SEASONAL bedding traditionally consisted of autumn-planted forget-me-nots, or wallflowers under-planted with tulips and polyanthus with muscari, all stripped out late May, to be followed by frost-tender summer-flowering begonias, zonal geraniums, petunias, salvias and so on. The arrival of winter-flowering pansies and violas changed things, flowering well into summer.
The shrinking size of gardens in new housing, wider use of patio pots and the longer flowering season provided by modern hybrids have changed things.
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There are as many options as in summer
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Rudbeckias
Rudbeckias are ideal for sunny summer patios and borders, with some able to survive our coldest winters
