Creating The Perfect Summer Display In Your Garden

Selecting your summer plants to create a beautiful display in the garden can be a tricky business. It's far too easy to become distracted by all the stunning blooms available and instead of buying plants suitable for your outside space, opt for those that you like the look of.

If you're well organised, you will already be beginning to enjoy the summer flowers coming through from bulbs planted earlier in the year. If not, don't panic. You still have time to create a beautiful summery space.

And you have numerous options. You can plant directly in the garden, create stunning displays on your patio with some beautiful patio plants or even add a window box to your outside space.  The plants available to you are almost endless. Among our favourites are traditional cottage garden plants as well as some more unusual plants which will add interest to your garden as well as some which are brand new to GardeningExpress.co.uk.

Below is a guide on some of the best summer plants available and how you should look after them once they're planted.

1. Lavender – no garden is complete without a lavender plant. They have lots going for them – they smell terrific throughout the summer, create a beautiful display and attract lots of insects which will work to keep the nasty bugs away from your plants. Added to that, lavender is very easy to look after. The summer long flowers and attractive foliage lend themselves to many positions. The plant looks great within the main garden, in a courtyard area or on the patio, as part of a herb garden, or under planted with something like a Eucalyptus to create a real Mediterranean feel. When it comes to caring for your lavender, plant or place in a sunny spot, water well and cut back hard in the autumn. To find out more http://www.gardeningexpress.co.uk/
2. Clematis Celebration – this is a new plant to us and we adore it already. This stunning plant has double flowers which blossom during May and June, producing flowers throughout the summer months of July, August and September. Its gold foliage certainly makes a dramatic impact in any garden. Clematis Celebration is easy to grow, loves sunny spots and will thrive in a bed or pot. It reaches a maximum height of 2.2m. Check out the site for this beautiful plant. It will be there to order any day.
3. Blue Chip Buddleia – the Lo & Behold Buddleja Blue Chip is the first dwarf buddleia making it the perfect choice for your patio. This stunning plant is the result of painstaking breeding in the US and has undergone extensive trials, including with the RHS. The plant, which is perpetually flowering, generally grows wider than it does high reaching around 60cm/2ft tall maximum. It is low maintenance and a very easy to care for plant. It has a sweet honey fragrance which will keep your garden sweet smelling throughout the summer months. For more http://www.gardeningexpress.co.uk/
4. Passion Flowers - despite their tropical and delicate appearance, passion flowers are tough at heart and easy to grow. These hardy plants freeze during the winter but grow back annually, flowering from summer to early autumn, Passion flowers produce masses of blooms two to three inches (5-10cms) wide and like deep fertile soil with good drainage, or large patio containers. They must be well watered and do prefer some shade. Looking after a passion flower couldn't be easier, all you need to do is prune older branches and weak stems in late winter to ensure better flowering the following season. The vine-like nature of the passionflower make it ideally suited for training on trellis or scrambling up fences and through trees. To find out more http://www.gardeningexpress.co.uk/