Allotments 4 All

After watching "The Allotment Challenge" on TV, I have grown some flowers for cutting and am very pleased with the results. I have Rubekia, multi head Sunflowers and Sweet Peas. Can anyone suggest anything else?

They will have to be annuals to fit in with crop rotations and I don't want anything from the Brassica family as that plot is always full of produce.

Thank you.

How about clary sage (Salvia viridis aka Salvia horminium)
Annual aster
cornflower
Gypsophila
Love in the Mist
Statice
Cosmos
or even Lavatera

Have you seen how crazy bees go over cerinthe? I have a few plants this year and the flowers are beautiful and work well as cut flowers too.

All varieties of Calendula are beautiful, particularly Indian Prince.
Zinneas look good mixed in with other flowers, a bit lonely on their own.
Dahlias are my latest favourites, I grow them from seed and have had brilliant results, you can save your favourites.
Borage, white and blue varieties are also easy to grow from seed and loved by bees..

I grow Chrysants, Dahlias and Gladioli

I mostly have perennials - you could grow them in pots and move them around as you planted new areas - but the one annual I have is pot marigold. Just collect some seeds, keep them cool and dry, and plant them in the spring.

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I'll look them up when the seed catalogues come.

If I can add a supplementary? The last comment mentioned growing in pots, I am also going to start a small container garden.

At the moment I have mint, lemon balm, blueberries and the Butterfly Bush (can't remember the name) in large pots. These are for two small areas near my greenhouse.

I would welcome any suggestions for flowering plants or veg. for containers. These could be moved into a small greenhouse over Winter.

I would keep the mint, butterfly bush and lemon balm in pots, they are thuggish and will spread/ grow enormously if you let them loose!

Lemon balm seeded all over my garden, so watch for excape attempts. Horseradish is another to keep banged up if you ever grow it. Apart from that, I haven't experimented much with veg in pots until this year. TPS potatoes are doing well in them, and I also have a cardoon in a big pot, for lack of anywhere to put it. It won't grow very far that way, though!

Here are a few pics from my flower bed at the lottie taken this evening...
http://s93.photobucket.com/user/dlp133/media/Mobile%20Uploads/photo%204-2.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

http://s93.photobucket.com/user/dlp133/media/Mobile%20Uploads/photo%203-2.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1

http://s93.photobucket.com/user/dlp133/media/Mobile%20Uploads/photo%202-2.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

http://s93.photobucket.com/user/dlp133/media/Mobile%20Uploads/photo%203-3.jpg.html?sort=3&o=4

http://s93.photobucket.com/user/dlp133/media/Mobile%20Uploads/photo%201-2.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3

here is some pics of my cut flower bed might give you some ideas

They look great, I love the mixture you have there, do I see foxgloves and dahlias? Are the gloves really late or the dahlias early?

Quote from: Deb P on August 27, 2015, 14:36:22
They look great, I love the mixture you have there, do I see foxgloves and dahlias? Are the gloves really late or the dahlias early?

the pics were taken this morning i planted foxgloves this year so they wont be flowering untill next year think you can see some glads they are just about to finish thanks for the complement

Some of the dwarf sunflowers on gardener's World last week looked lovely- at Parham House:

http://www.parhaminsussex.co.uk/blog-news/

This was how I used to grow my chrysanthemums on my allotment