A Summer Full of Colour
The summer is in full swing. Everywhere, flower gardens are full of bright colours. A particular favourite of mine at this time of the year is the tall hollyhock – seen growing along boundary edges and even out of cracks in pavements – creating great towers of almost every colour. From nothing to something incredible in such a short space of time! Some reach almost 2.5m in height, popping up suddenly above garden walls and hedges. The cottage garden look is becoming more popular – where nature is given more of a free run. Less lawn and more plants. Hollyhocks suit this perfectly.
Cottage Gardens in Avebury
At the flower shows this year, certain plants seem to be popular with many of the garden designers, reflecting the move to a more naturalistic feel and at the same time responding to the biodiversity-loss / climate change emergency we all face. Alchemilla, echinacea, verbena, achillea, phlox, sanguisorba, helenium, gaura, salvias, to name a few, were seen everywhere. Most of these also look at home in cottage garden settings … easier to relate to … ideas to take home!. Some of them make fabulous drifts of colour and structure too, while others create eye-catching moments. The deep blue of Eryngium and especially Echinops really caught my eye recently at RHS Wisley – electric blue sparkling balls – a really stunning plant when in full bloom … good for pollinators and for cut flower arrangements too!
Colourful borders at RHS Wisley
Roses and dahlias are at their best just now too and remain as popular as ever. Maybe this is because they are often planted in separate clumps or drifts and so, like hollyhocks, they catch the eye with wonderful splashes of vivid contrasting colours and striking flower shapes. And dahlias look good simply dotted about amongst cottage garden plants too.
Dahlias are popular on allotments
When selecting plants for SeeHow volume 1, although there are 140 plants to choose from, there was still not enough room for every variety of rose and dahlia. We therefore decided to choose by colour, selecting 6 popular roses of different colours and 4 different coloured dahlias. We will add more in SeeHow volume 2.
Using SeeHow recently at RHS Wisley
The above Text and all Photographs are copyright of Wincenty (Wicek) Sosna. Please contact SeeHow for permission to reproduce in any way, in part or as the complete text.