Ammi visnaga ‘Green Mist’ is a new variety of Queen Annes Lace, with larger, darker green and more mounded umbels than its cousin Ammi majus. It flowers from June to September the blooms are initially flattened and lime green, turning white. The textured flower heads are a flower arrangers dream.
Ammi lends a delicate airiness to any border and is often used to create a cohesive flower bed. It associates well with both annuals and perennials and makes an excellent addition to wildlife gardens, luring bees and butterflies to the nectar rich flowers. Organic Seed.Anchusa ‘Dropmore’ is a 1905 selection that is still available today. They will thrive in a sunny border, are much loved by almost all bee species and make a great companion to rich plums and purple tones.
‘Mariska’ is a little known compact variety of Dill often referred to as ‘Florist’s Dill’. With starry bright yellow flower heads and abundant foliage it is an excellent variety for use as a cut flower, yet is still a great variety for the kitchen.
The Semi-Tall Flowers Mix is a richly flowering mixture of that produces large quantities of 50cm (20in) tall annual flowers for the border or for cutting. As well as being ornamental, they will provide nectar and pollen for bees, butterflies and other insects from early in the year to late in the season.
Composed of a finely balanced selection of annual flowers designed to provide a long succession of flowers from June to September, the Tall Flowers Mix grows 60 to 70cm (24 to 28in) tall and produces large quantities of flowers that are ideal for the border and for the vase.
Worldwide, Antirrhinum is one of the most important ‘summer cut-flowers’ grown from seed. Adored by florists and gardeners alike and available in a rich range of single colours, they are cultivated as an annual or as a biennial.
The beautiful blue star-shaped flowers of Borage are edible with a cool cucumber flavour. Use them as garnish in fruit cups, summer drinks, wines and Pimms. Garden visitors can be converted to herbal advocates simply by offering a taste of its flower! Organic Seeds.The herb borage is a well known annual. Not so well known and not often written about is the equally beautiful form ‘alba’ which boast pure white, perfectly star-shaped flowers. Each flower is centred by five black stamens which heighten the drama. The flowers are edible, garden visitors can be converted to herbal advocates simply by offering a taste of its white flower.
Ornamental Grass Briza maxima has blue green leaves and flower heads that hang like scaly little heart shaped lockets that are tinged with pink from late spring to mid summer. They make a wonderful cut flower and flowering in 10 to 12 weeks from spring sowing, they are very easy to grow to perfection.
Cheerful and bright, use Calendula in beds, borders or containers. Calendula is prolific and durable, and like most hardy annuals it is easy to grow, simply sow where it is to flower. It is currently one of the top herbs used for medicinal use. Sprinkle salads and decorate cakes with the edible tangy petals.
‘Sunset Buff’ is a lovely, more subtle coloured calendula. It is the soft apricot-buff version of ‘Indian Prince’ with the same crimson petal backs. They grow to a height of around 60cm and a spread of 45cm, are an excellent variety for borders and make a stunning cut flower.
Centranthus ruber is a Cottage garden favourite that’s made it into the style books. Sweetly-perfumed, dense clusters of reddish-pink flowers appear from July to October. They are ideal for attracting bees and butterflies and other pollinating insects into the garden and lovely when used as a cut flower.
Centranthus ‘Snow Cloud’ produces airy clusters of white flowers that appear from July to October on tall, fleshy stems with glaucous leaves. Very long flowering, sweetly-perfumed and easy-to-grow from seed, given an early sowing Centranthus will flower from July right through to October.
This beautiful highly versatile, aristocratic border plant has become very much in vogue in recent years. Oval, fleshy blue-green leaves spiral up the stem with tightly packed, sea blue bracts – and then the finale – small clusters of rich purple-blue tubular, nodding flowers which are adored by bees.
Cosmos “Daydream” is a superb new colour, palest pink with a deep rose pink centre makes this a unique and delicate addition to any garden. The flowers are very early and are freely produced over a long period. Very easy to grow, making it a perfect choice for children or the less experienced gardener.
Introduced for the 2016 season, Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Xanthos’ is causing rather a stir in horticultural circles. Unique soft-yellow blooms are produced in profusion on compact dwarf plants.
Intensely fragrant, with a delicious, sweet perfume, Dianthus barbatus ‘Alba’ is a pure white form of Sweet William. Absolutely beautiful and easy to grow, everybody can grow them to perfection.
Didiscus caerulea is known as the Blue Lace Flower for its unusual colour. The delicate lavender-blue flowers, each composed of tiny, star-shaped, sweetly fragrant flowers are perfect for the cutting garden.
Recent developments of Didiscus caerulea have broadened the colour range. Didiscus ‘Lacy Mix’ produce the same lacy umbel shaped domes and finely cut foliage. In a pastel blend of powder-blue, lavender, soft pink and white, the plants branch freely, filling borders with a light, floaty feel and masses of stems for cutting.
Fullers Teasel a sub-species of the common teasel. The bristly flower heads were cultivated, matured and dried. Inserted into wooden frames, they were used to bulk up the pile on woolen cloth. The variant name ‘fullonum’ refers to the name of the trade of the ‘fullers’ to raise the nap on woolen cloth – to ‘tease’ it. Teasel is still used today by some who weave wool by hand.
Echinacea pallida is one of the more rare members of the Echinacea family. They have much longer, ray flowers than those of the more familiar purple coneflower, the plants bloom earlier and continue to bloom sporadically through the autumn months.
Echium vulgare is a valuable native plant and is exotic enough to earn a place in a flower border. The plant is much loved by almost all bee species. If you don’t want plants that honeybees simply visit, but want to select plants that honeybees clearly love, choose Echium for your garden.
Siberian wallflowers are at their best in early to mid-May. With cheerful deep orange blooms, they are very easy to grow and combine well with other plants; indeed wallflowers demand companions and set the mind racing regarding potential planting combinations.
Erysimum (formerly Cheiranthus) cheiri ‘Fire King’ is another old and tried variety, with striking, flame-like, glowing orange-scarlet flowers. A compact variety with a bushy habit and a rich fragrance, they will supply the household with an abundance of cut flowers for many weeks.
What spring garden would be complete without a bed of delightful, sweet-scented Wallflowers, harbingers of warmer weather to come? Erysimum cheiri, formerly Cheiranthus cheiri ‘Ivory-White’ is a fabulous form. A compact variety with a bushy habit which is ideal as an underplanting to tulips and other spring bulbs.
A favourite with gardeners, Erysimum cheiri ‘Scarlet Emperor’ is a classic wallflower with bold, fiery blooms in shades of rich scarlet and glowing crimson. Strongly scented, the flowers carry the sweet, spicy perfume that wallflowers are famed for.
Eschscholzia are of the easiest and most colourful annuals to grow, with masses of beautiful silky flowers in shades of gold. They bloom profusely over a very long season, succeed in all soils and garden positions and are heat and drought-resistant. They give a garden performance second to none!
One of the grandest of plants, Euphorbia characias ‘Wulfenii’ has upright stems clothed with whorls of fleshy, mat grey-green leaves that lend the whole plant a textural quality that is unparalleled. From March to June the plants are topped with intense chartreuse-green flowers’.
Gypsophila has been cultivated since 1759 in England, so its use by florists has a long pedigree. It has recently become rather trendy among celebrity and designer florists, even taking centre stage as the main flower focus of bouquets and arrangements.
Sunflower ‘Autumn Beauty’ produces numerous long-stemmed flowers from summer to late autumn in a variety of solid and bi-colour bright warm colours – golden yellow, bronze, brown and burgundy. The long stems are excellent for cut flowers and look absolutely stunning in a vase on their own.
Great big fluffy golden heads the size of a dinner plate. This whopper of a sunflower has the same stunning densely packed yellow petals as the beloved dwarf ‘Teddy Bear’ sunflower but on a far larger scale. They make excellent cut flowers, long lasting and are very impressive in a vase.
Sunflower “Soraya” is an award-winning new arrival. It is the first Sunflower ever to win an AAS award. It produces lovely rich tangerine-orange flowers with dark brown centres. This branching sunflower is prized for cut flower arrangements, producing 20 to 25 flowers from each plant.
One of the best loved summer flowers, ‘Vanilla Ice’ is one of the prettiest sunflowers varieties available. With clusters of delicate pale creamy-yellow flowers with dark chocolate centres this compact variety is suitable for the border or can be left add a naturalised charm to a wildlife friendly garden.
Gorgeously scented pure white flowers are held above rosettes of dark green leaves. Like all sweet rockets it is highly attractive to bees and other beneficial insects, the fragrant flowers perfume the air in late spring and early summer evenings. The night-scented stock is a close relative.
Dames Rocket produce flowers varying in colour from deep rich purple, through all the paler lilac shades to white. Highly attractive to bees and other beneficial insects, the fragrant flowers perfume the air in late spring and early summer evenings.
In spring, Dame’s Rocket lights up the woodland edges with her blossoms, providing nectar for hummingbirds, moths and butterflies, and fragrance for the soul. Sow seeds directly where they are to flower in early summer
This heirloom morning glory originated in Bavaria in Germany and named for the original Seed-saver Baptist John Ott, Ipomoea purpurea ‘Grandpa Ott’ flowers of intense violet-blue, with a ruby red star. It is a good climber for walls, trellis work or if allowed to scramble through other plants or trees.
Knautia arvensis is an attractive native perennial herb of well drained grassland. It can be found throughout Europe in meadows, rough pasture, hedgerows and verges. Though it is by nature a perennial, it will flower and produce seed the first year if grown as an annual, either autumn or spring sown.
Extra early, extra large blooms are the feature of this award winning sweet pea, an excellent choice for early spring colour and the best strain for producing early cut flowers. If you have never seen this kind of sweet pea on long stems before, and don’t quite understand what all the fuss is all about…they are marvellous …guaranteed to make you fall completely in love with them.
The Heirloom Mixture is a wonderful mixture of the Heirloom Grandiflora Sweet Peas. Representing most of the colours of this type and containing varieties that date back to the 16th century. Fabulous flowers in great colours that grow on vigorous plants, each have an intense full bodied perfume.
“Midnight” is very special variety. Seed of which is seldom available. Beautifully formed scented blooms of dark crimson, almost black. An amazing colour. The flowers are almost twice the size of a regular sweet pea and its stems are almost twice the length and so are perfect for cutting.
A blended mixture of outstanding quality. Composed of over 40 colours and shades of the Spencer Waved sweet peas. Large flowered and fragrant with an excellent colour range – with so many having such a beautiful scent … who could resist?
Sweet Pea ‘Princess Elizabeth’ was first introduced in 1945. It was on display when the Queen first visited Chelsea Flower Show in 1947. In 2008 the Queen was delighted to be presented with a new bouquet and to hear that hear her namesake has been grown continuously for more than 60 years.
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