2021 Flower Gardening Trials

The 2021 Flower Gardening Trials produced an interesting mix of new blooms and a surprise favourite. Things were a little later to get going, thanks to the cold spring but despite that I had plenty to cut for the house when added to the dahlias (not part of the trials) and sweet peas.

I was given seeds to try out in return for a fair review.

In some ways it wasn’t surprising that a humble marigold was the season’s best flower, they’ve long been one of my favourites. ‘Cantaloupe’ a blend given to me by Chiltern Seeds was a bit out of the ordinary though.

It produced flowers with a range of colours from soft yellow through peach and apricot to pale orange. Better still, like most calendula it just didn’t know when to stop flowering and was still putting out blooms when other things had packed up for the season.

An absolute winner and one that I will definitely grow again.

Cosmos in the 2021 Flower Gardening Trials were extremely late to produce flowers and I had nothing beyond foliage for some weeks.

‘Pink Popsocks’ from Dobies should have produced single, double and anemone-like flowers but I got only singles. That didn’t matter as they were a great colour and loved by the bees.

I will sow them again this season and see if I get different varieties.

Dobies also sent me the wonderfully named ‘Fizzy Purple’, which eventually made really tall plants that flowered well into October.

Again, the open flowers meant they were excellent for pollinators.

‘Tango’ from Suttons should have produced big plants but I think they struggled in the bed where I planted them and they reached only around half the suggested 59cm.

Still, the colour was fabulous and there were lots of flowers. One to try in a different position.

It was not a good year for zinnias. They germinated fine and I had several trays of tiny plants pricked out and growing on before the resident slugs and snails discovered them.

‘Peaches and Cream’ from Mr Fothergill’s was one that survived the onslaught. Another mix of seeds, it produces flowers in delicate shades of cream, peach and apricot that were really pretty.

It’s always good to try something new and the 2021 Flower Gardening Trials had a couple of things that I’d never grown from seed before.

This is flax, given to me by Johnsons Seeds, part of their organic seed range. I had no real idea what to expect so sowed an experimental row in the cutting bed.

I’m not convinced they make the best cut flowers but that colour! I may try it in one of the borders this year.

Regular readers will know my garden is full of poppies – all self-sown and mostly in the vegetable borders where cultivation nudges the seeds into germination.

However, I have never grown them from seed so was interested to try ‘Amazing Grey’ from Suttons. Poppies don’t like being moved and you’re supposed to sow them where you want them to flower. I ignored that as I was worried the tiny seedlings might get lost in the borders and so took a chance on sowing them and transplanting when the seedlings were small. It worked and I had several plants.

The colour really is grey – and difficult to do justice to in a photograph. I kept deadheading, as the packet suggested, and they flowered for some time. Another to try again this season.

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