For flower lovers, especially in a small garden, it can be difficult to achieve a continual stream of them throughout the growing season. Whilst I always teach my students how to create planting schemes that look good all year, regardless of flowers, there are some plants you can add that will extend the flowering season massively…
The biggest bang for your buck for an extended flowering season is undoubtedly bulbs. I’m not just talking about spring bulbs either, though we will start there.
But Before We Go Extending…
The REAL key to a sumptuous planting scheme is structure. What I’m covering in this article is the icing and cherries on an already perfectly formed cake, so please don’t assume these suggestions will fix a chaotic planting scheme, they won’t. What they will do is add longevity and extra strength to one that works. If you need help fixing chaos, this article will help you fix what’s not working https://www.successfulgardendesign.com/planting-border-design-cheat/
No, not Daffs!
I don’t like Daffodils! There, I said it. For me, the yellow is often so bright it’s an assault on the eyes at the end of winter (I’m not a lover of florescent yellow). Also, I associate Daffs with council roadside planting, another reason I don’t want them in the garden (yes, I admit it, I am a plant snob)!
That said, if you’re not a plant snob & you love yellow, they are one of the showiest early flowering bulbs you can get. My preference however, is Hyacinths and Tulips, albeit a little later. I can get those in colours that suit my preferred palette of purple / pink / white/ blue.
My Favourite Flower Season Extenders
What makes for a successful scheme is not to have only one plant flowering and the rest of the garden as dead as the proverbial Dodo. Tulips tend to come up 2-6 weeks later than Daffs and therefore have more plants to partner with.
I nearly planted some last year and then didn’t – I regretted it this year seeing so many beautiful pictures of them on Substack – so I succumbed and have just planted these from Cambridge Farmers’ Outlet, albeit rather late in the season!
Hyacinths were something I had pegged in my mind as ‘old people’ flowers… that was until I found a clump of highly scented midnight purple ones flowering on my allotment and immediately fell in love, hoiked them out and took them back home to plant!
A Flowering Relay Team…
Although I teach people to design their planting schemes with good combinations, as it’s the marriage of plants that creates the harmony which sings to the soul, it does help if there is a succession to keep the combination alive as long as possible…
Stalwarts & Showstoppers
To illustrate what I’m talking about, let’s take Euphorbia wulfenii – a true garden stalwart – reliable, evergreen, with glorious lime green flowers that glow when doused with sunlight. It flowers from March to the end of June for me. It looks fantastic with many plants but I particularly love it with purple flowers.
- Euphorbia’s purple partners: Season start – Purple tulips, closely followed by Allium Purple Sensation, then the final flurry of lavender and purple foxgloves.
Each purple flower rising and falling, passing the purple baton onto the next until finally the combination is no more. Halfway through this sumptuously slow relay race, the roses come into the fray, all showy and spectacular, commanding centre stage (and a lot of fussing to keep them looking fabulous!).
As the Euphorbia and purple flower combinations sing their final song, the roses are in full flurry and then the combinations revolve around them. This is where summer bulbs become fabulous bedfellows. The beauty of bulbs, other than their flowers, is they don’t take up too much space, so they can easily be slotted in to enhance your main planting scheme.
Filling the Mid-Season Slump
There’s always that point when perhaps the roses are taking a breather and other flowers fade and you have a week or two with not much. For this time I like the drumstick Allium (sphaerocephalon) & purple Liatris. When they are mixed into borders they bring it to life when lavenders, salvias and roses aren’t quite at their best. They also help hold the fort until the blue Agapanthus do their thing. Selective summer bedding like Geraniums and Petunias (I’ve got over my plant snobbery on these!) also keep the colour buoyant.
Autumn Extenders
I ditch trying to extend with bulbs at the end of the season and go with two autumn stalwarts – Sedum & Asters. Sedums (Purple Emperor is my fave). They usually flower from August to October and Asters, if you’re lucky might manage from September to beginning November, depending on variety. Don’t ask me which Aster I have in my garden, I don’t know – it was unnamed from a local nursery, so it’s a mystery!
The purple flower baton gets passed around my garden from late March to early November and I look forward to this year’s slow, steady, procession of plant perfection.
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