Plant Solutions. Nigel Colborn

plants: Perfect for creating green or coloured ground cover between shrubs, particularly along border edges. Best when allowed to spread naturally, by self-sowing.

Mimulus

      Monkey Flower, Musk Short-lived perennials and half hardy annuals

      Mat forming perennials with slightly toothed leaves and a summer-long run of trumpet-shaped flowers in bright colours, often with stippling at the throat. Cultivars include ‘Highland Park’ (tomato red), ‘Puck’ (yellow) and ‘Wisley Red’ (scarlet). Seed series offer speckled and dramatically blotched blooms in shades of pink and cream though orange, red, maroon and yellow. ‘Monkey Magic’ is white with red markings.

      Soil preference: Moist, but well-drained and fertile

      Aspect: Sun or shade

      Season of interest: Summer

      Height and spread: From dwarf to 30cm × 45cm (1ft × 1ft 6in)

      Companion plants: Ideal plants for a moist, part-shaded bedding scheme where they can accompany some of the taller primulas, such as Primula viallii. Seed series are useful for shaded containers with dark blue lobelia.

      Lobelia erinus

      Bedding Lobelia Tender perennial, invariably grown as annuals

      Compact or trailing herbs with thin stems, sometimes bronze-hued foliage and a constant succession of small flowers, with broad lower petals and a contrasting white eye. Colours include dark, mid- or pale blue, mauve, purple and white. Popular compact varieties include non-trailing ‘Palace Series’ and ‘Mrs Clibran’. Trailing kinds include the ‘Cascade Series’ and light blue ‘Periwinkle Blue’.

      Soil preference: Moisture-retentive

      Aspect: Sun or part shade

      Season of interest: Summer

      Height and spread: Variable to 20cm (8in), but trailing kinds have longer stems

      Companion plants: The classic plant for edging borders, or for trailing from baskets. The blue is valuable for cooling colour schemes or for making strong contrasts with, for example, golden-flowered Bidens ferulifolia; looks attractive almost anywhere.

      Tanacetum parthenium

      Feverfew Perennial

      Bright green or gold, lobed leaves which are acridly aromatic when bruised. The yellow-centred, white flowers begin to emerge in late spring and are produced all summer. Cultivars include ‘Snowball’ (button blooms) and ‘Santana’. Will flower naturally but also responds well to frequent trimming. A prolific self-seeder, sometimes becoming a nuisance, but also a handy gap filler. The leaves are reputed to cure headaches.

      Soil preference: Any

      Aspect: Sun, partial shade or shade

      Season of interest: Spring, summer, autumn

      Height and spread: Variable to 45cm (1ft 6in), usually smaller

      Companion plants: Useful as part of a carpet bedding scheme, or when the gold-leaf form ‘Aureum’ is planted among such plants as Impatiens or petunias, to tone down the intensity of the flowers.

      Bedding for sustainable growing

      Viola

      Violas Perennials

      Mat-forming perennials with compact foliage and a constant succession of flowers, many of which are marked with face-like features. Garden violas are almost constantly in bloom with colours similar in range to pansies with many being bicoloured, plain or picotee. Varieties include ‘Ardross Gem’, ‘Irish Molly’ and ‘Martin’. Seed series include ‘Baby Face’, ‘Gemini Twins’ and ‘Sorbet’.

      Soil preference: Any, well-drained, not too dry

      Aspect: Sun or part shade

      Season of interest: Year round

      Height and spread: Up to 20cm × 30cm (8in × 1ft)

      Companion plants: Universally loved and useful almost anywhere. New seed series of small flowered violas are superseding bigger flowered pansies because they can bloom throughout the year. Violas and pansies look good with almost any other garden plant.

      Geranium pratense

      Meadow Cranesbill Perennial

      Raise from seed sown in autumn to provide flowers the following summer. Decorative foliage is divided with first flower stems developing in early summer producing bright blue flowers. Cut hard back to provide a second flush in late summer. There is a pure white form, and ‘Mrs Kendall Clark’ has pale slate-blue flowers.

      Soil preference: Any

      Aspect: Sun

      Season of interest: Summer and autumn

      Height and spread: 1m × 60cm (3ft 3in × 2ft)

      Companion plants: Wild bedding is an unusual but exciting concept. Try this cranesbill with ox eye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare) and with annual grasses such as Briza maxima or Lagurus ovata for a soft, meadow effect.

      Aquilegia

      Granny’s Bonnets, Columbine Perennials

      Sustainable bedding. Seed series of big, showy columbines are popular as bedding plants. Sown in spring, they will produce plenty of flower the following year and can be planted in situ in autumn. The ‘Songbird series’ have big, long-spurred blooms in red, blue, yellow and creamy white, which also make good container plants and can even be used for early conservatory displays.

      Soil preference: Any, preferably fertile

      Aspect: Sun, part-shade

      Season of interest: Spring, early summer

      Height and spread: Variable from dwarf to 1m (3ft 3in)

      Companion plants: Best on their own in a bedding scheme, but beautiful if dotted among perennials or shrubs in a mixed border, or grown in containers.

Bedding for attracting wildlife

      Verbena bonariensis

      Purple Top, Tall Verbena Short-lived, marginally hardy perennial

      Tall stems, sparsely furnished with narrow, dark green leaves are topped, through summer, by dense bunches of tiny bright purple blooms. The stems are so thin and the leaves so few that the flowers seem suspended by invisible supports. Attractive to butterflies and a wide range of insects. A prolific self-seeder.

      Soil