Summer Plants – Our favourites for the season ahead
Summer is here and it’s time for some colour! As well as the more common bedding plants there are a huge range of annual bedding plants you can grow for height, scent and colour which can be planted in beds and borders, window boxes and containers. Here are our favourites for the season ahead!
Sweet peas
Sweet peas make great cottage garden bedding plants. Let them grow up obelisks or netting where they will reach heights of 1.8m. Very popular for their fragrance and they make a great cut flower as well!
Impatiens – New Guinea
Incredibly valuable for shady beds and borders, Impatiens summer bedding plants produce large flowers in a range of fruity colours, from pinks to reds through purples and white.
Lobelia
The flowers of lobelia create wonderful dense waterfalls of colour in hanging baskets and containers, or grow the upright varieties for edging beds and borders. Easy to grow and long-flowering, they complement any summer bedding scheme and look particularly pretty mingling with bedding plants in hanging baskets. Lobelia generally come in shades of cool blue, purple and white and are great if you’re looking for blue annual bedding plants.
Petunia
Surely the summer bedding plant with the most exciting blooms! Petunias are popular for their large trumpet flowers in a fantastic array of bright colours and patterns, including stripes. These vigorous half-hardy annuals can be trailing or upright, and look spectacular spilling from hanging baskets, window boxes and containers, or massed in beds and borders. Some such as Petunia 'Purple Tower' can even be trained to climb a frame! Petunias are particularly useful if you’re looking for purple bedding plants, offering shades of mauve, lilac-blue or rich deep purple.
Begonia
One of the most popular summer bedding plants, Begonias are well loved for their large colourful blooms in a wide range of colours, and their ability to thrive in both sun and shade. Flowering continuously throughout summer up to the first frosts, Begonia bedding plants can be upright or trailing and are suitable for beds, borders, hanging baskets and window boxes.
Geranium
A common bedding plant and for good reason! These sturdy, sun-loving plants are well suited to hot, dry conditions and flower all summer through to the first frosts. Pelargoniums, commonly known as Geraniums, are versatile bedding plants for summer and include trailing, climbing and upright varieties which are perfect for beds, borders, patio containers, hanging baskets and obelisks.
Call in and see our full range of summer plants at Powerscourt Garden Pavilion.
See you soon,
Monica Schmidt, Horticulturalist at Powerscourt Garden Pavilion
Impatiens – New Guinea
Incredibly valuable for shady beds and borders, Impatiens summer bedding plants produce large flowers in a range of fruity colours, from pinks to reds through purples and white.
Lobelia
The flowers of lobelia create wonderful dense waterfalls of colour in hanging baskets and containers, or grow the upright varieties for edging beds and borders. Easy to grow and long-flowering, they complement any summer bedding scheme and look particularly pretty mingling with bedding plants in hanging baskets. Lobelia generally come in shades of cool blue, purple and white and are great if you’re looking for blue annual bedding plants.
Petunia
Surely the summer bedding plant with the most exciting blooms! Petunias are popular for their large trumpet flowers in a fantastic array of bright colours and patterns, including stripes. These vigorous half-hardy annuals can be trailing or upright, and look spectacular spilling from hanging baskets, window boxes and containers, or massed in beds and borders. Some such as Petunia 'Purple Tower' can even be trained to climb a frame! Petunias are particularly useful if you’re looking for purple bedding plants, offering shades of mauve, lilac-blue or rich deep purple.
Begonia
One of the most popular summer bedding plants, Begonias are well loved for their large colourful blooms in a wide range of colours, and their ability to thrive in both sun and shade. Flowering continuously throughout summer up to the first frosts, Begonia bedding plants can be upright or trailing and are suitable for beds, borders, hanging baskets and window boxes.
Geranium
A common bedding plant and for good reason! These sturdy, sun-loving plants are well suited to hot, dry conditions and flower all summer through to the first frosts. Pelargoniums, commonly known as Geraniums, are versatile bedding plants for summer and include trailing, climbing and upright varieties which are perfect for beds, borders, patio containers, hanging baskets and obelisks.
Call in and see our full range of summer plants at Powerscourt Garden Pavilion.
See you soon,
Monica Schmidt, Horticulturalist at Powerscourt Garden Pavilion 
