Say it with flowers for the Queen's Jubilee
14 February 2012
Gardeners planning a patriotic show to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics can get a helping hand from the RHS.
The charity has come up with a selection of red, white and blue flowering plants that will grow and go well together.
To ensure colourful flowers in June in time for the Jubilee buy partially grown plants and put them in containers and hanging baskets. Plants to look out for include white verbenas, lobelias and Nemesia ‘Wisley Vanilla’, red pelargoniums (geraniums) and blue Lobelia Panthera ‘Cobalt’. Plant centres are likely to have supplies from April.
'Although it will be necessary to get the plants into containers and hanging baskets as soon as possible, gardeners also need to ensure that they are kept in sunny, frost-free conditions until the threat of frost has passed. A temperature of 15°C (59°F) is ideal,' says RHS Member Advisor Jenny Bowden.
For the later Olympics and Paralympics gardeners will have enough time to grow plants from seeds. Worth considering are red, white and blue sweet peas, red-flowered Salvia splendens, Nicotiana (tobacco plant) in red and white, and blue flowers such as ageratums or Salvia farinacea ‘Victoria’ (AGM).
Or consider planting a wall of blue, white and red with begonias, lobelias, verbenas and ivy-leaved pelargoniums.
All four RHS Gardens will be featuring planting displays to celebrate both events and RHS Garden Harlow Carr is going one step further, planting red (‘Highland Burgundy Red’), blue (‘Purple Majesty’) and white (‘Elisabeth’) potatoes.