Versatile summer annual, ideal in sun or part-shade. Perfect for summer bedding, borders and containers in a range of colourful flowers and green or bronze foliage. Height: 20cm (8). Spread: 25cm (10).
An easy-to-grow annual for bedding and borders. Large frilly blooms in a mix of colours, from deep orange to cream, are long flowering and great for cutting. Height: 60cm (24). Spread: 45cm (18). Culinary information: Some parts of these flowers are edible. Click here for more details about edible flowers.
Begonias are well known for their versatility, flourishing in sun or shade and brightening up even the most neglected corner of the garden. This F2 hybrid mix retains much of the vigour of its F1 parents so you can be sure of a great display.
An easy to grow annual excellent for bedding and borders. Large, frilled blooms in unusual shades ranging through apricot, orange, primrose and cream. Long-flowering in many garden situations and also makes a good cut flower.
Eschscholzia are best known by their common name of Californian Poppy, alluding to their bright blooms and delicate, papery petals. Californian Poppy 'Sun Shades' is a dazzler! Its bright orange blooms appear above feathery, blue-green foliage, attracting pollinating insects to their summer nectar.
Lettuce 'Colour Shades Mixed' provides a tantalising mixture of bronze and red leaves to add colour, texture and taste to your salad bowl. This RHS AGM loose-leaf mix can be harvested as salad leaves or full heart crops all summer without worry, as this mix is particularly resistant to bolting. Height: 20cm (8). Spread: 25cm (10)
Bright fiery orange and yellow blooms unfurl above a sea of ferny blue-green foliage for a bold summer display. These dainty hardy annuals are tougher than they appear and positively thrive on poor, dry soils. The papery flowers attract bees and hoverflies, and make excellent, if short-lived, cut flowers. California poppies are easy to grow in beds and borders, or let them self seed throughout gravel gardens to form natural drifts. Height: 30cm (12). Spread: 30cm (12)
Affectionately known as Black Eyed Susan, this twining annual makes a popular and eye-catching summer climber. Thunbergia alata 'Salmon Shades' is a pretty colour mix with gentle terracotta shades of pink, orange, cream and apricot, each with a characteristic dark eye.
When it blooms in the spring and summer, Calendula 'Art Shades' is a wonderful addition to cottage garden borders. The annual's double, textured blooms also make for a great indoor display, where they will add exotic shades of orange, purple and white to any vase arrangement. What's more, this English Marigold's flowers are edible. Their petals can therefore be used as a colourful addition to salads, delighting chefs and gardeners alike. Height: 6cm (2'). Spread: 20cm (8).
Californian Poppy 'Monarch Art Shades' is a compact and wonderfully colourful addition to the summer garden. The plants produces double or semi-double flowers in powerful shades of orange. Perfect in pots and at the front of borders, or scattered amongst your planting to give intense highlights. They thrive in poor, dry soil and will self seed freely in borders, gravel and any cracks in the pavement. These hardy annuals will grow to H30cm (1ft) x W15cm (6in). Flowers from June to August. Dead-head for longer flowering, or if you want to prevent self seeding.
Calendula 'Art Shades', otherwise known as English or pot marigold, is an enduring cottage garden favourite that looks equally at home in traditional or contemporary planting schemes, where the richly coloured flowers will add cheerful character to your beds, borders or pots. They make a great cut flower for your vase, too, and the dried flowers are also excellent added to pot pourri. This easy-to-grow hardy annual produces masses of frilly petalled, fully double blooms in shades of creamy peach, orange, gold and yellow. They are hugely attractive to many beneficial insects, so make a great companion plant for your kitchen garden. In fact, the petals are edible, with a slightly peppery taste, and make a colourful garnish or addition to salads. They can also be used instead of saffron for colouring rice dishes, or in soups, stews or curries - or even as a substitute for nutmeg, sprinkled over rice pudding. The ancient Egyptians used calendula as a rejuvenating herb and the flowers have been used for centuries in cosmetics and creams for their therapeutic properties. The seeds can be sown directly into their flowering position or started off in seed trays indoors. Either way, they will flower in the same year as sowing. Calendulas thrive in a sunny spot in well-prepared, fertile soil or compost. Once established, these robust little beauties will do equally well through a wet or dry season, and with regular watering and dead-heading will flower all summer long, well into the first frosts of autumn. Supplied as a packet of 200 (approx.) seeds ready to sow outdoors in their flowering position or indoors into trays of compost. Growing to a height of 60cm (24in) and spread of 30cm (12in), sow or transplant outdoors from March to June and again from August to October, directly where they are to flower. Late summer and autumn sowings will flower the following year. Spring sowings will take 10-12 weeks to flower.
An elegant alternative to bright, extravagant colour schemes, these gorgeous tulips in shades of deep, rich purples and fresh soft lilacs will bring an air of cool sophistication to you spring planting. The large flowers look spectacular planted in groups, especially with a backdrop of the fresh spring foliage of surrounding plants. Growing happily in sun or partial shade, they are wonderful in large planters or in borders. Try mixing in orange flowering varieties for a striking colour contrast. Tulips are easy to grow and care for and can be left in the ground after flowering as long as it's well drained, so you'll get another wonderful display the following year as they slowly naturalise and spread, or they can be dug up and stored over winter before replanting the following autumn. Supplied as 15 bulbs, size 10/11, ready to plant in autumn, growing to a height of 50 cm (20 in) and width of 20 cm (8 in).