Fill the garden with colour

Ruth looks at the many options for summer bedding

- Ruth Hayes

AS far as I am concerned, anything that comes under the banner of ‘brightly coloured annual’ is fair game as far as summer bedding is concerned.

There is something absolutely joyous about filling your beds, borders and containers (which I will be looking at next week) with one-season wonders guaranteed to bring colour and fun to the garden for the next few months.

There are the traditional stalwarts, the begonias, petunias, busy lizzies, antirrhinums and pelargoniums, which pack a real summery punch when planted en masse to form blocks of colour in a bed.

Then there are the more exotic options, which people don’t necessarily consider to be ‘bedding’, but will gussy up your garden a treat this summer. Cosmos in every shade from bright orange to shell pink, flamboyant zinnias, osteospermum and salvia.