Summer flowering bulbs are a great way of adding colour to beds and borders and pots on the patio. They are inexpensive to buy, easy to grow and so useful when it comes to filling the gaps in the flowering season when roses, shrubs and perennials take a breather.

Featured Plants

Edge of Joy is an exciting new addition to our range.

If you look through the selection of lilies, dahlias, begonias, gladioli and all the other, less familiar, summer flowering bulbs, corms and tubers you can find just about every colour in the flower spectrum, from the brightest, loudest red to the softest, most subtle pink. However some of the new kids on the block are somewhat confused. They have split personalities and display more than one, sometimes many, colour variations. Some of the most exciting of these colour mixes appear amongst the most showy, varied group of plants in the summer garden: the dahlias.

A Different Way With Dahlias...

Once treasured, then reviled, now trendy, dahlias are great garden plants. At one time dahlias were a bit of a fiddle. As they are not frost hardy they were lifted in autumn and the tubers stored over winter in a frost free place for replanting the following spring, usually indoors to start with, then outside. You had to worry about pinching out the tops, staking and all manner of complicated tasks.

Now with milder winters and amazing availability of stock we can take a more cavalier approach. Get them started in pots, plant them out, enjoy them and let them take their chances for the following season. If they do not re emerge it will hardly break the bank to plant more next year. In fact there are so many exciting colours to choose from you will want to try a few new ones anyway.

Dahlia ‘Potluck’

A Cocktail of Form and Colour...

Dahlia ‘Potluck’ is a new Dahlia that is full of surprises. Each tuber produces a bouquet of pom-pom flowers, and every one can be a different colour ranging from pure red, to pure white, through striped and spotted blooms in shades of pink. You never quite know what will appear next. It is great fun to grow and a wonderful addition to the summer border. It grows up to 90cm in height and the flowers are around 10cm across.

Dahlia ‘Mystic Beauty’

Dahlia ‘Mystic Beauty’ is a beautiful single Dahlia with sugar pink petals that curl delicately inwards at the edges to reveal a paler reverse. The eye of the flower is bright yellow, creating a cheery and striking summer spectacle. The flowers are 10cm across and are carried on long stems, giving an overall height of around 1.2 metres.

Dahlia ‘Tahiti Sunrise’

Dahlia ‘Tahiti Sunrise’ offers a much bolder combination of yellow and fuchsia. The cactus blooms appear painted and will be unmissable in the garden. The plant grows up to one metre in height and the flowers are 15cm across. Both ‘Tahiti Sunrise’ and ‘Mystic Beauty’ would be sensational against a background of purple foliage, Sambucus ‘Black Lace’ or Physocarpus ‘Diable d’Or’ would be ideal planting partners.

Dahlia ‘Mango Mix’

Dahlia ‘Mango Mix’, in the Perfect Partners range, is a delightful mixture of powder puff dahlias in deep and pale contains three tubers that should give a delightful mixture of colours. Plant them in a group for best effect, perhaps to add bolder flower form and more summer colour amongst herbaceous perennials such as geraniums and nepeta. Their soft colours are also ideal to prolong the flowering season of shrub roses.

Dahlia ‘Honka Blend’

Dahlia ‘Honka Blend’ is a sparkling little character with lush green foliage and starry flowers 6-10cm across. The plants grow up to 45cm in height and the single flowers appear in shades of deep mahogany red, scarlet, yellow and white. Again there are three tubers per pack which should give you an exciting colour mix. This dahlias compact habit makes it ideal at the front of a border of hot coloured perennials such as crocosmias, rudbeckias and achilleas

‘Glamini’

More Mixed Magic...

‘Glamini’ is new type of gladiolus with the impressive blooms of the large flowering types, but only growing to 60cm in height. This means that they need no staking and fit more easily into a planting scheme. They make a wonderful subject for pots and provide that welcome splash of exotic colour in July and August in a blend of violet, deep maroon and soft pink.

Gladioli are underestimated summer flowers. Their flower spikes add a different form to the planting and their blooms are striking and long lasting. If you are unsure whether they are for you – give them a go, you will be pleasantly surprised.

Paeonia ‘Bowl of Beauty’

All gardeners love paeonies. These flamboyant beauties are the long-lived aristocrats of the herbaceous border. Their wonderful foliage stays looking good throughout the season and makes a fabulous backdrop for their gorgeous flowers. Paeonia ‘Bowl of Beauty’ is one of the finest and most arresting. The blooms consist of large, deep pink cups of silky petals cradling a mass of narrow, creamy petals the centre of the flower. It flowers for a long period because each flower stem produces secondary buds alongside the main flowers.

Peonies grow in any well drained fertile soil in sun or semishade. The secret of success is to plant them near the soil surface. The rhizome should never be more than 2cm below the surface, if it is they may not flower. ‘Bowl of Beauty’ occasionally produces plain double pink blooms early in life – if this happens be patient.