Geranium wallichianum 'Buxton's Variety'
cranesbill
- Position: full sun or partial shade
- Soil: fertile, well-drained soil
- Rate of growth: fast growing
- Flowering period: July to October
- Hardiness: fully hardy
One of the later-flowering geraniums, this has soft, blue-mauve flowers with a distinctive splash of white around the centre and deeper purple veins. The flower colour intensifies as the weather gets colder and the plant keeps on flowering until October. The pretty, marbled foliage quickly forms dense drifts, valuable for suppressing weeds, and turns a fabuluous shade of red in autumn. - Garden care: In midsummer rejuvenate plants that are beginning to look jaded, by removing old flowered stems and leaves. Lift and divide large colonies in spring.
Allium cristophii
star of Persia
Huge globes of star-like, lilac flowers
Rosa 'Charles de Mills'
rose Charles de Mills (gallica)
Beautiful magenta-pink flowers
Hemerocallis 'Pink Damask'
daylily
Striking, salmon-pink flowers in midsummer
How to get more flowers
Many flowering plants can be encouraged to produce better and longer-lasting displays with the minimum of effort. A plant produces flowers in order to reproduce and ensure the survival of the species. Once a plant has flowered and fertilisation has...
Read full articleGet more flowers
Deadheading will prevent them setting seed and so use their energy producing a further flush of blooms later on. Plants that respond well to deadheading include annuals such as Ageratum, Alyssum, Antirrhinum, Calendula, Centaurea, Cosmos, Dahlia, foxglove, Californian poppy, sweet...
Read full articleChelsea Chop and other methods of extending the flowering season
Many gardeners who are happy, even gung-ho, with the secateurs when pruning shrubs and climbers are surprisingly reluctant to take the shears to herbaceous perennials. Maybe this is because it just doesn’t seem quite right to be cutting back all...
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A creeping mass of mottled foliage and long, lax stems of almost-grey eyed blue flowers dotted with black from late summer - symbolising lazy late summer
Val Bourne - Garden Writer