How to Create Colorful Flower Borders

When choosing flowers for graves, it’s important to consider their symbolism so that you can convey the right wishes to the lost soul.

Siberian irises are known for filling the bloom gap between late spring and midsummer. They blossom after Japanese iris (I. ensata, Zones 4–9) but before bearded iris (I. germanica, Zones 3–9). This 2024 introduction sports a compact habit that allows it to hold the stems of heavy blooms aloft without fuss. Each flower has saffron-yellow signals (outer petals) highlighted by dusty purple-blue veins. The center is a solid amethyst hue. The interesting, tiger-like striping is certainly the cat’s meow.

For years I’ve heard the same refrain: You can’t have a good-looking garden that is also eco-friendly. It seems that many folks think native plants are too wild looking and that taking a lighter approach to garden cleanup or care will lead to a messy, unkempt landscape. I argue that there are small steps everyone can take to encourage greater biodiversity in their space, all while keeping it attractive.

With the third series of the hit drama about to start and The Bridgerton Garden coming to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show later this month, now is the ideal time to invest in some new plants to bring a touch of Regency glamour and romance to your garden.

Colorful Summer Plantings for Sun and Shade Attract pollinators and wildlife to your garden with these colorful combinations for sun and shade gardens. Dreaming of summer

Late spring is the perfect time to give your borders a little attention, in order to keep them in good shape throughout summer. At this time, there’s still room between plants to negotiate a way through, so you can access plants at the back of the border before everything grows and knits together.

Bridgerton is coming to Chelsea this month, as Netflix makes its debut at the flower show, with a garden themed around its popular TV show. First time Chelsea designer Holly Johnston has created a garden based on the personal journey of the show’s main character, Penelope Featherington. The Bridgerton Garden is part of the Sanctuary Gardens area at the show.

We all love strings of pearls for their beautiful display of plump leaves that dangle down beautifully on those thin, wire-like stems. However, these plants do flower beautifully, too, if you know how to create the right environment for them!

Architectural indoor plants are great to use them as a part of the furniture or overall design element of any room in the house, where they form a perfect camaraderie with the space.

If you want the colors in your garden to stay intact even in the peak of heat, these flowers are a great choice as they keep on blooming no matter how warm the weather gets!

Ground cover plants are low-growing plants that spread easily to cover areas where nothing much wants to grow.

Putting plants together is the most creative and joyful part of making a garden. With colour, shape and texture, you can conjure up a living work of art, something that not only gives you sensory pleasure but also benefits wildlife and the environment. But with so many options available to us, where do we start? I always think back to the plantswoman Beth Chatto and her mantra ‘right plant, right place’ when conceiving a plan, because there is no point in rushing to place your favourite sun-loving flowers in a shady spot at the back of a north-facing house. ‘Plants, like people, have their preferences and don’t like being thrust into the nearest available hole,’ she observed.