You can’t get enough summer flowers in your garden.

Photo: Grøn Kommunikation
Written by Lars Lund 
Edited by Louise Curley

 

Even the coldest winter will be followed by spring and summer

While winter aconites, snowdrops and hellebores are blooming in the late winter garden, it’s time to turn our attention to summer, even if it does feel a long way off. Now’s the time to plan for summer flower power!

First-year perennials such as achillea and gaura can be sown now, which will give them sufficient time to produce plants that will flower this summer.

Summer flowers can be used all over in the. Garden. Here they are in the kitchen garden. Some of them should be sown inside now.

Photo: Grøn Kommunikation

 

Hardy annuals such as ammi, cerinthe, calendula, larkspur, cornflowers and echium can all be sown under cover in March, either in a greenhouse or on a sunny windowsill.

Some half-hardy annuals and tender perennials can also be sown in March. Plants like dahlias, snapdragons, pelargoniums and amaranthus need a long growing season in order to flower, so they should be sown earlier than other half-hardies. They’ll need protecting from frost between now and late May, so keep them under cover until the weather has warmed up.

Other half-hardy annuals such as cosmos and nasturtiums are fast-growers, so you can hold off on sowing these until mid to late April.