|
With brighter days and a warming sun the garden starts to emerge from the winter gloom, signalling spring has sprung. Then even the most reluctant fair weather gardener is sure to be lured outside, and there's plenty to do in the borders. Every dry day is a chance to tidy, weed, dig or spruce, but it's also a time to plan ahead and plant up for high summer. This planning is a good task for less-pleasant days - whether in the shed, greenhouse, or at the kitchen table, start to think about the plants for those warm lazy days in your summer garden.
Start with the Versatile Dahlias
This is the ideal time to buy and start off dahlia tubers, preferably under cool glass. Once the temperatures rise the tubers will sprout and grow on slowly, forming sturdier plants. Too much heat produces soft, leggy growth. If the temperatures look set to plunge at night, as they often can in spring, a triple layer of garden fleece should protect them. Cuttings can be taken once the new growth has reached three to four inches (up to 10cm). Using a sharp knife, cut above the tuber, leaving a section of stem to reshoot. You can also break pieces of tuber off with new growth to form a 'chicken leg' should you wish to produce more plants.
 The main thing to remember is to never plant a dahlia outside until after the last of the frosts as these frost-tender Mexican beauties will be reduced to mush by the slightest frost. Cold nights also check their growth, so bide your time. Stake as you plant, either with specialist plant supports or with a trio of canes and a circle of string. Slugs can be a problem too, but despite that every gardener should aspire to grow some dahlias, for they will flower from July until the late frosts if deadheaded. They come in a rainbow of colours and a variety of showy shapes that include scrolled star, spiky cactus, soft waterlily, pom-pom, single bee pleaser, and the giant head turning decorative. Double forms last longer than singles, so there's less deadheading. Regardless of type, they all make good cut flowers and they can be accommodated in a vegetable garden or woven through a border. Wherever you grow them, given good light, they will flower abundantly.
Dark and Dramatic
Dark dahlias in shades of red add depth and substance to border or vase. When yellow daisies begin to dominate autumn, as they always do, these sultry beauties add an ornate richness that makes the yellow daisies gleam like gold. 'Karma Choc' combines khaki-green foliage with velvet petals that hover between black and red. It's one the finest of the Karma Series, which were all bred for the cut flower market. Strong stems and lots of flowers are a feature in all Karmas.
 'Summer Night' (usually known as 'Nuit D'ete') is a spikier red with green foliage and this taller dahlia will peep through herbaceous plants and still make an impact. The slightly taller 'Rip City' has fuller flowers with the same hint of black and the equally tall 'Arabian Night' has rounder, smaller flowers that morph between crimson and maroon. 'Chat Noir' is a robust dahlia with large heads of quilled petals, or you could use the pompom, magenta-red 'Downham Royal'. If you want a mixture, the Dark Dahlia Collection will give you a wonderful selection of rich and opulent blooms.
Pretty as a Picture
Pink and purple dahlias mix well with asters of every colour, as does the mauve-washed 'Eveline', which is mainly white with a purple wash and crisp purple edge. 'The Wizard of Oz', a fondant-pink decorative type with a whirl of neatly arranged petals, is just a foot high, so it's suitable for the front of the border or in a container. It's sold separately and is also included in the Pastel Dahlia Collection along with 'Karma Prospero' and 'Blue Boy' which will also mix well with aster daisies. For more punch in your border 'Ambition' or ‘Purple Haze’ will create a stir, or choose the 'Irresistible pink dahlia collection' for a spectacular display.
Subtle Antiques
Paler colours are highly popular with flower arrangers and the large flowers of 'Café au Lait' have a warm coffee swirl at the centre of each large, ragged-petalled malted-milk flower. 'Zingaro' has a gorgeous decorative flower which opens a reddish plum, but soon mature to a subtle yellow-flushed pink, whereas ‘Melody Dora, unfurls from raspberry-pink buds to a soft blend of apricot and yellow petals. Although the base colours are subtle there are shades of raspberry, pink and orange, so these dahlias will blend with almost anything without fear of ever looking insipid.
Day-Glo Radiance
 Strong, radiant colours light up late-summer and autumn, helped along by the crystal clear light so all day-glo dahlias make perfect touch-papers for blues and purples. The butterscotch-orange 'David Howard', a top flight dahlia, is excellent with blue flowers such Agastache 'Blue Fortune' and the khaki dahlia foliage adds even more depth. This is also in the ‘Burnt orange dahlia collection’ along with Dahlia 'Alfred Grille and Dahlia 'Mel's Orange Marmalade'. Plant these in a border with tall willowy Verbenas bonariensis and agastache for a wonderful contrast. Karma Fuchsiana' shimmers and shines in the sunlight, jumping between orange and vivid pink and salmon, seeming to smoulder in the garden, or the semi-cactus 'Park Record' with its starburst rolled yellow petals, infused with an orange-apricot wash deepening towards the tips and edges of the petals creates a luscious bloom.
If you want something simpler, 'Bishop of Oxford' is perfect with pretty orange-red flowers held above the purple-flushed foliage on dark-coloured stems, creating a lush blend of colours. Wonderful for cutting and loved by bees. For a stunning form to stand out in the border with their shape and colour ‘New Baby’ is the one. A pompom variety in a stunning vibrant orange, with flecks of yellow on the ball shaped flowers, which will seem to ‘bob’ in the breeze. Team it up with rich purples for a stunning effect. 'Jescott Julie' is one of the orchid-flowered forms, with burnt-orange petals streaked and splashed with tomato-red growing up to 8cm across. Combine this with other orange forms such as in the ‘Chocolate orange dahlia collection’ and it will look good enough to eat!
Miniatures for Containers
 If there's a patio or balcony, some of the miniature dahlias containerise well and suitable candidates include the tiny-flowered Star Wars. Its dark foliage and masses of warmly toned flowers sit well in terracotta. The Happy Series contains some stunners and the dark-eyed bright pink 'Happy Single Wink' is one of the finest, with a dark middle ringed in orange stamens set in ox-blood red. Where the pink petals overlap there's a clear-red corolla of colour. The Dark Angel Series are also short, roughly a foot or so, and 'Pretty Woman' is aptly named. When the flowers open each sugar-pink flower, with a wine-red stain in the middle, gradually produces a ring of yellow stamens. Like all singles the flowers are worshipped by bees and butterflies and the Dark Angel Series all have dusky foliage. Although not in one of these 'Series' 'Melody Dora' is worth a mention. A free flowering decorative form with sumptuous blooms, packed with masses of apricot-yellow petals emerging from raspberry-pink buds, this neat pretty dahlia grows to about 45cm tall so is perfect for a patio pot.
More Cutting Garden Flowers
 It's very easy to dismiss gladioli and Barrie Humphrey's Edna Everage hasn't helped the gladdie's image one bit! However gladioli make good additions to a cutting garden, or they can be massed into a border. They come in exciting colours and forms and the aptly named 'Plum Tart' has ruffled pinkish-red flowers held on strong stems. Mix this with dahlias for a wonderful effect for your flower garden as we have in our ‘Bulb collection for the vase'. Sometimes it is good to have something understated, such as a glimpse of apple-green in a border.' Green Star', which has replaced the old variety 'Green Woodpecker', is one of the best with the upright lime green ruffled flower spikes. Mix this with 'Purple Mate' for upright splendour, but whatever you do avoid any straight lines when planting.
Not all gladioli are stiff and showy, the species are subtler in form and colour. Gladiolus × colvillii 'The Bride' has warm-white starry flowers softened by pink stamens. 'Nymph' is white with lipstick pink kisses on the petals and Gladiolus murielae is a nodding white with a maroon eye.
These subtler forms are worth planting in containers by a seat because they are fragrant, especially in the evenings. Or you could containerise an exotic Ginger lily such as Hedychium gardnerianum. The pallid-yellow flowers, which appear in late-summer, are studded with snuff-brown anthers and the foliage is positively banana-like. In warmer gardens it will overwinter in the ground. It's another fragrant beauty, again smelling strongly as the light fades. These are all summer pleasures to acquire now. |
