Biennials

No sooner has the tulip bulb order been dispatched, but the biennials are going in for next year’s display. Sown en masse, gently teased apart, pricked out and potted up, they’ll gather strength over the Autumn months in readiness for their part in next year’s tapestry of Spring colour. Rather than a homogenous block of bulbs, they’ll be woven in amongst the tulips, adding depth to the display: white digitalis and the speckled ‘Pam’s Choice’ threading through white hesperis and blue myosotis with a vibrant shade of woad providing an anchor point in amongst the pastels.

In amongst the mix, there will be the following:

Anchusa – azure ‘dropmore capensis,’ ‘blue angel’ & ‘lodden royalist’

Arabis – ‘snow cap’

Campanula – ‘patula’

Digitalis – ambigua, cariensis, ferruginea ‘Giant Form,’ ‘Camelot Lavender,’ lutea, purpurea, purpurea, purpurea & ‘Pam’s Choice.’

Eryngium – giganteum

Esrysimum – ‘blood red,’ ‘ivory white,’ & ‘violet’

Hesperis – Matronalis purple & white

Isatis – tinctoria

Kale – ‘Red Russian’

Lunaria – annua, annua alba

Lychnis – chalcedonic, coronaria, coronaria Alba & seilboldii

Mysotis- ‘Snowsylva,’ ‘Bluesylva’ & True Wild Form

Oenothera – biennia, odorata, Tetragona, versicolor

Onopordum – arabicum

Salvia – turkstanica

Silene – dioca & vulgaris

Verbascum – Blattaria, chaxii, ‘Flush of White,’ olympicum, ‘Rosetta,’ Thapsus, Southern Charm and Violetta.