Advice - security

Head and flowers above the rest

After the dark days of the winter, there are few things more uplifting than the sight of the first emerging buds beginning to swell as plants wake from their cold slumber.

Gardeners everywhere will be looking keenly for the young new shoots of herbaceous plants breaking through the soil.

For cathedral-like spires of flowers and foliage, Verbascum olympicum stands proud in any sunny border providing it’s not too wet. With yellow towers of blooms and grey foliage it’s happy on Kent’s chalk soils.

Ever popular at RHS flower shows, the trendy Verbena bonariensis is capable of making over six feet to throw purple tufts of flowers into the sky.

Pure brazenness comes in the form of Rudbeckia ‘Herbstsonne’ up to seven feet high, with its yellow daisy like flowers during late summer and autumn.

Architectural foliage is the specialty of the moisture-loving Gunnera manicata, with individual leaves sometimes over five feet across on a single plant.

Spring sunshine is warming the soil and soon the race will be on to get those flowers up and out, not just under our noses but sometimes even over our heads! If you can plant these tall players in big groups, you don’t have to worry quite so much about staking either as their safety in numbers means they protect and support each other.

Just remember all that growth needs to be rewarded with a good application of organic compost.

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