After a wet and miserable May, the sun has finally arrived, and the start of Summer is only days away. If you are anything like us here at YouGarden, the warmer weather has put a spring in our step and got us all back outside and in our gardens.
If you are looking to add some colour to your garden this summer but not sure where to start, this guide to simple colour schemes will give you a step in the right direction.
When introducing colour into your garden, start with a simple pallet. Try one colour that has lots of different shades. Similarly, if you are feeling brave, try mixing two contrasting colours to really catch your neighbours’ attention.
This year, limiting the colours in your beds and borders is certainly on-trend. By choosing just one colour for your displays, you really get to see the beauty that each bloom has to offer. Are you looking to create a bright a bold display, if so, you go with a red, orange or yellow scheme? If you’re thinking about creating a tranquil and relaxing space choose whites, blues or purples.
Whatever scheme you decide to go with, we have got you covered. Here are some of our favourite colourful summer blooms to help you get started!
Pretty Pinks
Clematis Montana ‘Mayleen’
With its abundance of delicate pale pink flowers, it brings a beautiful display of pastel colour to your garden. A fast grower, plant ‘Mayleen’ anywhere where it can climb and this vigorous clematis will quickly establish itself and begin to clamber up supports, over pergolas and arches and up into trees, cloaking them in a sea of pink blooms.
Flowers from May-June. Height 9m, Spread 2.5m. Available in 7cm & 15cm pots.
Fuchsia ‘Julie Horton’
Fuchsias are a must for every summer flowering display, and you’ll certainly love these giants! Breathtakingly beautiful and always drawing admiring glances and with each flower. With multiple layers of delicate pale pink petals that will fill your baskets and containers, these are sure to catch the attention of everyone that sees them.
Flowers from June-October. Height 120cm, Spread 60cm. Available as 6 x Jumbo Plugs.
Penstemon ‘Strawberries & Cream’
Penstemons are an enduring classic cottage garden perennial with delightful bell-shaped flowers in a range of bright colours. ‘Ice Cream Strawberries and Cream’ is perfectly named, with sturdy upright spires boasting pink-tinged, creamy coloured buds opening to delicious looking flowers in shades of pale pink and white with red and white striped throats.
Flowers from June-October. Height 75cm, Spread 50cm. Available in a 9cm pot.
Beautiful Blues
Geranium ‘Rozanne’
Geranium Rozanne was voted the Royal Horticultural Society’s Plant of the Centenary at the 100th Chelsea Flower Show. This simply stunning violet-blue Geranium certainly deserves its award. Like most Geraniums, it comes into bloom in early summer, but unlike others which may fade in a few weeks.
Flowers from May-October. Height 30cm, Spread 60cm. Available in 9cm & 2L pots.
Agapanthus africanus ‘Blue African Lily’
There’s nothing finer than a large Agapanthus in full flower at the height of summer, creating an eruption of brilliant blue. Its head-turning blooms perch on lofty stems in mid and late summer, adding a Mediterranean touch to borders or to the patio. It’s the perfect plant for an ornate container.
Flowers from July-August. Height 90cm, Spread 50cm. Available in a 9cm pot.
Corydalis ‘Blue Heron’
This beautiful and unusual perennial has so much to offer. Deep blue-green divided foliage in neat clumps give rise to red-tinged stems bearing absolutely stunning electric blue tubular flowers with white throats from late spring until mid-summer. What’s more, the flowers are wonderfully scented.
Flowers from April-July. Height 30cm, Spread 30cm. Available as a Jumbo Plug.
Brilliant Yellows
Buddleia weyeriana ‘Sungold’
This intoxicatingly fragrant beauty is incredibly easy to grow, totally hardy and will illuminate any sunny corner of your garden. When in bloom during the early summer, its arching panicles will attract masses of butterflies and friendly pollinators, offering a safe haven for them to feast on nectar and collect pollen.
Flowers from July-September. Height 2m, Spread 1.5m. Available in 9cm & 2L Pots.
Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’
Also known as Black-Eyed-Susan, ‘Goldsturm’ produces masses of uniform, golden-yellow flowers, each with a rich brown centre that will light up the garden like sunshine. A compact form of the garden coneflower, the sunflower-like blooms are carried on branching, upright stems which makes them great for cut flowers as well, so you can bring the colour indoors.
Flowers from July-September. Height 50cm, Spread 20cm. Available in 9cm & 2L Pots.
Coreopsis ‘Early Sunrise’
Appropriately named, it produces wonderful double sunshine yellow flowers on tall, slender stems above compact mounds of dense thread-like feathery foliage, which gives them another alternative name of thread leaf. While their more common name, ‘tickseed,’ refers to the seeds which are said to resemble ticks and these are a great favourite of garden finches.
Flowers from May-October. Height 50cm, Spread 50cm. Available in a 9cm.
Eye-Catching Reds
Geranium ‘Summer Twist’
Clusters of flowers in a striking combination of red and white. The delightfully named ‘Summer Twist’ will give you a succession of unique blooms from early summer until autumn, making this an essential addition to your garden borders, pots, baskets and balcony displays.
Flowers from June-October. Height 40cm, Spread 40cm. Available as 12 x Plug Plants.
Coreopsis verticillata ‘Sunstar Rose’
Borne in abundance above narrow, dark green leaves, they cover the plant is wonderful, bright colour and with their long, straight stems they’re great cut flowers. Bees and butterflies love their nectar and birds will feast on the seeds, making these ideal plants for bringing wildlife into your garden.
Flowers from June-October. Height 40cm, Spread 40cm. Available in a 9cm pot.
Geranium ‘Ultimate Red’
With its abundance of large, fabulously rich scarlet blooms and deep green leaves, ‘Zonal Ultimate Red’ is a top-performing plant in beds, borders and containers. Fabulous planted in large groups and easy to look after. Named because of the burgundy half-moon pattern on the upper surface of their leaves.
Flowers from June-October. Height 40cm, Spread 20cm. Available as 20 Garden Ready Plants.
Enchanting Whites
‘Potato Vine’ Solanum fasminoides
When in bloom this gorgeous climber is covered in exotic looking star-shaped white flowers that are detailed with delicate yellow centres. Its blooms make a perfect contrast to the glossy green and semi-evergreen foliage. Perfect for training up walls and fences, if you place this climber near a doorway, you can enjoy the jasmine scent from inside the home.
Flowers from June-September. Height 6m, Spread 6m. Available in a 19cm Pot.
Clematis Hybrid ‘Miss Bateman’
A simply gorgeous, early season and large flowering clematis with elegant white blooms that have green stripes down the petals. Not one to disappoint, it will produce a second display of pretty white flowers later in the summer from August to September. A vigorous climber, this clematis has a relatively compact habit, and this makes it suitable for growing in a container if space is limited.
Flowers from May-June & August-September. Height 2.5m, Spread 1m. Available in a 15cm Pot.
Leucanthemum ‘Real Neat’
A robust herbaceous perennial, the narrow, deep green, toothed leaves form a tight clump that stems rise bearing large, sumptuous double flowers with the most wonderfully fluted pure white petals arranged around a large, centre of golden yellow stamens. First-class cut flowers and last well in water, and is loved by wildlife.
Flowers from June-September. Height 40cm, Spread 35cm. Available in a 9cm Pot.
Bold Oranges
Achillea millefolium ‘Paprika’
A fantastic variety with huge, plate-like flowerheads, each one made up of hundreds of individual blooms that are bright red with yellow centres when they first open. As they age, they fade to pale pink and then to a rich, creamy yellow creating a multi-colour effect that’s a truly stunning sight.
Flowers from May-August. Height 70cm, Spread 50cm. Available in a 9cm pot.
Trailing Begonia ‘Illumination Apricot Shades’
This beautiful variety has flowers in wonderfully warm shades of yellow, gold, apricot, orange and ochre that will fill your hanging baskets and patio containers with colour from May until October! The blooms are incredibly weatherproof, long-lasting and plentiful, held on strong healthy plants with a gently trailing growing habit.
Flowers from May-October. Height 30cm, Spread 45cm. Available as 20 Garden Ready plants.
Alstroemeria ‘Indian Summer’
With lovely unique strong bronze purple tinge to the foliage which sets off the gorgeous flame-coloured flowers to a tee! The good news is you can enjoy this impressive floral display for even longer as they just keep flowering all Summer, new buds emerging all the time well into Autumn. They’re perfect for long-lasting displays in pots or mixed borders.
Flowers from June-October. Height 60cm, Spread 60cm. Available as 3 x Jumbo Plugs.
Powerful Purples
Passiflora ‘Purple Passion’
The incredible flowers of Passiflora ‘Purple Passion’ certainly live up to its name, a beautiful and intricate collection of filaments, tendrils and petals in stunning purple tones. All bound together in a symphony of floral perfection that will captivate even the most hard-to-please gardener.
Flowering from July-September. Height 3m, Spread 2m. Available in a 9cm pot.
Thalictrum rochebrunianum ‘Meadow Rue’
An upright, very architectural perennial, Meadow Rue is one of those low maintenance plants that reliably gives a great show every year. Due to its airy nature, it forms a fairly see-through clump which is invaluable in a border as plants will not crowd out others, allowing them to grow up and through its delicate leaves.
Flowering from June-October. Height 150cm, Spread 80cm. Available in a 9cm pot.
Geranium himalayense ‘Plenum’
Producing the most beautiful violet, double, ruffled flowers – a real top perennial Geranium. What’s really special about ‘Plenum’, also known as ‘Birch’s Double’, is that the glossy green foliage almost magically changes colour in the autumn to a fiery orange-red. Making the foliage just as interesting as the flowers.
Flowering from April-July & September-October. Height 30cm, Spread 50cm. Available in 3 x 9cm pots.
