The Flourishing Garden

Plants for pollinators ... in June

11/6/2025

0 Comments

Perfect for pollinator plants for June include, clockwise from top left, Cirsium, Astrantia, Cistus, Digitalis (foxglove), Dianthus (garden pink), Campanula, Cosmos, Salvia nemorosa

0 Comments

Long flowering perennials

10/6/2025

0 Comments

In small gardens in particular you need plants that will earn their keep.

Some provide year-round interest with their colourful leaves while there are a good number of border perennials that will give you months of flowers to enjoy. Many of these have flowering periods that start this month and continue through well into autumn.

You can find lots of suggestions at www.katiesgarden.co.uk/advice

0 Comments

Greener garden choices

9/6/2025

0 Comments

Water is a precious commodity and one we should always use wisely in the garden.

Using rainwater on your plants is better for the environment, better for your wallet, and here in East Anglia with our hard limescaley tap water, it is also better for the health of your plants too, particularly those in pots.

Don’t wait too late into summer to fit water butts - you need some rain first to get them filled for those hot, dry spells!

Put saucers under pots in summertime to stop water escaping away out the bottom, and add bark to stop it evaporating from the top.

Except when newly planted - and during heatwaves - plants in borders shouldn’t ever need watering. If they do it is a sign they are in the wrong place.

If you don’t have any areas of naturally damp soil to move them to, light shade can reduce the strain instead.

For drought-tolerant plants take a trip to Katie’s Garden Plant Centre

0 Comments

Salvia focus

7/6/2025

0 Comments

Towering Salvia Amistad has won many fans for its striking blue flowers on virtually black stems

Large planters need large centrepieces, and the half-hardy Salvias are perfect for the job.

Tall spikes of flowers will keep going throughout summer and often right up to wintertime with very little tidying necessary.

They are well suited to container life as they don’t have high watering demands.

Salvias such as the Salmia and Wishes ranges can effectively fill pots on their own but you can take things up a notch by surrounding them with smaller summer annuals. Petunias, Calibrachoas, Verbenas and Diascia are some of the many suitable options. In sizeable troughs pair up with Dahlias, Fuchsias, Osteospermum, Cosmos and similar.

Go tastefully colour co-ordinated or go bold with clashing colours!

Salvia Mystic Spires is a supersize bedding plant for when you want quick results in the borders

The ‘Salmias’ are a range of half-hardy Salvias that will give you a touch of the tropics!

Stunning red blooms are the selling point of Salvia Roman Red, which is great for pots and borders

Salvia Love & Wishes is one of the best for planters; it will require protection in winter

0 Comments

Superstar Salvias!

7/6/2025

0 Comments

If you wanted to build a collection of all the Salvias available today, you would need yourself a very big garden!

Salvias have been the stars of 21st century gardening, with more and more varieties coming out each year.
‘Hot Lips’ was the plant to really start the trend, its red and white bicolour blooms turning heads wherever it appeared.

It introduced many to the delights of this hugely varied family, which takes in sub-shrubs, perennials, annuals and herbs.

Plant breeders have been more than happy to meet demand and you can now get them in just about every colour imaginable, alongside an increasing number of bicolour mixes.

If you want to help the bees, they are one of the best plants you can go for!

They have aromatic leaves, with a fruity smell similar to blackberries, which is best appreciated by brushing your hands on them as you pass by.

One of the biggest appeals of Salvias is the exceptionally long flowering season.

The woody-stemmed shrubby Salvias such as Hot Lips come in to bloom in May and are often still going right up to the end of the year. As many grow to mounds of around three foot and are coated in a mass of flowers this is a substantial boost to the borders!

Although modern, they still work well in cottage garden themes, while bolder colours fit in perfectly to more exotic looking gardens.

The rule of planting in threes can be ignored as they are large enough to put on a show on their own. Instead repeat through the borders for a cohesive look.

Plant a mix of colours and you will have varied looking borders without much effort.

In Suffolk we are lucky to have the right conditions for growing Salvias, thanks to our relatively mild winters. They are drought-tolerant and do best in free-draining soil and sunshine, although can cope with partial shade.

Maintenance is easy. When first flowers fade in midsummer cut back the whole plant by half and do the same either at the end of the season or wait till early spring.

Other types of Salvia - of which there are very many - require slightly different care but are just as bee-friendly and almost as long-flowering.

Find a huge choice of Salvias this June at Katie’s Garden Plant Centre

0 Comments

Pot art!

6/6/2025

0 Comments

In some situations, a single pot is all that is needed. But if you are clustering containers make sure you think about them as a cohesive group.

Just as in borders, you are looking for a pleasing mixture of plant heights, colours, shapes and textures.
Pots are often available as sets and the same design in different sizes will straight away give you a range of heights; even more so if you use plants that match the scale of the pots they are in.

Repurpose old pots by flipping them upside down to use as stands to give you even more variation.

Take advantage of the ability to move things around, putting plants to the fore when they look their best, and shuffling them to the back when they have peaked for the year.

Clustering your pots together will also make watering much less time consuming!

0 Comments

A plant in a pot for every spot

5/6/2025

0 Comments

As every gardener knows, there are myriad reasons for growing plants in pots.

Chief among them is the ability to have plants where it is not possible to go into the ground.

Soften the appearance of patios, decking and balconies, and pretty up doorsteps, wide pathways and those awkward spaces along the edges of walls, buildings and driveways.

Pots are of course portable, and taking advantage of this opens up all sorts of opportunities for keeping your outdoor space looking beautiful for longer.

Containers also give you the chance to overcome some of the natural conditions found in your garden, allowing you to grow a wider variety of plants.

In theory, you can grow any plant in a pot, including annuals, perennials, herbs, edibles, alpines, grasses and ferns, and even trees, shrubs and climbers.

But the secret to success is in picking the varieties best able to cope with the container life.

Roots are the least glamourous part of a plant, but they are what keeps it alive. In a pot, roots have limited space to grow, limited nutrients and limited water. So you need to chose plants with modest requirements.

Anything described as “vigorous” should be avoided, as it will have an insatiable appetite for water and feed and its roots will soon fill all available space, leaving little room for the compost and water it needs to stay alive, leaving you with a sad, stunted display. Instead look for those described as “compact”, “dwarf” or “slow-growing”.

You also want to choose plants with top-to-bottom good looks: some are better in mixed borders where unsightly lower growth can be hidden up.

Hanging basket plants are just as effective in planters, and can be combined in much the same way, just with more focus on what grows up than what grows down. In larger planters you can use perennials, shrubs, grasses or larger half-hardy annuals as your centrepiece and surround with basket plants to provide the froth and trail around the edges.

Alpines and succulents are good easy-care options for containers as they require little watering, and their shallow root systems make them the best choice for saucers.

Mixed herb pots can be as pretty as they are useful, but do read labels to check ultimate sizes. Mints definitely fall in the ‘vigorous’ category so don’t make them share with anything else!

In Suffolk most of us have alkaline soil, but using ericaceous potting compost in containers means you can grow the likes of acid-loving Rhododendrons, Azaleas and blue-flowered Hydrangeas - just remember to give them rain water rather than our hard tap water.

If you are determined to have flowers in a shady part of the garden, plants in pots can be the solution. Start them off in the sun and when they come into bloom move them into position, where they should be fine for several weeks before they need to come back into the sunshine. Having two sets in rotation will keep the show going.

Containers can also fill temporary gaps in borders where you can’t dig down, such as where spring bulb displays have finished.

Whatever you are growing in pots, using good quality compost and mixing in long-release fertiliser is a must for strong, healthy growth, as is regular watering.

See suggested plants for pots at www.katiesgarden.co.uk/advice

0 Comments

Stop and smell the flowers!

3/6/2025

0 Comments

Sometimes the hardest thing to do, is to do nothing, although it must be said that some personalities find this easier than others!

“Slow you down” is an old East Anglian phrase that inspired an entry in this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.
With plants by Katie’s Garden, The Addleshaw Goddard: Freedom to Flourish Garden by Carey Garden Design Studio - which won Gold and Best in Show in the Small Gardens category - was designed to encourage everyone to take a moment from everyday life.

Create a haven in your own garden with a few thoughtful touches. Seating to enjoy the morning sun with your coffee, and a different spot for watching the sun go down.

Unwind with fragrant flowers and the tranquillity of ponds and other water features.

Plant trees and hedges to bring in the birds, and pollen-rich flowers to draw in even more wildlife for you to sit and watch and admire.

0 Comments

Fragrant highlights!

2/6/2025

0 Comments

ROSES
Old fashioned ‘shrub’ roses often have the strongest scent. There was a period when rose breeders rather forgot about fragrance and instead concentrated on the health of the plants and longevity of the flowering period but the newest varieties often combine the best of all worlds.

CLIMBERS
You don’t have to try hard to find a scented climber. Smother arches, pergolas and fences in Lonicera (honeysuckle), Jasmine, Trachelospermum (star jasmine), Wisteria floribunda and climbing Roses. Some Clematis also produce a light fragrance.

SHRUBS
You can enjoy a succession of scent throughout the summer by planting a variety of shrubs. Daphne and Syringa (lilac bush), can start you off followed by Philadelphus, Berberis, Myrtus (Myrtle) and Elaeagnus (silverberry), with Buddleia taking you well into autumn.

BORDER PLANTS
There are numerous annuals and perennials to enjoy. The Dianthus family includes Garden Pinks and Sweet Williams. Phlox, Erysimums and Peonies will come back year after year, while scented annuals include tobacco plants, stock, Violas and Petunias.

0 Comments

Fragrant delights

1/6/2025

0 Comments

To truly appreciate a garden it should be a sensory experience.

We all think about how our beds and borders look, but if you aren’t factoring in fragrance you are missing a whole extra dimension.

Smell is often thought of as the most evocative of the senses, imprinting itself firmly on our minds with memories of childhood and of people and places we have loved.

A garden filled with sweet perfumes invites us to stay and linger, to sit and relax, rather than rushing through to the next chore or obligation.

When choosing scented plants the first thing to bear in mind is that we all have our own personal tastes.

In the same way that some find their happiness in restful whites and others delight in hot pinks, the way we perceive smells is different to anyone else. So buy plants when they are in flower and trust your own nose. What someone else considers a heady scent could come across as ‘soapy’ to you; a delicate delight to you could be imperceptible to another.

Placement is key to getting the maximum enjoyment. Most obviously plant them around seating areas, but also by pathways, doorsteps, even by the washing line: places you will stay in for a while or pass by frequently.

Many flowers release their fragrance in the evening - in order to attract pollinating moths - so if you like to sit out late in the day, make sure you include some of these.

Among them are Nicotiana and many common climbers. In your hanging baskets use the Petunias that smell nicest to you.

It’s not just about the flowers: a lot of plants have aromatic leaves. Most release stronger scents when touched, so get tactile with plants when making choices at the nursery, and place in areas where they are likely to get brushed against.

Herbs are especially good for this, including lemon verbena and the many types of mints.

Get inspired at www.katiesgarden.co.uk/plantingthemes

0 Comments

<<Previous

Plants for pollinators ... in June

Long flowering perennials

Greener garden choices

Salvia focus

Superstar Salvias!

Pot art!

A plant in a pot for every spot

Stop and smell the flowers!

Fragrant highlights!

Fragrant delights

The Flourishing Garden

Author

Archives

Categories

Keep in touch with Katie's Garden!

Hours

Telephone

Email

Newsletters

Rewards club