Last month we took a look at what is happening in the world of lawns and developments regarding equipment and new grass varieties.
This month I have taken as my subject what is happening in the flower garden, so let’s take a peep into what will be available this year in the seed and plant catalogues!
Cosmos Apricot Lemonade – Cosmos is an old favourite in our gardens. Easy to grow, you just sow direct in the garden and before you know it – it’s flowering! Flower breeders have done so much to offer us, short, tall, single and double flowered types – it’s a big choice! Apricot Lemonade is a new unique colour.
Scabious Salmon Queen – so attractive and again, so easy to grow. We all know the wild blue scabious and this one is a lovely colour too. Not only that, it’s a magnet for butterflies when in flower. It is tall growing and the flowers are fragrant. What more could you want?
Dahlia Dalina Starburst Pink – this beauty has already won so many awards! Best described as ‘anemone flowered’ with deep rose blooms and yellow tips to the central crest. Ideal for growing in containers or as bedding, plants grow to about 18” and remember – being a dahlia you can save the tubers it produces, for next year!
Digitalis (Foxglove) Dottie Mixed Colours – is a new compact version of this old ‘cottage garden’ favourite which is earlier to flower than its traditional cousins. Not only that, but it produces a second flush of flowers and thus is in bloom for longer than older varieties!
The above are just some examples of how the worlds flower breeders are busy on our behalf.
Increasingly our environment comes in to the picture with work to produce flowers to encourage pollinating insects to our gardens. Another increasing area is breeding to provide resistance to attacks from pests and diseases. This will avoid the use of chemicals in our gardens and that’s got to be good!
So what with the above and traditional targets of different colours, dwarfer or taller plants and longer flowering periods, our flower breeders remain ‘busy boys’!
That’s just a glimpse into what is happening in new flowers for this year.
In the March issue of What’s New in Gardening, I will take a look at the world of vegetables to whet your appetite on new things to grow on your plot this year!
