappointed. Supplied as a pack of 12 plug plants, 3 each of the following varieties, ready to grow on before planting out.
Well known for their ability to cascade with free flowering exuberance from window boxes and hanging baskets, trailing Geraniums are a must-have for every summer garden display, and the 'Decora' varieties are the most popular type across the UK and Europe. This collection of trailing ivy-leaf Geraniums all have wonderfully bright, single flowers and are incredibly prolific, producing a non-stop torrent of colourful blooms from May until the frosts arrive in the autumn. Geraniums will thrive in any warm, sun-drenched location and are tolerant of drought, perfect for those long hot summers, and you'll be rewarded to an even better show if you occasionally feed with a high potash plant food and deadhead faded flowers by cutting the whole stem off at its base. Supplied as 24 plug plants, ready to grow on before planting out. reaching a height of 30cm (1ft) and trailing up to 1m (3ft), including: 'Decora Red' x 12 - Vivid red with a darker centre, trailing to 60cm (2ft). 'Decora Pink' x 6 - Bright pink with a splash of red in the centre, trailing to 60cm (2ft). 'Ville de Rheinberg' x 6 - White with magenta edges, trailing to over 1m (3ft).
Create incredible Spring displays as early as this April with these stunning Magnolia shrubs. Their heady perfume fills the air and the range of colours and formats makes this a perfect starter collection. And, whilst they love garden soil, they will happily grow almost anywhere - they look stunning in pots on your patio. Despite their connoisseur status, anyone can achieve truly amazing displays with these easy-to-grow Magnolias. Compact and slow-growing, they remain a manageable size for even the smallest garden. Totally winter hardy and perennial, so you can enjoy them year-after-year ... for decades! In your collection: Magnolia stellata: Breathe in deeply. The large white flowers that burst out of the silky, silvery buds that cover the bare branches of the aptly named Star Magnolia during March and April are deliciously fragrant. Slow-growing and compact (3m (10ft) in height and 4m (12ft) across) this plant will thrive in most soils. Magnolia x soulangeana: One of the most popular magnolias you can grow thanks to a succession of huge, tulip-shaped pinky white flowers that smother the branches of this shrub in mid to late spring. They are shown off to great perfection on the spreading bush as they appear before its dark green leaves. Eventually reaching 6m (20ft) by 6m (20ft) wide, it can be pruned to keep within an allotted area. It prefers acidic soil or pots filled with ericaceous compost. Magnolia Susan: A perfect specimen for a small garden, this medium-sized magnolia boasts narrow, goblet-shaped flowers that appear from near purple buds in April. Measuring almost 15cm (6in) across, each deep pink bloom packs a heady scent. It does best in slightly acidic soil or can be planted in containers of ericaceous compost. This upright shrub will grow to 4m (12ft) high by 3m (10ft) across. Supplied as already established potted plants in 9cm pots, ready to plant.
You can now enjoy true year-round interest with vibrant flower colour, brightly coloured berries and stems, tactile bark and wonderfully fragrant flowers - simply brilliant value for money compared to expensive, potted garden centre shrubs. These 12 tried-and-tested garden winners will fill any gaps you might have in your existing beds and borders or allow you to plant a new one from scratch, with each individual shrub having the potential to fill about 1m sq. (3-4ft sq.). Once planted they will rapidly grow and look tremendous from this year onwards, giving a stunning visual display and a degree of privacy and security for you, as well as a natural safe haven for a wide variety of wildlife. The berries will provide much-needed winter food for wild birds and the shrubby structure will offer cover and protection for them too. Varieties Include: Symphoricarpos albus: Known as the 'Common Snowberry' for obvious reasons! The berries provide much-needed winter food for wildlife. Grows to 90-120cm (3-4ft).Syringa vulgaris: The common Lilac produces fragrant, lavender-coloured blooms each May. Hardy and deciduous and great for hedging, it grows to 300-450cm (10-15ft) tall.Cornus alba: The 'Red-Barked Dogwood' provides fantastic autumn colour with its bright red vertical branches. In summer it leafs up and has soft pink flowers in mid-summer. Grows to 90-120cm (3-4ft). Potentilla Yellow: A tall, upright shrub with rich green foliage, smothered in beautiful yellow flowers from late spring to the first frosts. Robust and drought tolerant even in exposed conditions, it likes a sunny spot. Deadhead to keep the flowers coming and trim in autumn. Grows to 120-150m (4-5ft).Tamarix tetandra: Commonly known as the 'Tamarisk' or 'Salt Cedar', this upright, deciduous shrub or small tree has gracefully arching dark branches and needle-like foliage. A superb focal point, it produces masses of feathery plumes of tiny pink blossom from April to May. Holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit. Grows to 300cm (9ft).Spirea douglasii: Part of the rose family, it is often know as the 'Rose Spirea'. Easy to grow with masses of pretty pink flowers in early summer. Perfect for small spaces. Grows to 90cm (3ft).Forsythia intermedia 'Spectabilis': Literally one of the most spectacular early season shrubs because of its bright yellow bloom. Perfect for hedges and really easy to grow. Grows to 120-150cm (4-5 ft), although can be trimmed into a tidy hedge. Hypericum Hidcote: With masses of saucer-shaped, buttery yellow flowers from early to late autumn contrasted against lush, semi-evergreen foliage, it is compact and bushy and great for feature hedging. Holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit. Grows to 100-150cm (3-5ft). Deutzia scabra: Also known as the 'Fuzzy Deutzia', this native of Japan and China grows to about 250cm (8ft) tall and smothers itself in pure white fragrant flowers in June. Berberis thunbergii 'Atropurpurea': A great hedging plant because of its spiky branches, but also a beautiful garden plant. The yellow flowers appear in late spring and the purple foliage provides lovely autumn colour. Grows to 90-120cm (3-4ft). Philadelphus coronarius: Commonly known as the 'Mock Orange', it will be clothed in a profusion of creamy white, fabulously fragrant flowers through June and July. Grows to 150-180cm (5-6ft).Weigela rosea: A lovely garden shrub, with fabulous pink flower colour in May, June and July. Grows to 90-120cm (3-4ft). Please note: these plants are supplied dormant and without leaves, looking more like dried twigs, and will establish in the ground over winter. They will not show signs of growth until the weather warms in spring, when they will burst into leaf.
A superb new hardy Primrose mix, flowering in the widest range of dazzling colours including beautiful bicolours. Very early to bloom, flowering from mid autumn and providing spectacular winter colour. Compact in habit and unform in flower time. The perfect Primrose for winter containers and borders.Can also be grown as a pot plant in a cool conservatory or greenhouse. Lovely in the house at Christmas! Supplied as 20 garden ready plants, ready to plant, growing to a height and spread of 25cm (10 in).
Sweet Peas are consistently voted one of the nations favourite flowers year after year, their evocative scent and ease of growing making them so popular. Here we have created a mix of the most popular colours and shades, including many old-fashioned types, selected primarily for scent when used as cut flowers. These are supplied as 4 plants in each plug - plant them as they are and do not tease apart, and you will end up with bigger and better displays. From earlier plantings before end of March, you can trim them back to encourage side branching and thus more flowers. These Super Fragrant Sweet Pea plants will provide bunch after bunch of long-lasting scented flowers to cut, throughout June and July, making lovely posies in a vase or gifts to friends and family.Supplied as 12 x Multi-Sown Jumbo Plug Plants, ready to grow on before planting out.
No, your eyes are not deceiving you - this amazing hardy Hibiscus bush actually does have 3 gorgeous colours on the same plant. Quite cleverly, all 3 varieties have been selected carefully so they grow at similar rates, and no one colour will grow together and create a fabulousand colourful bush of pink, white, and blue blooms. All that your Hibiscus will need from you is an annual trim to shape, and they will stay in this lovely mix for years. Hibiscus syriacus is totally hardy in the UK, but thrives best in hot, sunny spots, and responds particularly well to heavy feeding, especially with a feed rich in trace elements. Flowering in August and September, prepare to amaze your friends and neighbours with this horticultural wonder! Supplied as an established plant in a 21cm pot, ready to plant out.
Lavender 'Hidcote' is the classic, hardy English perennial, and this much-loved cottage garden favourite will transform your garden with colour and incredible fragrance and flower power! Named after the world-famous garden in The Cotswolds and awarded the prestigious RHS Award of Garden Merit, this compact variety is a proven winner in UK gardens. Suitable for edging a path or for planting as a fragrant hedge or garden border where its magnificent scent will delight anyone who walks past! A perfect solution to attract bees and other pollinators into your garden, Lavender makes an ideal companion plant if you grow your own fruit and veg It'll stay compact too, reaching 45-60cm (1-2ft) tall so won't take over your garden either. Very hardy, incredibly easy to grow and drought tolerant, a top growing tip is to clip lavender back lightly after the flowers have faded in late summer. Cut the stems back by a few inches, but not so far that the stems are bare of live foliage, and plants will then have time to produce new shoots before winter dormancy. The clippings can then be uses to make fragrant indoor displays and potpourri! This drought-tolerant plant will thrive in a sunny border, container, herb or gravel gardens. If you garden on heavy clay, it is worth adding some grit to improve drainage and to open the soil up. Space plants 90cm (3ft) apart, or if growing a hedge, 30cm (1ft) apart or, 45cm (18in) for larger cultivars. Lavender can be grown in large pots, 30-40cm (1ft-16in) diameter, using a multipurpose or loam-based compost such as JI No 3, with some extra coarse grit, (up to 30%), to improve drainage, along with some controlled release fertiliser granules. Supplied as 20 x super-sized, Garden-Ready plants to provide you with fast results for the minimum amount of effort they've been lovingly nurtured and grown on so that they are ready to plant out immediately. Your lavender plants will be delivered to you in time to create fabulous and long-lasting displays - just plant them straight into your pots, hanging baskets or beds and borders and look forward to great displays with absolutely no fuss.
Patio Perfect is the very best sweet pea for any outdoor pots and planters! It naturally grows to only around 2ft tall and will become smothered in sweetly scented blooms from mid June onwards bringing a fabulous mix of summer long colour to your garden. As the flower stems average around 6in Patio Perfect can also be cut and makes a lovely posy in a small vase, yet takes up little space at all. You'll enjoy a lovely blend of pinks blues and reds in this sensational patio sweet pea. A large pot - the one in our picture is around 15in in diameter will accommodate 3-4 plugs supplied, each of which have at least 4 plants in. Like all sweet peas Patio Perfect likes to root deeply so choose pots with a depth of at least 12 inches, large pots such as these will also reduce the risk of your sweet peas drying out in warm summer weather. For best results ''stop' the plants by removing half an inch from the tips soon after planting. This will encourage branching giving an even bushier plant with more flowers. Be sure to dead head any old flowers as this will keep the flowers coming and extend the season right up to Autumn. Supplied as 12 x Multi-Sown Jumbo Plug Plants, ready to grow on before planting out.
More than just a new variety Power Daisies are a completely new garden plant bred from old fashioned pot marigolds yet are worlds apart from their fussy forbears. Once planted they branch freely forming neat bushy spreading plants with bright glossy foliage about 30cm tall. Double daisy blooms appear in May and just keep on coming - often right up to the end of the year a full six months after the flowering starts. Unlike regular Calendulas plants set no seeds and are mildew free, they're easy to care for and resist the worst of summer weather, they're perfect for large pots and sunny borders. So perfect is the Power Daisy series that 'Tango' was shortlisted for the 2018 RHS Plant of the Year Competition - so you know that it's a garden-worthy plant. Supplied as 12 jumbo plugs, 6 each of yellow and Tango orange, ready to grow on before planting out.
One of the nation's favourite early spring plants, Camellias are, when given the right conditions, very straightforward and problem free. Providing fabulous displays of flowers when almost every other plant is still asleep for winter, they're ideal for providing a bold splash of colour when the garden is quite drab - plus they're fabulous in pots where they can be moved to any part of your garden. The key to success with Camellias is they need acidic soils - like Rhododendrons. This means they can easily be grown in pots in ericaceous composts, and provided they are fed with specialist ericaceous feed, will provide many years of colour and interest. They are evergreen, and their neat, shiny, tough leaves will provide a backdrop to other plants all year.Flower buds start swelling late the previous summer, and keep getting bigger all autumn and winter, until they burst open in early spring. The flowers can be caught by frosts when they are opening, but the buds are generally fine, and the plant is 100% hardy and tough. Supplied as three plants in 9cm pots ready for potting on or planting out, each Camellia collection contains one each of: Mikenjaku - Vivid, scarlet-red, semi-double blooms with a central crown of yellow stamens 3m x 2m. Fl Feb - April Brushfield's Yellow - Creamy white, anemone-form blooms with a light-yellow tone to the centre of the flower. 4m x 2.5m. Fl Feb - April Triumphans - Deep rose-pink, double blooms. 3m x 3m. Fl Feb - April