Topic: lacking in colour

[aquilegia]

 :o

Somehow, my garden is lacking in colour at the moment. I think my obsession with Aquilegias means I have far more late spring than early summer colour.

So can you suggest and good plants for early summer colour? (easy care, hardy periennials and pref cottage garden types!)

I've done a lot of annuals on my previous years, so this has never been a problem before.

[Kerry]

hi aquilegia,  :)
out in my garden at the moment and making me smile:
astrantia (ruby wedding and roma), lychnis coronaria (magenta and white), lilies (particularly regale), malva (deep pink), last of allium chrisophii, hardy geraniums, tradescantia (white and purple), clematis (the president), lavender, sweet peas (matucana, white supreme, oxford blue and azureus), cerinthe (major and purpurascens), pot marigolds, nasturtiums, red orach, poppies, chilean glory vine, plus I have some wild flowers, oxe eye daisy, white campion, wild carrot, teasels.
I reckon all of the above would look at home in a cottage garden. I like colour and 'clashes' and can grow all of these jumbled up without a headache! :)
Cheers all.

[Plocket]

Hi Aquilegia

Kerry has mentioned many of my favourites (lavender, clematis, astrantia, sweetpeas), but I also have agapanthus, astilbe, californian bluebells (don't know the Latin), pinks, geraniums, lobelia in hanging baskets. Primulas (candleabra) are still going....  

Good luck! There's certainly a lot to choose from!

[William O]

Just a few more

Foxglove, Toad Flax, Poppies, hydrangea

[eileen]

Writing furiously here so that I can take a note of all those lovely sounding plants for my garden too. I have the same probleam that you do Aqui - everything looks green just now as all my spring flowering plants have 'gone over' until next year and my summer flowering bulbs haven't come into bloom yet.

Thanks folks!!

Eileen.

[aquilegia]

THanks all. You've listed many of my favourites! Just must get around to buying them now (what more? screams my bank account!)

I love hardy geraniums, but only have three. Of my two lillies - the first finished weeks ago and the other is still in bud. I sowed poppies direct, but none of them germinated. Or maybe they did and something ate them. Foxgloves also finished weeks ago.

[Val]

Well I am glad I'm not the only one, I was going to start a thread about it. I think I might have a trip to the garden centres and see whats in bloom now, loads of buds no flowers...well not many, pinks have gone over, so have some of the H. geraniums, waiting for the second flush of things. Cornflowers are still out and the verbena bonari, whatsit,are standing proud and tall looking lovely.

[Kerry]

forgot these earlier:....hollyhocks, cephelaria gigantea (giant yellow scabious, bees love it), bergamot, cirsium rivulare atropurpureum (red ornamental thistle), thalictrum(just showing flower, pink, like gypsophila), hemerocallis.
 :) :)
Any room left in your budget?!

[Val]

budget? whats that? Oh yes that thing hubby says is always overdrawn and I think he loves me buying for the garden bless him, he always says, buy the shop why don't you, it does have a few more words added but I won't put them here.

[Doris_Pinks]

Garden centers, the bane of my overdraft!! Went in to return my broken 4 month old felco secateurs and came out with 2 coreopsis, a chive plant (mine have mysteriously dissapeared) and another fennel!(Children have stripped mine to feed to the guinea pigs)
 But on a good note they are sending me a new spring for my pruners! ;D

[Lavender]

Same problem here - spring garden is beautiful, then downhill all the way.  This year though I've got loads of Sweet William - has anyone mentioned him?  Loads of colour from white s[eckled with pink through to a lovely magenta.  Also got various verbascum and penstamons which are colourful.  I'm a purple/pink/red person, so it's all that sort of colour scheme.  

[feet of clay]

Aqui.  You anywhere near N. Cheshire?  I have lots of magenta hardy geranium that's due for a dig up and divide in the autumn.  Chunks will be readily available - or I can try for seeds.  Advice regarding the dividing would be gratefully received.

[Mrs Ava]

Well, spent today in my garden so thought I would list all of the things in flower, or at least in bud so any day now will be blooming!

Hebes, sweet williams, bottle brush, geums, day lillies, lillies, potentilla, scabious, crocosmia, various grasses, cerinthes, hardy fuschias, jacobs ladder, sweet peas - annual and perennial, echium, delphiniums, lupins, chilean glory vine, sage, santolina, poppes, geraniums, pelergoniums....and I think that is about it.  

Sorry for the poor spelling and lack of poper latin names.  
The grasses I have are wonderful.  Some are low growing but throw up flowering spikes over 6 foot tall, others are 6 foot tall with tufts poking from the top.  Wouldn't be without them!  So, there is lots to get to flower now but it is all in the planning.  Autumn is a low point for me as everything finishes, altho I am trying to be less tidy and not cut things back, like the grasses and angelica flowers.

[Mrs Ava]

Forgot...astilbes and hostas.

[Tenuse]

I have lots of eringyums, morina longifolia, some of the later flowering drumstick alliums, the japanese anenomes are just coming into bud, and the bedding plant kind of verbena is doing well.

Ten x

[Muddy_Boots]

Don't forget Penstemons, they come in lots of colours and look after themselves apart from cutting down in autumn after flowering has finished!  :)

[rosebud]

Hi Aqui dont forget the seeds coming your way for sowing soon as you get them, i did some of the delphiniums yesterday.
poppies are almost ready.and a surprise will be enclosed for you ok. Rosebud. :D

[Hardy Perennial]

I'd suggest having a look at 'Designing with Colour' by Nori and Sandra Pope (my local library has a copy - maybe yours will too). Perhaps just a shade on the artistic/coffee table side, but contains excellent listings of plants that will give a succession of colour throughout the year. Or you could just ask on here, of course. Doh.

[aquilegia]

ooh Rosie - how exciting! I can't wait to see what it is! I'll get yours in the post this weekend.

It's starting to look a bit more colourful now. The penstemons are blooming away, along with Lavatera Barnsley, cosmos, poppies, beautiful scarlet empress scabious (my favourite flower in it at the moment), sweet peas (and runner beans :D), and the crocosmia is just coming out. The gladioli are well and truly in bud too. I'm sure there's more but I can't think of it at the moment!

[Garden Manager]

Dont forget stuff for later on in the summer too, Aqui. Gerainiums, poppies etc are great but the come soon after the aquilegias and ae soon over.

A couple of years back i had a problem of the borders going over by mid july with nothing later on. I have now attended to this. Things like crocosmia (i have the ever popular 'Lucifer'), heleniums (go for an early variety), rudbekia, echinacea, japanese anemone (good in shade)
 and hardy fuschias. Many of these will come into flower in mid summer given the right weather conditions. Dont forget grasses too, as most reach their peak in mid to late summer, and look just as good as any other perennial.

Hope this helps