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8PACKS<br />
EASY TO<br />
worth<br />
SOWSEEDS£18.72<br />
APRIL 2018 £4.99<br />
WORTH<br />
Gardeners’ Garden 2018<br />
WIN £2,250<br />
gardening kit<br />
FROM SEE P36<br />
MAKING BEAUTIFUL GARDENS<br />
Spring<br />
Plan the perfect<br />
border for<br />
Zingy greens, tulips, woodland<br />
flowers & the freshest foliage<br />
Plant a<br />
chocolate feast<br />
Dramatic plants with<br />
delicious names<br />
222<br />
PLANTS FOR<br />
SEASONAL<br />
WOW<br />
Wonderful<br />
wallflowers<br />
Meet the real belles of the ball<br />
DISCOVER…<br />
✿ EASIER GARDENING<br />
Low-maintenance design ideas<br />
BEAUTIFUL GARDENS<br />
✿ Exuberant tulips bring smart town plot to life<br />
✿ Walled garden teams spring flowers with evergreens<br />
✿ Circular design creates two stylish gardens in one<br />
✿ CROPS TO SOW NOW<br />
Sweetcorn & summer squash<br />
We love<br />
birdsong<br />
✿ THE DAWN CHORUS<br />
Nature’s early morning callers<br />
APRIL ISSUE 28 FEBRUARY - 27 MARCH
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See page 42<br />
38<br />
white<br />
magic<br />
14<br />
PLAN SPRING<br />
BORDERS<br />
94<br />
buyers’<br />
guide<br />
Cover: GAP photos/Anna omiotek-tott<br />
On the cover<br />
Wallflowers with<br />
tulip ‘Ballade’ p28<br />
14 Plan the perfect border for spring<br />
24 Plant a chocolate feast<br />
28 Wonderful wallflowers<br />
36 Gardeners’ Garden 2018<br />
44 Walled garden evergreens...<br />
50 Circular design... two in one<br />
56 Exuberant tulips... town plot<br />
67 The dawn chorus<br />
73 Crops to sow now<br />
90 Easier gardening<br />
Contents<br />
Celebrate<br />
6<br />
8<br />
14<br />
cover<br />
STORY<br />
24<br />
cover<br />
STORY<br />
Celebrate April flowers It’s all<br />
bulbs, bulbs, bulbs in this pretty<br />
kitchen garden at Hergest Croft<br />
in Herefordshire<br />
Be inspired by… citrus greens,<br />
cheep thrills, what’s in flower now,<br />
perfect primulas, tulip ID quiz and<br />
diary dates for April<br />
Plan the perfect spring border<br />
Get a head start on April by filling<br />
borders with zingy-green<br />
perennials, tulips, woodland<br />
flowers and fresh new foliage<br />
Plant a chocolate feast<br />
Celebrate Easter with a tongue-incheek<br />
chocolate-themed border.<br />
Here’s our top ten<br />
28<br />
cover<br />
STORY<br />
Easy gardening<br />
31<br />
36<br />
cover<br />
STORY<br />
38<br />
Meet nature’s little extroverts<br />
Partnered with tulips and forgetme-nots,<br />
colourful wallflowers can<br />
be the belles of the spring ball<br />
What to do this month Get<br />
hanging baskets off to an early<br />
start, overhaul your pond and prick<br />
out seedlings. Plus it’s an ideal time<br />
to take softwood cuttings<br />
The Gardeners’ Garden 2018 Win<br />
£2,250 worth of Cobra gardening<br />
kit in our competition<br />
Conjure up a little white magic<br />
Plant a parade of bells, stars,<br />
hearts and trumpets with this<br />
pretty planting scheme for spring<br />
4 Garden Answers
Powered by<br />
Gardeners’ Garden 2018<br />
WIN £2,250<br />
gardening kit<br />
&<br />
Competition<br />
44<br />
Walled<br />
garden<br />
67<br />
dawn<br />
chorus<br />
36<br />
Enter<br />
to win<br />
73<br />
GOURMET<br />
SWEETCORN<br />
rs’<br />
e<br />
24<br />
CHOCOLATE<br />
PLANTS<br />
Beautiful gardens<br />
44<br />
cover<br />
STORY<br />
50<br />
cover<br />
STORY<br />
56<br />
cover<br />
STORY<br />
62<br />
WILDlife<br />
67<br />
cover<br />
STORY<br />
“My walled garden feels so<br />
welcoming” This Hertfordshire<br />
garden teams bright spring<br />
flowers with structural evergreens<br />
“It’s two gardens in one design”<br />
In this front garden in Suffolk a<br />
circular design creates two stylish<br />
gardens in one<br />
“Spring gives everything a new<br />
lease of life” Exuberant tulips<br />
create a dazzling display<br />
Garden to visit With 40,000 tulips<br />
bursting into bloom, this East<br />
Sussex garden has a festival feel<br />
Wake up to the dawn chorus<br />
Enjoy the sound of birds<br />
serenading at day break. Here’s<br />
a guide to the voices to listen for<br />
Gourmet grower<br />
73<br />
cover<br />
STORY<br />
ask the experts<br />
79<br />
88<br />
90<br />
cover<br />
STORY<br />
GARDEN BUYS<br />
42<br />
Grow the sweetest corn cobs<br />
This lofty crop offers a delicious<br />
burst of flavour at mealtimes<br />
Ask Garden Answers All your<br />
gardening questions answered<br />
Border rescue Flesh out early<br />
spring borders with shrubs and<br />
foliage plants. Here’s how to do it<br />
Design Solutions It’s easy to create<br />
a low-maintenance plot – just choose<br />
the right plants and furnishings<br />
Subscribe to Garden Answers<br />
Receive 13 issues for just £2.62<br />
each – it’s the perfect Mother’s Day<br />
gift for a green-fingered mum<br />
94<br />
98<br />
106<br />
108<br />
110<br />
your garden life<br />
100<br />
103<br />
114<br />
Buyers’ Guide to sowing kits<br />
Make light work of spring plant<br />
propagation by choosing the right<br />
equipment. Here’s what to look for<br />
Get the luxury look for less<br />
Lightweight, affordable planters<br />
Native woodland collections<br />
Snowdrops, aconites and bluebells<br />
from £15 with free p&p<br />
Must-have perennials 16 value plug<br />
plants for £9.99 including postage<br />
Grow flavoursome chuckleberries<br />
1 bareroot plant for £9.99 + postage<br />
Over to you Readers share their<br />
views, ideas and photos<br />
Puzzles and prizes Enter our<br />
crossword and wordsearch<br />
Garden view Helen Billiald shares<br />
her passion for pottering<br />
Subscribe at www.greatmagazines.co.uk 5
Design Solutions<br />
It’s easy to create a low-maintenance plot – just choose the<br />
right plants, fittings and furnishings, says Dawn Isaac<br />
Q<br />
How<br />
can I make my garden<br />
easier to care for?<br />
FOR MANY of us, a low-maintenance<br />
garden is a must: as we get older, physical<br />
limitations make onerous garden tasks<br />
impossible. For others, work and family<br />
obligations leave little time for weeding<br />
borders or tending vegetables. Those of<br />
us with distant holiday homes or rental<br />
properties are too far away to do the work.<br />
Designing a low-maintenance plot is<br />
as much about what to leave out as what<br />
to include. Well-manicured lawns,<br />
vegetable gardens, needy perennials<br />
and bedding plants, ornamental ponds,<br />
greenhouses and fast-growing hedges<br />
are all high-maintenance no-nos.<br />
The worry is that a low-maintenance<br />
garden can feel like a supermarket car<br />
park – all hard surfaces and uninspiring<br />
shrubs – but with well-chosen plants<br />
and materials plus a few labour-saving<br />
gadgets, you can create a gorgeous<br />
garden – and have time to sit and enjoy it!<br />
Choose an easy shed<br />
In dark grey plastic and<br />
surrounded by plants, this shed<br />
recedes from view but is an<br />
easy-to-maintain feature and<br />
offers useful space to store<br />
garden tools and equipment.<br />
BEFORE<br />
2<br />
3<br />
4<br />
1<br />
5<br />
Problem areas<br />
1 Large lawn involves lots of mowing – once a week in summer<br />
2 Bare brick walls make the garden look boxy<br />
3 Wooden fences need regular maintenance<br />
4 Minimalist planting means the garden lacks interest<br />
5 Lack of paved areas gives nowhere to place a table and chairs<br />
The design<br />
Design: Dawn Isaac; MAIN illustration: Gill Lockhart<br />
Keep things simple<br />
Paving surrounds the artificial lawn,<br />
creating a ‘journey’ between the<br />
bistro seating area, small shed and<br />
storage bench. The lawn area is<br />
edged with pavers, so if you prefer<br />
real grass you can use the edging<br />
as a mowing strip. Droughtresistant<br />
plants in pots make a<br />
feature on the patio beside lowmaintenance<br />
metal furniture, and<br />
boundaries are part-hidden by<br />
slow-growing trees and shrubs.<br />
90 Garden Answers
problems solved<br />
Plant evergreen trees<br />
Autumn leaf clearing can be<br />
a headache, so choose small<br />
evergreen trees such as<br />
Arbutus unedo (strawberry<br />
tree) to add height and<br />
interest instead.<br />
Make a service path<br />
The existing garden fence<br />
will need occasional<br />
maintenance (painting,<br />
repairs), which is made much<br />
easier by adding a hidden<br />
service path for easy access.<br />
Install lighting<br />
Install garden lighting that can<br />
be flicked on with a switch to<br />
save lighting outdoor torches<br />
or lanterns each time. If only<br />
summer lighting is required,<br />
try good quality solar lighting.<br />
Keep storage<br />
looking neat<br />
This storage bench<br />
in woodgrain-effect<br />
resin is easy to<br />
maintain, offers a<br />
handy place to store<br />
cushions and keep<br />
small garden tools<br />
in easy reach.<br />
Go for metal<br />
furniture<br />
Powder-coated metal<br />
furniture in an unfussy<br />
design is easy to maintain<br />
with a simple wipe down.<br />
It’s available in a wide<br />
range of colours.<br />
Plant easy pots<br />
Drought-resistant sedums<br />
and sempervivums can be<br />
planted in powder-coated<br />
resin pots to create<br />
low-maintenance<br />
containers that don’t<br />
need much watering.<br />
Lay artificial grass<br />
Choose a high-quality<br />
artificial turf that matches<br />
the real thing and you can<br />
say goodbye to your mower.<br />
It might just need a vacuum<br />
now and again to remove<br />
fallen leaves and debris!<br />
Choose shrubs<br />
Shrubs in general take far<br />
less work than other plants.<br />
Choose them carefully and<br />
they’ll create attractive<br />
colours and shapes within<br />
the borders. To help them<br />
grow well, enrich the<br />
planting hole with compost<br />
and ensure it’s deep enough.<br />
Mulch borders<br />
Drastically reduce the work<br />
of watering and weeding<br />
by adding a thick layer of<br />
homemade compost or<br />
well-rotted manure as a<br />
mulch on top of borders<br />
each year. Other options are<br />
bark, gravel or stones, laid<br />
on a geotextile membrane.<br />
Install automatic irrigation<br />
You can avoid dragging out the hose or lugging around<br />
watering cans if you invest in an irrigation system that<br />
can be pre-set to water borders and containers.<br />
Subscribe at www.greatmagazines.co.uk 91
GARDEN<br />
TO VISIT<br />
COLOUR MATCH<br />
Tulips such as ‘Purple<br />
Flag’, ‘Rem’s Favourite’,<br />
‘Spring Green’ and<br />
‘White Triumphator’ fill<br />
borders with colourcoordinated<br />
displays<br />
in April<br />
62 Garden Answers
Beautiful gardens<br />
above Rescued in 1981 from decades of neglect, the redeveloped gardens at<br />
Pashley Manor include rose ‘Gloire de Dijon’ growing on its timber-framed facade<br />
garden to visit<br />
Pashley Manor<br />
With 40,000 tulips<br />
bursting into bloom,<br />
this East Sussex garden has a festival feel in<br />
late April. Louise Curley reports<br />
After the delicate beauty of early<br />
spring, April is transformed<br />
into a riot of colour thanks to<br />
the arrival of tulips. For more<br />
than 20 years, Pashley Manor in East<br />
Sussex has celebrated these flamboyant<br />
and exotic blooms, native to Turkey and<br />
central Asia, with a festival in late April.<br />
And with around 40,000 bulbs planted<br />
last December, this year’s festival is set<br />
to be the biggest and best so far.<br />
Pashley Manor is a Grade I-listed Tudor<br />
and Georgian house surrounded by<br />
romantic English gardens and parkland.<br />
There’s a long history of gardening on the<br />
site going back as far as the 16th century,<br />
and the walled garden dates to the 1720s.<br />
Around the time of the Second World War<br />
“The Great Storm of 1987<br />
turned out to be a blessing<br />
in disguise, opening up<br />
vistas across the parkland”<br />
the gardens fell into decline, borders<br />
became overgrown, the moat and ponds<br />
silted up, brambles and weeds took over and<br />
the greenhouses fell into disuse.<br />
Current owners James and Angela<br />
Sellick came to the rescue in 1981. These<br />
passionate gardeners have spent the past<br />
four decades restoring and redeveloping<br />
the grounds to create 11 acres of beautiful<br />
formal gardens and an outdoor exhibition<br />
space for sculpture.<br />
The layout and initial planting schemes<br />
were designed by a family friend: the late<br />
Anthony du Gard Pasley. A respected<br />
garden and landscape designer, Pasley<br />
introduced garden rooms within the old<br />
walled garden and created areas beyond it<br />
that are now planted with herbaceous<br />
plants and shrubs set among trees.<br />
The Great Storm of 1987 battered the<br />
gardens and more than 1,000 trees were<br />
lost, but this turned out to be a blessing in<br />
disguise, removing some densely planted<br />
conifers and opening up vistas from the<br />
house and garden across the parkland. ➤<br />
Subscribe at www.greatmagazines.co.uk 63
Grow and eat<br />
Gourmet<br />
grower<br />
Sweetcorn<br />
Sweetest<br />
Grow the<br />
corn cobs<br />
Ripened by the sun, this lofty<br />
crop offers a delicious burst of<br />
flavour at mealtimes. Helen<br />
Billiald explains how<br />
to get the best results<br />
Sweetcorn might not win prizes<br />
for productivity, but it does<br />
bring a scrumptious latesummer<br />
harvest. In August<br />
there’s nothing better than finding fat<br />
ripe cobs for dinner.<br />
Sweetcorn needs a long, warm season to<br />
perform well. You can maximise harvests<br />
by starting off an early-cropping cultivar<br />
such as ‘Lark’ or ‘Swift’, under cover and<br />
planting in a sheltered, sunny spot.<br />
Mice love sweetcorn so sowing<br />
outdoors is a risky venture. To save broken<br />
hearts and get a headstart on the growing<br />
year, start in a greenhouse or on a sunny<br />
windowsill. Allow about four weeks from<br />
sowing to transplanting; mid-April is<br />
ideal for a mid-May planting or delay<br />
until later if your garden is prone to late<br />
frosts. If you sow too early, plants risk<br />
becoming pot bound.<br />
It’s safer to grow only one cultivar at a<br />
time because cross-pollination can alter<br />
taste. Cobs are ripe when they appear<br />
plump, the tassels turn brown and, if you<br />
peel back the outer green leaves and<br />
squeeze some kernels with a fingernail,<br />
they give a milky liquid. Speed from<br />
picking to eating is key because sugar levels<br />
➤<br />
start to fall once the cob is harvested.<br />
Photo: Alamy<br />
Subscribe at www.greatmagazines.co.uk 73
gourmet grower<br />
sow it now<br />
start off<br />
sweetcorn<br />
Cultivars to try<br />
‘Mirai Picnic’ Tender<br />
super-sweet cultivar<br />
with smaller-sized<br />
cobs but with the<br />
benefit of there<br />
being more than<br />
one on each<br />
plant. £2.79<br />
for 30 seeds,<br />
Marshalls 0844<br />
557 6700; www.<br />
marshalls-seeds.co.uk<br />
‘Lark’<br />
Bred for tenderness<br />
and sweetness.<br />
Copes better with<br />
cooler growing<br />
conditions than<br />
some and has<br />
generous-sized<br />
cobs. £2.19 for 35<br />
seeds, DT Brown<br />
0333 003 0869;<br />
www.dtbrownseeds.<br />
co.uk<br />
Sow and transplant<br />
‘Swift’<br />
Very early cropping<br />
tender cultivar<br />
that’s super<br />
sweet. Plants are<br />
smaller in stature<br />
so less prone to<br />
damage in more<br />
exposed locations.<br />
£2.49 for 35 seeds,<br />
Suttons 0844 326<br />
2200; www.suttons.<br />
co.uk<br />
1<br />
Sow indoors<br />
Sow into deep modules or pots<br />
(root trainers work well), one seed<br />
per module, 2cm (¾in) deep. Keep at<br />
about 15-20C (59-68F) to germinate,<br />
and grow on in a frost-free greenhouse<br />
before acclimatising them slowly<br />
to outdoor conditions.<br />
2<br />
Improve the site<br />
Choose a sunny sheltered site<br />
(strong winds can topple tall<br />
plants) and ground that has been<br />
improved with well-rotted organic<br />
matter. Water in well and continue to<br />
water during dry spells of weather,<br />
especially once flowering starts.<br />
3Transplant them<br />
Plant them 45cm (18in) apart in<br />
blocks rather than a single line.<br />
Sweetcorn is wind pollinated and to<br />
increase the chances of pollen reaching<br />
its target you need enough plants to<br />
make a generous block – at least 4x4<br />
plants or, preferably, 5x5 or more.<br />
74 Garden Answers
SWEET SURPRISES<br />
Double pink Prunus<br />
triloba makes a pretty<br />
focal point in this<br />
border, alongside<br />
the darker pink crab<br />
apple ‘Rudolph’.<br />
Beneath them are<br />
forget-me-nots,<br />
erysimum ‘Poem<br />
Lavender’, Viola<br />
cornuta, tulip<br />
‘Ballade’, euphorbia,<br />
pink bellis daisies,<br />
ivy and fluffy tiarella<br />
14 Garden Answers
❤<br />
Celebrate<br />
Honesty (Lunaria<br />
annua) makes a<br />
delicate partner for<br />
tulips ‘Burgundy’, pink<br />
and white ‘Shirley’,<br />
‘Blue Diamond’ and<br />
white ‘Spring Green’<br />
Spring<br />
PLAN THe<br />
border<br />
perfect<br />
Get a head start<br />
on April by filling<br />
borders with<br />
zingy-green<br />
perennials, tulips,<br />
woodland flowers<br />
and fresh new<br />
foliage. Val Bourne<br />
has some<br />
recommendations<br />
April is a high-energy month,<br />
but it’s unpredictable as<br />
well. It’s a bit of a roller<br />
coaster and flowers can<br />
be thin on the ground once the early<br />
daffodils, hellebores and crocuses have<br />
faded. With summer-flowering perennials<br />
just about stirring, it’s important to plug<br />
the gaps with some April flowers. If you’re<br />
not sure what to plant, head to garden<br />
centres for inspiration, or read on...<br />
For flowers at eye level, consider the<br />
spring-flowering single-flowered forms<br />
of Clematis alpina and the more-double<br />
C. macropetala. Both flower just as the new<br />
vivid green foliage appears and Award of<br />
Garden Merit (AGM) cultivars include<br />
‘Wesselton’, which is a spidery soft blue,<br />
and bright pink double ‘Constance’. These<br />
spring-flowering climbers hail from cold,<br />
high altitudes, so they’re perfect in a windy<br />
spot with good drainage. You’ll have to<br />
tolerate a tangle of bare stems in winter,<br />
ABOVE<br />
Clematis macropetala<br />
‘Lagoon’<br />
because spring-flowering clematis aren’t<br />
usually pruned back hard, but once the buds<br />
swell and open they make April a glorious<br />
affair. Let them scramble through shrubs,<br />
or climb tall obelisks.<br />
There are lots of charming springflowering<br />
shrubs too. One of the best is<br />
Prunus incisa ‘Kojo-no-mai’, a compact<br />
Fuji cherry small enough to fit into any<br />
garden. Mine flowers its heart out every<br />
year and I love to underplant it with blue<br />
grape hyacinths or muscari.<br />
➤<br />
Subscribe at www.greatmagazines.co.uk 15
What<br />
to do this<br />
month<br />
April<br />
Get hanging<br />
baskets off<br />
to an early<br />
start, overhaul<br />
your pond and prick<br />
out seedlings, says<br />
Louise Curley. Plus it’s<br />
an ideal time to take<br />
softwood cuttings<br />
PHOTO: gap photos/Howard Rice<br />
put in plant<br />
supports<br />
Get stakes and supports in early<br />
before perennials that are prone<br />
to flopping grow too big. This way<br />
you’ll avoid having to wrestle<br />
plants into place or risk them<br />
being damaged by bad weather.<br />
Twiggy ‘pea sticks’ from birch or<br />
hazel prunings make fantastic<br />
plant supports. Push them into the<br />
soil in a circle around the plants<br />
and weave the branches together<br />
to create an up-turned ‘basket’<br />
through which foliage and flower<br />
stems can grow. Hold in place with<br />
twine if necessary.<br />
All manner of ready-made plant<br />
supports are available – from link<br />
stakes to circular grids and<br />
trumpet-shaped structures in<br />
green plastic-coated wire, which<br />
blend in with foliage as it fills out.<br />
Painted or rusty metal options<br />
look attractive and can offer a<br />
handsome focal point once plants<br />
have died back. Use sturdy<br />
bamboo canes or hazel beanpoles<br />
with soft twine to secure tall stems<br />
of delphiniums and sunflowers. ➤<br />
Subscribe at www.greatmagazines.co.uk 31
What to do this month...<br />
BRIMMING OVER<br />
Get ahead with hanging<br />
baskets... this display<br />
shows pink petunias and<br />
blue lobelia<br />
Plant up a hanging basket<br />
Start them off early under<br />
cover and they’ll burst into<br />
bloom by late spring<br />
Late frosts mean it’s still too early to put<br />
summer-flowering baskets outside,<br />
but it’s a good idea to plant them up now so<br />
the plants can fill out over the coming<br />
weeks. By the time the risk of frost has<br />
finally passed (around late May), the<br />
plants should be just about to flower.<br />
Online and mail order nurseries will<br />
have a good selection of plug plants ready<br />
for delivery and garden centres will be<br />
starting to fill their shelves with longflowering<br />
annuals and tender perennials.<br />
✿ How to plant a basket: Use a plastic<br />
liner or section of an old compost bag<br />
to reduce moisture loss and add some<br />
drainage holes if the liner doesn’t already<br />
have some. Pop the basket on top of a<br />
bucket, otherwise the curved base will<br />
wobble around. Fill with a multipurpose<br />
compost mixed with perlite and<br />
a handful of slow-release fertiliser pellets.<br />
Plant up and water thoroughly. Keep<br />
somewhere bright, warm and protected<br />
from frost for the next couple of weeks<br />
before gradually hardening off.<br />
Calibrachoa Bushy, trailing<br />
tender perennial with small<br />
petunia-like flowers.<br />
H10cm (4in) S30cm (12in)<br />
Tiarella Fragrant, frothy<br />
blooms and attractive<br />
foliage for shady spots.<br />
H15cm (6in) S45cm (18in)<br />
Felicia amelloides Blue,<br />
daisy-like flowers cover<br />
mounds of dark foliage.<br />
H and S50cm (20in)<br />
Begonia ‘Glowing Embers’<br />
Hot orange-coloured<br />
blooms and purplish-green<br />
leaves. H and S30cm (12in)<br />
Pelargonium Long-lasting<br />
weather-resistant blooms<br />
in a great range of colours.<br />
H and S10-50cm (4-20in)<br />
Glandularia (verbena)<br />
Pretty, long-lasting flower<br />
clusters from tight buds.<br />
H and S10-25cm (4-10in)<br />
32 Garden Answers
Chocolate<br />
PLANT A<br />
Top<br />
10<br />
FEAST<br />
Celebrate Easter with a tonguein-cheek<br />
chocolate-themed<br />
border. Louise Midgley nominates<br />
her top 10 plants to use<br />
Few can resist the lure of chocolate. It’s a heavenly<br />
edible that’s a feast for all the senses, with its<br />
distinctive aroma, velvety texture and addictive<br />
flavour. This spring, indulge your sweet tooth<br />
by creating a whole border full of plants infused with the<br />
sweet scent of cocoa or bestowed with deep, richly coloured<br />
foliage and flowers. After all, a garden would be<br />
extraordinarily bland if all the foliage was the same shade<br />
of green. It’s far better to plant an appealing mix of dark and<br />
light foliage and flower colours to create some definition and<br />
contrast between plants. A spectrum of mahogany, burgundy<br />
and dark chocolate tones provides a wonderful foil against<br />
which paler lime or pink-coloured flowers can radiate.<br />
Here we’ve provided a delicious assortment of rich, chocolatey<br />
plants, some with perfumes reminiscent of chocolate. Position them close<br />
to your favourite seating area to bask in their delicious scent and beauty.<br />
PHOTOS: GAP; ALAMY; shutterstock<br />
1<br />
Cosmos atrosanguineus<br />
Chocolate cosmos unites the colour and heady fragrance of<br />
chocolate in one delectable plant. The deep maroon, long-stemmed<br />
flowers unleash a chocolatey vanilla aroma in the heat of the day, especially<br />
when planted in full sun. They prefer moist, well-drained soil and perform<br />
especially well in pots and containers with good compost. The tuberous<br />
plants are only half hardy and should be lifted at the end of the season<br />
and stored in a frost-free environment. H70cm (28in) S45cm (18in)<br />
2<br />
Dahlia<br />
‘Karma Choc’<br />
Breathe in the deliciously<br />
intense chocolate fragrance<br />
of this summer-flowering<br />
dahlia as it floats far and wide<br />
in the breeze. Buds open to<br />
reveal velvety flowers with<br />
deep crimson petals and an<br />
almost ebony centre. Dahlias<br />
need plenty of water and a spot<br />
in full sun to keep producing<br />
new blooms from July until the<br />
first frosts. This decorative<br />
dahlia is ideal for arranging and<br />
makes a long-lasting cut flower.<br />
H90cm (3ft) S45cm (18in)<br />
24 Garden Answers
❤<br />
Celebrate<br />
3<br />
Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diabolo’<br />
A striking, deciduous, ornamental shrub that thrives in the<br />
poorest of soils in sun, shade or even a tricky north-facing<br />
spot. Its warm mahogany foliage is greatly enhanced by a profusion<br />
of pretty pink-blushed white flowers in June and July, followed by<br />
attractive reddish-brown seeds. One of the easiest shrubs to grow,<br />
should it outgrow its space, give it a light prune immediately after<br />
flowering. H2m (6½ft) S1.5m (5ft)<br />
<strong>Digital</strong>is parviflora<br />
4 ‘Milk Chocolate’<br />
Find space in sun or shade for<br />
this scrumptious perennial<br />
foxglove. It’s delightfully quirky<br />
but unlikely to be sold in your<br />
local garden centre, so seek it<br />
out from specialist nurseries<br />
online or good plant sales. Tiny,<br />
densely packed, bronze trumpetshaped<br />
blooms encircle a rigid<br />
spire that rises above glossy<br />
foliage and lasts from summer<br />
well into autumn. A winner for<br />
pollinators, bees and butterflies<br />
and content in any garden soil.<br />
H60cm (2ft) S30cm (12in)<br />
➤➤<br />
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