|
|
|
|
Gardener's World |
 |
Colour for baskets and tubs.
April is the ideal time to plant summer colour into baskets and patio containers to provide you with lots of colour throughout the summer period. A wide selection of good flowering outdoor patio plants is now available for planting including:
Verbena tapien.
One of my great favourite basket or patio plants. Verbena tapien has a brilliant deep blue or violet flower colour.
The side branches creep over the edge of a basket or patio tub and all side branches produce a large cluster of flower.
Tapien is a plant that looks super on its own or part of a mixed planting with white bacopa and saphire lobelia.
Trailing verbenas are available in many different colours and will reward you with lots of excellent colour throughout summer.
It can also be used as a ground cover plant to give colour in rockeries or mixed shrub plantings.
Plant eight small plants into a 14" basket to create a ball of colour.
Bacopa snowflake.
Bacopa snowflake produces dainty small white flowers from June to late autumn. A good plant to mix with darker colours like blue petunias, verbena tapien, or red geraniums.
The creeping stems of bacopa trail nicely over the edge of containers and the flowers are carried the entire length of the stems.
Bacopa enjoys or cooler summers and if kept well watered will flower until late summer. At home in patio tubs, hanging baskets and window boxes all in all an excellent plant.
Petunia million bells..
Trailing petunias are always popular but a neater and more useful plant is million bells. As the name suggests this plant produces an abundance of small flowers from June to November.
Million bells is more suitable for mixed plantings and window boxes as it is less vigorous and is less competition for other patio plants.
Available in a wide range of colours million bells can be highly recommended for many uses.
If frost is promised cover containers with garden fleece to protect them.Petunia surfinia.
Trailing petunias were introduced to the Irish market six years ago and have grown in popularity every year.
The colour range has been improved every year and now includes, purple, pink, light blue, navy, white, and striped.
Trailing petunias are easy to grow and are resistant to light frosts.
Planted in hanging baskets, window boxes and patio planters they will flower from June to late November and can be held over to flower the following season.
Look out this year for petunia million bells, which has smaller flowers but makes up for its size with the abundance of flowers it produces.
Ideal for window boxes and patio tubs.
Hints & tips for petunias.
- Use a good quality compost with a slow released fertiliser. We recommend nursery stock compost for all patio planters and baskets.
- Add swell gel granules to hold a store of moisture in your containers. Swell gel is added to the nursery compost before you start planting.
- Pinch back young plants before planting into containers.
- Feed every week with algoflash liquid fertiliser to increase flower colour and new flower production.
- Never let your flowering plants to dry out. Water daily irrespective of the weather.
Patio planters.
A number of excellent outdoor patio plants were introduced by Horkans last summer including Impatiens fiesta large double flowers covered this busy Lizzie all summer despite the wet season.
Dwarf dahlias proved very popular and very reliable with compact plants producing an abundance of double flowers until late autumn.
A wide selection of colours is available and this low growing plant is equally at home in patio tubs or flower borders.
Fuchsias were superb last summer the mild cool summer suits fuchsias; many of the low growing bush varieties featured last summer and flowered until early winter in patio tubs. Winston Churchill, beacon, Brutus and lady thumb were very popular.Remember Horkans Garden Centres in Sligo and Castlebar are open seven days Sunday 2 to 6pm. horky@iol.ie