It’s the time of year when I start sowing the first of my cutting flowers so I’ve been looking back at the 2025 flower gardening trials to see if there’s anything worth repeating.
(Sent seed. Not paid.)
One of last year’s successes was a bit unexpected.
Larkspur ‘Misty Lavender’ (Suttons Seeds) turned out to be the most beautiful flower in soft shades of grey-purple. The foliage was delicate and it looked fabulous in a vase.
I’ve grown toadflax for a couple of years now and loved last year’s red-yellow variety (also part of the licilia range). I bought that from Chiltern Seeds (read about it here) and for the 2025 flower gardening trials they sent me ‘Licilia Azure’. It turned out to be just as beautiful as its scarlet cousin with two-tone white and purple blooms.
They make wispy plants on long, slender stems, perfect for threading through other things at the front of a border or, as I did, for cutting. They prefer sandy soils so are ideal for my garden.
A problem with their suppliers meant Premier Seeds Direct sent me Rudbeckia hirta ‘Sahara’ instead of R. hirta ‘Cherry’. While that meant growing an annual rather than a perennial, it was a very good substitution. ‘Sahara’ produced lots of flowers, both singles and doubles, in colours ranging from golden yellow through dusky pink and caramel. My plants were stocky and nowhere near the expected 50-60cm in height but none the worse for that. They were lovely in bud vases.
For many years, antirrhinums – or snapdragons – were out of favour and seen as somewhat old fashioned. They are definitely having a moment and with varieties such as this ‘Potomac Orange’ (Chiltern Seeds) you can see why.
It produced masses of orange-pink flowers that continued until after the first of the frosts. I’ve also realised how good they are as a cut flower – and that I’ve been cutting them at the wrong time! Reading Sow, Grow and Harvest (reviewed here), I discovered that you should pick as the first flowers open and the rest will follow on in the vase. I’d been waiting for most of them to open. Even so, they far outlasted anything else I picked.
‘Doubleshot Peach’, which I grew as part of the 2024 gardening trials, also finally flowered last year, producing pale peach-lemon flowers. Pretty but not as striking as ‘Potomac Orange’.
This nasturtium (seed from Chiltern Seeds) with its flame-coloured flowers perfectly suited the summer heat. The blooms ranged between yellow with red markings to almost pure orange.
Surprisingly, I often struggle with nasturtiums – I think my soil is too dry for even them. This was grown in a container.
I love sunflowers and always grow a few in among the veg. As part of the 2025 flower gardening trials, I grew ‘Valentine’ (seed from Kings Seeds). It produced pale lemon flowers with the darkest of centres. Quite beautiful.
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