Get A Head Start For Unbeatable - Summer Colour

January may be the gloomiest of months, but plan now and you can look forward to a brighter future, courtesy of the most colourful summer flowers, says Louise Curley.

- Louise Curley

ARE the dark nights and the cold and grey of winter getting you down? Then what better way to cheer yourself up than by starting to plan a long season of colour in the garden. It might seem too early to be thinking ahead to summer, but garden planning is a very worthwhile New Year’s resolution to sign up to.

The key to packing the summer months with colour is growing as wide a mix of plants as possible. Look to summer-flowering bulbs such as gladioli, dahlias, cannas and begonias. Annuals will flower from June to the first frosts, and there are some perennials that – if sown early enough – will flower in their first year.