Best blooms for a season full of colour and scent
I like nothing better than trawling through the seed catalogues, and here’s my choice of colourful flower seeds for eight months of interest.
I pick without any agenda, but themes inevitably emerge – here, sweet peas, climbers and vivid colours dominate. Enjoy! Most of these choices are hardy annuals or half-hardy annuals – see my how-to pages for growing tips. Read about Suttons’ award-winning roses.
Colourful flower seeds – Sweet pea Duvet Mix
Bred especially for blanketing the ground with fragrant colours. Easy to grow and longer flowering than most – ideal for baskets for a different summer container display. Height: 30cm, spread 38cm, £2.49, www.thompson-morgan.co.uk.
Nasturtium Bloody Mary
Blood red blooms with a flecked colour pattern and peppery, watercress taste. Flowers July-August. Height 20-30cm, spread 20-30cm, £2.99, www.suttons.co.uk.
Colourful flower seeds – Poppy Black Swan
Double and semi-double frilled blooms on burgundy and black flowers have finely cut petals that will dance in the breeze, £2.49, Rob Smith Collection, www.dobies.co.uk.
Erysimum Jumbo Orange
Bred by Plant World Seeds, these wallflowers should produce unique, enormous, hardy perennial plants with stout stems, almost trunks, in their second year. They will produce a long-lasting display of fragrant flowers, predominantly orange, deeper-veined in red, but you will invariably discover plants with other colour shades, £3.65, www.plant-world-seeds.com.
Colourful flower seeds – Morning Glory Party Dress
Large flowers, noticeably earlier than other varieties. A vigorous climber, ideal for covering trellis or fences. Flowers the same year as sown, height 10ft, £2.40, www.mr-fothergills.co.uk. Also from Mr Fothergill’s is sweet pea Mayflower 400.
Cornflower Classic Magic
A quick and easy-to-grow mixture in a highly unusual, harmonious blend of colours. An ideal filler for the border and for cut flower displays. Height 90cm, £2.40, www.johnsons-seeds.com.
Colourful flower seeds – Sunflower Suntastic F1
A dwarf sunflower at just 18” tall with a branching habit produces numerous large golden yellow flowers, each with contrasting, black centres. The perfect centrepiece for large containers, £3.49, www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk.
Sweet pea Timeless
A white, classic sweet pea which has frills in abundance and a sweetly scented perfume, from Matthewmans, £2.30, www.sweetpeasonline.co.uk.
