Vibrant, versatile and enormously diversified, summer season bedding vegetation are assured to brighten up your backyard. With only a little bit of planning and care, they will immediately remodel your beds, borders, pots and hanging baskets right into a riot of color that lasts lengthy into autumn.
Right here, we’ve chosen the very best skilled ideas and methods from our favorite gardening bloggers that can assist you get the beautiful summer season backyard of your goals!
Contents:
Greatest recommendation on which bedding vegetation to decide on
Equally suited to borders and containers, bedding vegetation are the proper means “to create a short lived floral and/or foliage planting scheme,” explains backyard designer Marie Shallcross of Plews Backyard Design. Historically modified twice a yr for summer season and winter, learn Marie’s article for tips about the way to create a twenty first century bedding plant design that’s removed from old school!
Over at The Sunday Gardener, Carol Bartlett reminds us that it’s essential to not plant your bedding out too early as frost can kill them and “chilly climate will make them sulk.” Allow them to get established in a sheltered spot or greenhouse, and so they’ll flourish when the climate warms up. Learn the total article for extra ideas, together with Carol’s suggestions for the best summer season bedding vegetation to develop.
Probably the greatest issues about summer season bedding vegetation is their shiny versatility, as nature lover Wee Em proves with this beautiful multi-coloured show of flowers in her massive, raised planter. Em clearly loves ringing the modifications with these brightly-coloured blooms and is trying ahead “to doing one thing simply as good however completely different subsequent yr”. Comply with her over at @scottishgardener_weeem for inspiration.
Inside designer Sarah from @behindthedoorat24 proves that summer season bedding vegetation work completely with ultra-modern backyard design. She has even constructed devoted ‘bedding partitions’ round her modern out of doors seating space to benefit from these brightly-coloured blooms. Go to her on Insta to see the sensational show and discover out what she plans to do for winter.
Greatest recommendation on utilizing bedding vegetation in beds and borders
Should you’ve purchased plug vegetation on your borders, it’s a good suggestion to allow them to develop on in small pots earlier than planting them outdoors. As Ray of Gardening for Novices explains, it is a good technique to “get forward of the sport” and guarantee your bedding vegetation are in nice situation when the time involves plant them out. His video on the way to pot up plug vegetation clearly demonstrates this fast and straightforward technique – give it a watch!
Over at Gardening at 58 North, Simon’s spring vegetation have died again so it’s time to clear the beds and put together the soil for summer season bedding vegetation. He incorporates natural matter as he turns the soil over, which helps it to retain moisture, and likewise provides some “slow-release blood, fish and bone that may give the brand new vegetation loads of feed, to allow them to develop fairly sturdy and placed on a very good show for this yr.” Watch his video on planting up summer season bedding to see how he makes use of African marigolds, alyssum and different flowers to create a diversified and fascinating show.
Summer season bedding vegetation are a fast technique to flip your backyard into a vibrant haven. Over at @leebyng, skilled gardener Lee places “months of planning and organising” into remodeling a consumer’s beds and borders however, for the fortunate backyard proprietor, the impact is sort of immediate! Try the great earlier than and after backyard images on Instagram.
Isle of Wight-based gardener Jordan Aspinall’s Union flag summer season bedding scheme is proof {that a} little bit of planning can yield spectacular outcomes! Flip by way of his images over at @jordan.aspinall to see how he remodeled the beds at Osborne Home with begonia and heliotrope. Jordan has an actual eye for composition, as you may see from this brief video of a spherical bedding plant show that includes Salvia ‘Victoria Blue’. He says that going straightforward on the pruning “has allowed it to look actually lush like a giant cushion”. Stunning!
If you wish to see how spectacular summer season bedding vegetation may be, take a look at the vibrant borders at Jesus Faculty, Cambridge shared by gardener Jo Ward on her private Instagram account. She notes that this dramatic show is “harking back to the Victorian summer season bedding at Hampton Courtroom Palace” and remains to be going sturdy nicely into September! And Jo ought to know. With one other hat on, she’s the cat-loving @hamptoncourtpalacegardener!
Greatest recommendation on utilizing bedding vegetation in containers and hanging baskets
Bedding vegetation have delicate roots, so it’s necessary to deal with them with care. Of their Shropshire backyard, Elliot and Matt prefer to “plant the identical selection en masse” to create a very sturdy look of their containers. Their ornate urn stuffed with shiny pink geraniums is bound to look improbable as soon as the flowers seem. Watch the total video on the way to plant summer season bedding vegetation in pots for ideas.
Plug vegetation are an effective way to offer your backyard an immediate raise, particularly in the event you don’t have the time (or house) to develop summer season flowers from seed. Marie of Plews Backyard Design vegetation them in hanging baskets and containers for “a spectacular floral bedding show at little price”. She recommends two other ways of ‘hardening off’ to acclimatise your younger vegetation – learn her article on plug vegetation for containers and see which technique works finest for you.
John Moore of Pyracantha vegetation a combination of upright and trailing vegetation in hanging baskets to create a vibrant, multi-level impact. Among the many many suggestions featured in his article on the finest vegetation for hanging baskets are petunias, which “will flower proper the best way by way of summer season” in the event you deadhead them, and Bacopa, which “produces plenty of tiny star-shaped flowers”. Each are nice choices for full and luxurious-looking baskets.
Should you’ve been impressed to plant your individual vibrant hanging baskets, choose up some sensible ideas on this useful hanging basket video from Suttons. Our horticultural skilled demonstrates how easy it’s to plant up a plastic easy-fill basket. The detachable facet ‘gates’ permit you to get a very full and spectacular show that may “raise your spirits each time you step outdoors”.
Greatest recommendation on the way to look after bedding vegetation

Picture: Petunia ‘Large Assortment’ from Suttons/©Thompson & Morgan
It’s necessary to maintain your summer season bedding vegetation if you would like an extended flowering interval. Elaine of The three Growbags recommends pinching out the dominant (or apical) bud on the central stem. You might have to “harden your coronary heart somewhat” to do it, however eradicating this central bud prompts the plant to divert vitality to its facet shoots, supplying you with a “sturdy, bushy plant which can flower proper by way of the summer season”. Try Elaine’s article to see the outcomes.
Are your summer season bedding vegetation trying a bit drained after flowering? It’s in all probability as a result of they’re placing all their vitality into seeds. Stephen from The Adventurous Allotmenteer recommends “refreshing” the vegetation by deadheading and reducing again to new development, which not solely encourages the vegetation to flower once more but additionally creates a bushier, more healthy plant. Watch his video on bedding plant upkeep to seek out out what to search for when reducing again.
Ryan behind @scottish_newbuild_garden can be an advocate of deadheading to encourage extra flowers, and he loves petunias for his or her capability to “deliver color to the backyard all through summer season”. His mixture of normal deadheading and feeding to offer the vegetation an “further enhance” has introduced him nice success, as you may see from these images exhibiting his beautiful petunias out in power!
Don’t fear in case your vegetation have already began to set seed – Simon of Gardening at 58 North demonstrates a number of methods to make your summer season bedding vegetation bloom once more. One technique is to fastidiously take away all of the seed heads, which can encourage additional flower manufacturing with out taking away an excessive amount of of the construction of the plant. For a faster repair that’s “fairly drastic nevertheless it’s finest for vegetation which have actually gone over”, Simon recommends reducing again to the bigger leaves after which feeding the plant – watch his video to seek out out which feed is finest for flowers and foliage.
Now that our specialists have proven you the way straightforward it’s to enliven your backyard or patio with summer season bedding vegetation, we hope you’ve been impressed to offer it a go! Check out our in depth number of bedding vegetation to seek out common choices, colour-themed collections and autumn-winter bedding vegetation to take you thru the coldest months of the yr.
Picture: Nurseryman’s Selection Summer season Favourites from Suttons/©Thompson & Morgan