You can't beat a garden with a varying collection of choice shrubs, naturalistic perennials and self-seeders, enhanced with plenty of pots of bright plants for good measure.
The ‘front men’ in a band of colourful containers are the summer bedding stalwarts that are perfect dotted everywhere to add focus and fun to a summer garden. It’s never at the expense of useful pollinator plants – bedding is mostly too highly bred to be of natural use – but it doesn’t hurt to add some pizzazz from fab flowers that are easy-going as long as you feed them!
Use a good quality container compost that has feed already in it, usually lasting up to six weeks. After a few weeks you’ll have to supplement this every week until the end of the summer with a potassium-rich tomato food in your watering can to encourage excellent flowers.
Here are some go-to stylish classics to guarantee a bit of instant oomph!
Our pick of bright bedding
Our pick of bright bedding
1 of 4Red geraniums
Strictly speaking pelargoniums, these give instant Mediterranean charm planted in terracotta or blue glazed pots.
2 of 4Calibrachoa
Mini petunias are neater and less gangly than their larger cousins. Block colours of peach and pink in terracotta look stunning.
3 of 4Felicia amelloides
Can be grown as a perennial and is loved by bees as a bonus. Perfect sky-blue daisies all summer into autumn.
4 of 4Busy Lizzies
Impatiens are pretty easy to keep and flower for a whole summer. Try all one colour in vivid magenta or creamy coral.