What to plant for Instant May colour

Flowers can be few and far between this month – but they do not have to be. Sally Jenner reveals the plants you need to glam up your garden right now

- Sally Jenner

MAY has to be one of the most glorious months in the gardening calendar – as long as you like green. Verdant growth is everywhere and there’s a sense that the best of the year is still to come. But what about flower power? With the last of the spring bulbs having faded away and the summer show yet to start, what can you trust to supply those pops of colour that really bring a garden to life?

For an impressive display, opt for oriental poppies. Planted alongside hardy geranium Rozanne (‘Gerwat’), their blowsy blooms will fill the gap that’s left after the geranium foliage dies back with the flowers (it regrows in autumn). Peonies and irises also offer quick-fix glamour. Try crimson Paeonia ‘Buckeye Belle’ – spectacular alongside zingy-green euphorbias – and look out for dwarf bearded irises, which flower ahead of their taller cousins.

Many late-spring perennials have dainty flowers that can easily seem lost in a border. The answer is to plant them in groups – a trick that will work well with dazzling-orange Trollius x cultorum ‘Golden Queen’ and candelabra primula ‘Miller’s Crimson’. Both are good for a shady spot in moist soil; plant them among hostas to break up the green. Then there’s the cobalt blue of Anchusa azurea ‘Dropmore’ – lovely on its own, but even better next to the warm oranges of geums.

When looking for May colour, don’t forget to consider shrubs. The best are multi-taskers that can add structure to your plot as well as supplying colourful flowers. You can’t go wrong with Weigela ‘All Summer Red’; suitable for a pot or the border, its scarlet blooms flower from April until October.

Colour to go