Chosen for their beauty, reliability and outstanding performance, these plants have proved themselves in rigorous RHS Plant Trials, having received the RHS Recommended: Award of Garden Merit, which highlight the best choices for gardens of every size and style.
Perfect around roses
This elegant, self supporting relative of the forget-me-not carries open sprays of sky blue flowers, with a darker spot at the base of each petal, on slender upright stems. Cynoglossum amabile makes a pretty cut flower for cottage-style bouquets and can either be sown in spring or treated as a Biennials are plants that complete their life cycle over the course of two years. In the first year, biennials typically produce leaves and roots but no flowers. In the second year, they flower and produce seeds before dying. Some common biennials include foxgloves (Digitalis), honesty (Lunaria annua) and viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare).
Semi-double flowers
‘Rose Chiffon’ is an annual with blue-green foliage and semi-double flowers to 6cm across, the fluted petals heavily flushed rose-pink on a cream ground, red on the reverse. Grows to 25cm tall. Hardiness rating: H3.
Sweet pea heaven
This pretty picoteed sweet pea is one of the most fragrant of all sweet peas and combines its powerful fragrance with creamy flowers that are beautifully flushed with purple towards the edges. Lathyrus odoratus ‘High Scent’ carries four flowers per stem when grown informally, and starts to flower earlier than many sweet peas. Sow in the autumn for the best plants, or in spring. 1.8m (6ft). Hardiness rating: H2.
The perfect pink
The beautifully veined flowers of the dramatic Lavatera trimestris ‘Silver Cup’ are carried on tall, bushy plants which spread well and develop an almost shrub-like presence. Each trumpet-shaped flower is boldly veined in vivid pink, with a neat dark eye, and shades to pink towards the edges. The petals have a reflective sheen that gleams in the sun. 70cm (2ft). Hardiness rating: H3.
A poached egg-like flower
Of all the direct sow Annuals are plants that complete their life cycle in one growing season. They are generally easy to grow from seed or can be bought as young plants from garden centres. Annuals are ideal for growing in summer containers and filling gaps in borders. Some examples of annuals include sunflowers, cosmos, sweet peas and zinnia.
Bell-shaped flowers
Normally classed as a half-hardy annual, and sown in a A propagator is a portable, lightweight structure usually plastic, with a vented or unvented lid to provide a humid, slightly warmer atmosphere. It is useful to help seeds germinate and root cuttings. It may have adjustable, thermostatic temperature control.
Sky blue
This classic love-in-a-mist with its distinctive sky blue flowers, Nigella damascena ‘Miss Jekyll’ grows well from a spring sowing and even better when sown in the autumn; its sharply divided leaves are an appealing winter feature and then it flowers more prolifically and earlier than spring sown plants. A lovely cut flower, it self sows well. 45cm (18in). Hardiness rating: H3.
Silver foliage
Like Cynoglossum, Omphalodes linifolia is an annual which is both lovely in itself and also a great mixer with Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs.
A dramatic poppy
One of the most dramatic of all poppies, ‘Ladybird’ has been selected for its especially vivid red colouring and the intensity of the large, black, rather square blotch at the base of petal. For sowing in autumn or spring, ‘Ladybird’ tends to self sow less than other poppies so there’s no danger of that red colouring taking over the garden – but it does need careful placing. 40cm (16in). Hardiness rating: H5.
Child-friendly
Nasturtiums, specifically Tropaeolum majus Alaska Series are one of the best flowers for kids to sow: the seeds are large, they come up quickly, the flowers are colourful and the leaves are edible. Plants in the Alaska Series are neat and bushy (they don’t climb), have prettily marbled leaves and the flowers, in this separate colour and others and a mix, are shown off just above the leaves. 30cm (1ft). Hardiness rating: H3.
-hero.jpg?width=1184)
