For many years, I didn’t really grow annual flowers – beyond sweet peas – but starting a cutting border changed that. Now in its third year, growing flowers for the house has encouraged me to experiment and this year’s flower gardening trials saw a few new things.
As ever, it was a season of mixed fortunes. Blackfly and snails attacked the nasturtiums and I failed to get rudbeckia to germinate – one to try again next year.
However, there were more successes than failures among both the cutting flowers and things for containers. There were also a couple of surprises.
I was sent plants, seeds and tubers free of charge.
Cutting flowers
There were two standout stars of the cutting bed this year, both from Chiltern Seeds. The first was Antirrhinum majus Chantilly Series ‘Chantilly Bronze’, which I loved for the mix of colours with pink and orange shades on each stem. I’ve loved snapdragons since childhood and I’m pleased to see them back in fashion.
There were similar shades in the other Flower Gardening Trials winner. Helichrysum bracteatum ‘Salmon Rose’ (pictured top of the page) produces papery flowers in everything from cream through pink to orange.
I was inspired to grow these ‘everlasting’ flowers after a visit to Snowshill Manor. They proved very easy and were still going strong, despite a couple of frosts. I eventually harvested the last of the flowers as I needed to prep the bed for next year.
There were two new zinnias in this year’s flowers. Chiltern Seeds’ Zinnia elegans ‘Queen Lime Orange’ continued the orangey theme and was a delight, although didn’t grow as tall as expected.
More vibrant were the Zinnia elegans ‘Forecast’ from Thompson & Morgan. Their more open flowers made them a favourite with the bees as well.
Pots and containers
A few of the Flower Gardening Trials blooms were more suited to container growing rather than the cutting bed.
One proved to be the most surprising of the 2019 season. I don’t usually grow the bedding type of begonia as they’ve never really appealed but I was sent some to trial by Thompson & Morgan. The selection was supposed to be ‘Hellebore Pink’, ‘Giant Red’ and ‘Hellebore Green’, the latter actually green-tinged white. In the end, I got only the first two.
Being unsure where to use them, I filled an old half-barrel that had been full of tulips in the spring. The tiny plug plants looked a little lost to begin with but soon grew to fill the space. In fact, they produced a mass of flower and leaf that went on and on. I was beginning to despair of them giving up before I needed to plant more tulips. Our second frost finally knocked them back and, discovering some had made tiny tubers, I’m now seeing if I can overwinter them.
Another gift from Thompson & Morgan was seed for Ipomoea hirsuta ‘Mini Sky Blue’. This produced tiny, clear blue flowers on a climber that was perfect for a pot.
I often grow cosmos but Cosmos sulphureus ‘Bright Lights’ from Chiltern Seeds is very different to my usual shades of pink and white. These are single and double flowers in fiery red, orange and yellow. They were supposed to reach around 90cm in height but mine were much smaller. I will try them again next year in a different place to see if that makes a difference.
Dahlias
Having had success growing dahlias from seed a few years ago, I was keen to try again. ‘Bishop’s Children’ from Chiltern Seeds proved easy to raise and produced plants with the characteristic dark foliage and flowers in red, pink and apricot. I’m hoping they will overwinter successfully.
I was also sent some dahlia tubers by the National Collection of Dahlias in Cornwall. The most unusual was ‘Star Wars’, which makes a low mound of dark foliage with tiny orange-yellow flowers. Definitely one for the front of a border.
‘Karma Ying Yang’ is white and purple, while ‘Garden Wonder’ has the most vibrant red flowers. Both are decorative varieties with large flower heads.
In contrast, ‘Playa Blanca’ has pure white, spiky flowers that were good combined with other cut flowers.
My favourite had to be ‘Wizard of Oz’. This had neat, soft pink pompom flowers on long stems that made it idea for cutting. A real winner.
You can read about my vegetable gardening trials here.
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Hello there! Amazing post. I really like this kind of sum-ups of a year. Every year I lead a notes with some pictures and notes about my garden so I can compare the beginning of the year with the end of the year. It is quite satisfying for me because I see how the nature changes. I see that you like zinnias the same as me. They are simple but really make the job in garden. I like them. This year I tried this one variety: https://gardenseedsmarket.com/zinnia-envy-seeds-zinnia-elegans-dahliaeflora.html which is in unusual colour. It is a mix of green and maybe yellow? I don’t know but it compose perfect with other flowers. What do you think?
I rather like green flowers, as you say, so easy to put with other things. Maybe one for me to try next year 🙂