Mid-Summer Perennials

 

It’s all about summer perennials the first big wave of herbaceous colour or the first hot hit as geum Totally Tangerine strikes out in fabulous contrast against blue geraniums and yellow daisies making up for the loss of what have been fabulous tulip displays followed by a brazen early wave of grand purple alliums.

July Gardener's Calendar

 Take steps to prevent your pots and garden getting tired and loosing vigour whilst working hard to delight. A little chopping, snipping and feeding should encourage your annuals and herbaceous to carry on flowering late into the year.

Summer Flowering Perennials

These perennials are all summer flowering and out now.

Perennial Favourites for June

This is a great month to admire herbaceous perennials with show many 

show-stoppers.

June Gardener's Calendar

June is a month to be enjoying the garden but with a little bit of care and some snipping and deadheading you can keep those flowers going often into late summer

The Preston Bissett Jubilee Bike

 

Peter's wild theme Jubilee bike can be seen just outside the old gaol.

Planted with a real wild daisy feel. Erigeron karvinskianus (or Fleabane to you and me!) scabious, solanium, gasses, ferns, Geranium Phaeum, euphorbia,aster,lychnis, salvia, marguerite and nepeta.

Syringa Little Kim a Dwarf Lilac

 

Fragrant lilac without being too big. Little Kim is a fabulous dainty compact shrub with a wonderful fragrance. Keep it as a neat mid height shrub in your border. It also has been awarded an AGM by the RHS. What could be better. Recommended for a sunny position but I find they handle partial shade.

Syringa pubescens subsp. patula 'Miss Kim' or Syringa patula (Palibin) Nakai 'Miss Kim.

An Alpine Lewisia Perfect in a Pot

 

Love how this little alpine lewisia that I popped into a jug shaped pot has just thrived. The perfect evergreen succulent perennial for this pot.

I think the shape of the pot ( with a narrow neck) stopped it getting too wet in the winter.

Ceanothus The Perfect Evergreen

 Who hasn't fallen for this amazing evergreen. Ceanothus are just flowering spectacularly this year.

It is a versatile genus of plants producing wall shrubs, bushes and ground cover. So many are evergreen with the beautiful blue flowers.

Give them a warm sunny well drained spot.

Laburnum Flowering in May and June

 

When this tree flowers it really is something special. A moderate sized Laburnum at 5m by 3m, xwaterii 'Vossii'.

This is the variety ideal for walkways and arches. Awarded an AGM , it is very hardy and will grow well in a well drained sunny position.

A Pretty Border In My Garden

This is one of my borders.I have both orange and purple tulips in my hot coloured border. See how the orange pop against the Pittosporum dark foliage and the soft telima frothy spikes. There is some apricot huchera foliage in there and a back drop of white hellebores and ferns.

Herb Garden Salad

 

My own garden salad. Made impromptu from my herb garden.

Sorrel, wild garlic, Salad Burnet, chives, mixed salad leaves, lambs lettuce, flat leaf parsley, wild rocket and for a sprinkling of colour few violas. Top with a dressing of French mustard, grilled lemon, toasted sesame seed oil and a drop of maple syrup.

There is nothing technical in this quick fix salad and it tasted great.

Colour Ideas For Summer Pots, Containers and Hanging Baskets.

Take A Look At Some Of The Summer Bedding Colour Combinations 

Pinks, blues and silver tones are one of the most popular colour choices

Summer Bedding Plants For Baskets, Borders And Containers

When it comes to our  bedding plants  it’s all about having a huge choice and it always has been in over 30 years of producing summer bedding here at Preston Bissett. Plants are prolifically emerging out of the tunnels every day and deliveries flooding in.

There Is Plenty Of Colour For Summer

There is lots of annual colour for pots and to fill those gaps!

Syringa vulgaris Sensation is a Stunner

I've said a lot about lilac recently but I was in the large deciduous shrub beds yesterday and this one has a white trim to the blossom. It is just stunning. It is called Syringa vulgaris Sensation. Quiet an appropriate name.

How To Make A Summer Hanging Basket

Here are some step by step photos of us making up a basket

 

There are different ways of potting up baskets and we don't always follow the same pattern but here is one Peter made up.

 You will need:

May Gardener’s Calendar

Here are a few suggestions of what you can be getting on with in the garden this month.

Spring Favourites Spirea x arguta

One of the big spring favourites Spirea x arguta out in early spring. A feathery tall shrub with a cascade of bridal like white flowers. It's a tough shrub. I seam to be able to grow it everywhere. I think you could make a hedge of it as I like the soft foliage but it is deciduous.

A Gorgeous Fragrant Spring Flowering Evergreen Shrub Viburnum Burkwoodii

Another gorgeous viburnum with evergreen foliage, fragrant spring blossom and great autumn colour. This is Burkwoodii

Deciduous Trees with Great Foliage Colour

 

Many trees have wonderful foliage, and this little collection represents those I felt were looking their best this May and is by no means everything.

Top Perennial Plants for Early Colour This Spring

Lamprocapnos Spectablis, Dicentra Spectablis or good old Bleeding Heart. What ever you now call this perennial it is just lovely.

Vinca, Primula elata, pulsatila, pulminaria, geraniums, bergena, bruneria, polemoniumn, (Solmon's Seal) Polygonatum and tiarella are just some of the gorgeous perennials performing at the moment.

Coronilla glauca Citrina Is In The Pea Family

Have you noticed this has been in flower since November and its still blooming.

This was twinkling in the sunshine as I was watering yesterday.

Dwarf lilac Syringa meyer Palibin Looking it's Best

Syringa meyeri Palibin

So here are my 2 dwarf lilacs in their full glory. These are in bud and just waiting to flower. This is a much smaller species of lilac that what we are used to but has all the benefits of one of the best shrubs for fragrance. I love this but smaller and daintier shrub.

Exochordia Is A beautiful Spring Flowering Shrub

Exochordia  xmacrantha, one of my all-time spring favourites it is soon to be absolutely flush with flowers. Otherwise known as the pearl bush.