Plants to plug a summer gap

Have you got gaps? Have you finally concluded your favourite perennial must have shuffled off during the winter? Are your sunny spots now shady spots beneath spreading trees, or perhaps you realise that between your small and tall plants – there is no mid storey. 

You have a small window of opportunity to save your summer garden – what are you going to do?

‘It’s not a sign of weakness to admit when you’re wrong; it’s a sign of maturity and self-awareness’ is a very helpful quote when you’re about to execute an embarrassing U-turn. So having previously scoffed at Caroline’s childish devotion to nasturtiums and sunflowers I am now coming clean with a confession that both these will be summer fillers for me this year.

In my defence both these plants have benefited from some inspired selective breeding in recent years and I bought a packet of seeds of each from the stunning ‘SheGrowsVeg’ stand at Chelsea Flower Show a couple of weeks ago. They obvs have much more sophistication than Caroline’s staple ‘Magic Roundabout’ and ‘Tumbling Tom’ and I’ve started off ‘Floristan’ a semi dwarf, multi-headed wine red and yellow sunflower, and ‘Bloody Mary’, a gorgeously decadent nasturtium, in little plugs (fantastic 100% germination in just a few days – top marks SheGrowsVeg!)) and am just popping them into appropriate gaps.

Other fillers are more plants grown from seed that have fallen into my lap – Phlox ‘Creme Brûlée’ (free this spring with Gardeners Illustrated and featured in Jo Thompson’s planting list for The Glasshouse Garden – two indicators that this is bang on-trend ) Briza maxima, a tall annual quaking grass (from the Hardy Plant Society seed distribution – always a great source of interesting plants) and a late flowering red salvia (given to me by Louise who was given seeds of it by a neighbour when she admired it in a garden still flowering when she did her poppy collection rounds in November). I’m hoping it turns out to be the lovely looking Salvia stolonifera 🤞

I’m also going to be brave and direct sow some annuals including Shirley and Californian poppies – I know, I know, again its true that in the past I have been guilty of a quick shudder as I walk past Elaine’s bank of garish ‘Orange King’, but there are now so much more delicate and pleasing pastel shades, and they will thrive in dry stony areas where other plants would struggle.

What’s happened to Laura? She is actually sounding like a normal gardener this week.  She hasn’t mentioned a single plant of the Nerdia trainspotifolius variety.  Just goes to show that she IS able to think like the rest of us when she really tries 🤣. 

I’ve got a couple of tricks up my sleeve for the holes that can appear when the spring and early summer beauties have faded. The first is that I sowed some sweet peas late (beginning of May), they germinated quickly and are only just getting the hang of growing and twining now.  The aim is to have sweet peas all the way to September, when before, they have all collapsed to fawn stems and seedheads by the beginning of August at the latest. Probably too late to sow your own now, but if you see any cheap pots of sweet pea seedlings in garden centres, snap them up – they’ll fill a high summer sunny spot beautifully!

Here’s a nifty dodge for you. If there are blank spaces in the borders that are bothering you, or Auntie Mabel is coming to tea and she’ll disapprove, just drop a pot or two of something into the gap to fill it. 

I have some stringy-looking argyranthemums from last year, and TODAY I’m going to take cuttings from them, stick them in pots of damp gritty compost in an unheated box with a clear lid, pretty confident that I will have an array of bushy floriferous plants to take my borders right into autumn.  

I’ve a feeling that Caroline might not be quite so industrious…

Not only do I have gaps in my garden – I’ve also have them in my purse AND my horticultural skillset.

Given points one and two, the idea of taking cuttings of my leucanthemums/argyranthemums (daisy-ish things for goodness’ sake), is hugely appealing, however point three makes this high risk. Nor do I think germinating annuals is a goer for our short Highland summer. It can snow in September here.

I have gaps variously because: a/ it turns out my plan to grow grasses, grasses and more grasses was in fact stupid x 3 (they don’t particularly like my peaty wet conditions); b/ I’ve accidentally drilled off all my dahlia shoots while experimenting with my new power hose; c/ I haven’t planned ahead for the inevitable collapse of my alliums which I bulk planted last year.

My bald spots are variously in sunny beds, at the front and middle of borders and under trees, and really I haven’t got time to devise bespoke solutions ahead of our August garden opening.

I thought geraniums might be the answer but Elaine grimaced in a way that told me I was about to make another boo-boo. She said only something sterile like G. Rozanne would perform throughout the summer….and Rozanne is a bit airy-fairy for my purposes.

It was at this point I hit on my  ‘get-out-of-jail’ card. Salvia Caradonna (our feature pic) – it grows in full sun or partial shade, its mid-height, well-behaved, flowers for yonks, stands to attention without needing staked and its hardy to H7.  

Best of all I’ve just ordered FIVE 1-litre pots of them online for £22 – a brilliant solution to my garden and financial gaps – I’ll keep working on the ability one.

A staple for every gardener who appreciates foliage as much as flowers – Rosa glauca is easy to grow, thornless and, oh, we’ll let Louise explain all the other reasons why it’s her Great Plant this Month:

Are you wondering what to plant next in your pots? We’ve created a list of some of our favourite plants that will grow happily in a container. It might give you the inspiration that you need!

Gorgeous herb pots and this week – free labels!

Grab a handful of herbs every time you cook from these lovely herb pots and this week we’re GIVING AWAY a pack of herb labels worth £9.99 with each herb pot set. Just order the pots and you’ll magically get the labels added for free. What a fabulous gift for under £20!

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