Advice on what to plant

[Treezan82]

Hi all. I'm new to gardening and have just had our garden landscaped so have some actual flower beds. Please could you advise what would be good to plant now?

I am ideally looking for plants that will flower over this summer and then continue to flower again each year. Or evergreen shrubs.

I'd like to attract bees and butterflies so anything good for them would be ideal. We do get a lot of snails in our garden.

I will plant some spring bulbs in November but would like something for this summer too.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Some of my favourites are lavender, roses and hydrangeas.

It's usually best to plant shrubs when they are dormant, i.e. early spring. However, providing you can give the things you plant plenty of water, then it can be okay. There are lots of annuals, perennials and bedding plants around at the moment - some of the supermarkets have good selections and they are pretty cheap.

Are the birders shady or sunny?

Borders...

Sunny most of the day but there are 2 small shady patches

@WeAreTheHeroes

It's usually best to plant shrubs when they are dormant, i.e. early spring. However, providing you can give the things you plant plenty of water, then it can be okay. There are lots of annuals, perennials and bedding plants around at the moment - some of the supermarkets have good selections and they are pretty cheap.

I have seen some small lavender bushes in Lidl - might give them a go. Thanks!

I dont yet have a garden, but when we do, like you we will get it landscaped and then....

Bougainvillea in the corners...
An herb patch...
Night smelling stock...
Lavender...
Bee friendly things...

All sorts really! Have fun!

Tangerine geum

You may need to plan the beds properly next autumn/spring, so that you can add the shurbs then to give the bed structure.

This year, dahlias will give lots of colour in a few weeks time. You can dig them up in the autumn to save for next year.

Or, as you have space now, how about growing runner beans? The flowers are a lovely colour, and you can plant smaller bedding in similar colours around the base.

Herbs? Rosemary has lovely little blue flowers in the spring. You can plant it by putting stalks of it in the earth and watering. Bee friendly.
If you like lavender you might like verbena. It’s tall elegant and purple.
Enjoy yourself 😀

Cosmos are lovely annuals.

Geraniums - both the perennials and pelargoniums - are pretty much slug and snail proof. The perennials come up every year. Also, geums. Aquilegia are also fairly reliable and the snails don’t seem to like them much. They are flowering now, and add instant height, so it’s a great time to select a couple you like from a garden centre.

I also like heuchera - a wide variety of different coloured leaves and tall flower spikes. Again, snails leave them alone.

Herbs are a great idea but whatever you do don’t put mint in the ground. It will take over!

To the pp who wants to plant bougainvillea I would absolutely love one of those, but I’ve never seen one that would survive outdoors in the UK. If you’ve found one that won’t mind the winter please do tell - I want one!

Bougainvillea in the corners
If you are in the UK this is highly unlikely to survive.
DH really wanted some but we ended up with deep pink climbing roses instead, I would use roses instead.

OP, campanula portenschlagiana, roses, snapdragon, Gaura and lavender flower for most of summer for me.

Bees won’t pay attention to heavily ruffled, fully double roses but there are loads of scented, single and semi double roses they will be attracted to.

They really like herbs left to flower too; mint, basil, coriander, dill, lemon balm, oregano etc

Looking at my garden this morning the bees are going for foxgloves, aquilegia, the last few forgetmenots and wallflowers, they are really going for the allium, a few are hitting the catmint.

If you really want to be bee friendly then you need to look at extending the seasons, so planting for early flowering bulbs and shrubs to feed the early emerging bees, and later flowering stuff like side sea and ivy to prolong the autumn season for them. Think too about providing shelter for over wintering bees.

Side sea? I meant sedum.

Thanks so much everyone, lots of food for thought!

I think aside from planting bulbs in autumn, I think I will go for some lavender and a rose bush for now - will that work out planted in June with lots of water? I've also got some rosemary and sage ready to go.

I said bougainvillea...

If its not that, what am I seeing everywhere? Huge bushes covered with big flowers, deep red, purple or pink.

It's that that I'd love, a pink one. I shall design our garden and pay to get it done. I cannot wait. It must be so nice to sit in a beautiful garden. Down here in Somerset I am envious of a few!

Near me that would be camellias, although most are pretty much over now, or lilacs which are just flowering now.

If its not that, what am I seeing everywhere? Huge bushes covered with big flowers, deep red, purple or pink
Bushes or climbing plants?
It could be loads of things but for bushes azalea, rhododendron, weigela and Camelia come to mind.

A climber with big red, purple or pink flowers could be clematis, climbing or rambling roses.

I’ve done similar to what you’re thinking of doing. I went to the garden centre and basically bought whatever I fancied, usually because it was in flower, and knew the garden would look lovely straightaway. And it did, and I spent a fortune.

What I wish I’d done is step back, plan what I wanted and what would do well in which bed, thought about height and structure, ultimate growing size, colours, how it would look in winter, what to plant in repeats and groups etc. And take time to plan it for the next season.

Lots of different salvia would be lovely, as they will grow to their full potential this summer, and many keep going through into autumn. Lots are hardy. The most hardy varieties I’ve found are Amistad, the lips series (hot lips is the most common, but you’ll see cherry lips and grape lips too) and S. cerise petosi.

Also, if you’re painting a fence as part of your garden work, it’s so much easier to paint before you put any climbers or plants in.