Aubretia is an excellent, 6″ high perennial that is almost smothered with flowers in early spring.
Aubretia is suitable for rockeries, walls, borders, edging paths, planters and window boxes. Spread is 12-18in and flower colours include blue, rich purple and pink shades.

Sowing Instructions

• Sow by just covering the seed, from late winter to early summer, in a good free draining seed compost.
• Add some grit or sharp sand to ordinary compost as Aubretia doesn’t like wet feet.
• Make sure the compost is moist and not wet and seal in a polythene bag.
• Germination usually takes 14-21 days at 65F .

Growing Instructions

• Transplant, when large enough to handle, into boxes or 3in pots.
• Later plant out 12in apart into a sunny, well drained garden soil preferably containing lime.
• Trim with shears after flowering to keep plants tidy. Allow to trail if you like the unkempt look.
• Desirable plants can be increased by cuttings or layering in late spring.

Old Hybrids to Look Out For

• Doctor Muller – deep violet-blue
• Mrs Rodewald – larger red flowers.
• Bridesmaid – pale pink  with a deeper eye.
• Barker’s Double -  a pink mix with semi and double flowers

You can buy seeds or plants from Thompson Morgan

Aubretia deltoidea Variegata has white edged leaves.

Aubretia deltoidea Aurea has gold edged leaves. Aubretia is also in books with the spelling Aubrieta and Aubrietia

Your Sweet Peas should now be full and robust flower. I hope you bunches of picked peas are scenting the house.

Sweet Pea Reminders

• Pick the flowers regularly, any you do not pick must be deadhead regularly. This encourages new flowers, leaving them on says to the plant ‘the job of producing seed has been done’ and the Sweet Pea shuts down flower production.
• Water your Sweet Peas with a regular and good soaking.
• Sweet Peas will continue to grow and flower at the top. Some growers lay the haulms down and train plants back up the next support.
• A foliar feed of half strength tomato fertilizer may help revive tired plants (at least it makes me think I am doing some thing.
• Did I mention picking and deadheading.

Perennial Sweet Peas

• I have several perennial sweet peas that have been a bit late flowering this year. They are all over six feet tall and still going.
• Lathyrus latifolius Red Pearl, White Pearl or Rosa Perle are favourite varieties.
• The RHS comments that perennial sweet peas can be used as ground cover if left to scramble unsupported.
• Everlasting Sweet Peas from Thompson Morgan

I’ve been harvesting my New Potatoes for a few weeks now – later than last year I’m sure. But they still taste amazing! I didn’t get to grow my saved seed Potatoes that were given to me last year. Why? Because mice ate them! Can you believe it?

It makes me laugh that I wrote this post “How to Save Seed Potatoes” last September and then failed to actually save any. I saved the Potatoes over the winter in a sealed tin box, like a good little girl. Then in February I took them out to chit them in the potting shed. Little did I know that the mice were lying in wait thinking, ‘ooh she’s putting out some juicy snacks for us, let’s wait till she’s gone and eat the lot!’.

By the next day there was not a Potato in sight, nor a mouse. So much for purple Potatoes huh? Next year the cat lives in the potting shed while I chit my Potatoes. He doesn’t know it yet but I’m sure he’ll like it.

Alpine or border Campanulas come in many species and varieties.

Campanula lactiflora ‘Loddon Anna’ above was grown from seed distributed free to members by the RHS. It grows four feet tall and has many very attractive open bell shaped flowers. The flowers are arranged on a stem in a loose cone shape but with each of about 60 flower about an inch wide the effect is light and flowing. This species is commonly called the Milky bell flower and is a lilac colour.

Growing Campanula.

• Most Campanulas bloom in June and July, but some varieties continue all summer.
• Plant seeds or seedlings in May, though they can be sown in August and protected during the winter.
• Most Campanula plants tolerate full sun but like some moisture in the soil. The smaller varieties grow in walls and rockeries.
• Thompson Morgan have a fine seed collection.
• There is a white Campanula persicifolia alba

Hints and Tips about the Campanula Family

• Plants are generally perennial other than the annual Campanula macrostyla and ramosissima.
• The small hairbell or harebell are sometimes called the Bluebells of Scotland
• The scent is very mild during the day.
• There is a National Plant Collection at Burton Agnes Hall in Driffield.
• Smaller campanulas are ideal for rockeries, borders and pots

Dwarf Campanula by Graham Nichols
See also Campanula for the rockery here or Alpine campanulas.
Wikipedia lists 473 species.
Images of Campanula carpatica a compact campanula covered for a long season in summer with masses of blue, upright, bell flowers.

Basil

• Scented basil is a key part of Italian cooking and a perfect companion to tomatoes. Eat your own basil in omelettes or as a pesto sauce.
• Growing from seed on a windowsil in a 3″ pot is easy peasy
• Pick leaves as needed, pinching out the top encourages growth

Parsley

• Curly parsley is best used as a garnish and with cold dishes.
• Flat leaved parsley is used with hot dishes according to Jamie Oliver.
• Grown from seed Parsley will last through winter as it is a short lived perennial

Coriander

• With a strong warming taste and very aromatic Coriander can be added in stir fries, couscous and other dishes just before serving.
• Grow from seed

Mint

• Mint is available in several flavours all with that refreshing minty taste to accompany new potatoes.
• Crushing the mint stems brings out extra flavour but chopped leaves are traditionally used in mint sauce with lamb.
• Mint can be grown from seed but I would buy a plant of your chosen mint type.
• Mint is long lived and can spread rapidly via stolens under ground.

Chives

• A mild onion flavour makes Chives useful in potato salad, cheese sauce and egg dishes.
• Sprinkle on cheese sandwiches or make a herb butter to serve with steak or chops.
• Grow from seed and cut leaves as needed.
• Chive plants will regrow each spring and flower in June.

Buying Herb Seeds

• Thompson Morgan have a good selection available on this link.
• Try the windowsill variety pack as a starter.
• Do not use all the seed at once but resow every few weeks to keep a steady supply of tasty aromatic plants.

Read about Winter herbs or Herbs for Drinks, Pillows and Baths

Sweet Williams are bright cheerful flowers that are looking good in my garden at the beginning of July.

What Are Sweet Williams

• Sweet Williams are a cottage garden flower that can be used as a cut flower.
• They are a herbaceous biennial growing one year to flower the next.
• Sweet Williams grow 10″-24″ tall and have tapered leaves.
• The flowers are produced in a dense cluster of up to 30 at the top of the stems.
• Each floret has five petals with serrated edges and looks like a ‘Pink’ to which they are related.
• Most Sweet Williams have a spicy, clove-like scent.

Tips for Growing Sweet Williams

• Grow from seed planted in July for flowers the following year.
• They can be treated as a short-lived perennial plant.
• Allow plants to grow bushy and you can tear an old root with stems attached into several pieces in  Autumn and these cuttings can increase your stock of your favourite colours.

Buy your seeds from Thompson Morgan

Read more about Growing Sweet Williams from seed

Decorative gardens can benefit from growing seedheads for their own sake.

Flowers With Seedheads

• The clematis family produce a variety of interesting seedheads. Shortly after flowering the above heads looked truly golden in the afternoon sunshine. The fluffy seeds will eventually be dispersed from a ball of seeds that looks just as wooly.
• Honesty is aka Lunaria after the moon shaped seedhead. After the purple flower the green seedhead, shaped like an old penny or halfacrown in old money, looses the green covering to reveal a translucent white disc and ripe seeds. Even more decorative than the flowers and they can be picked as dried flowers.
• Rosehips make some of the most startling seedheads but then again berries are all seedheads of a sort. Below is a photo of Skimmia berries the main reason for growing these small shrubs

Grasses and Other Seedheads

• The natural look from planting a range of different ornamental grasses for their seedheads has become very popular.
• Bunny Tails or Hares tail grass aka Lagurus ovatus has white fluffy seed heads on narrow hairy grey-green leaves. The seedheads can be dyed a different colour for flower arranging.
• Pampas grass is another conspicuous seedhead or you could try Pony Tails Stipa Tenuissima.
• Below is a photo of Fountain grass Pennisetum.

When the bees have done their work these pollinated thistle shaped flowers become seed shakers like pepperpots. Also a seedhead for use in a dried flower arrangement.

Even if you do not grow seedheads for their own sake think about wild life. Teasels can feed birds when other food is scarce.
Try a specialist book for more ideas Seedheads in the Garden

What is the difference between Single and Double

• On single flowers there is a layer of petals forming the flower
• Double flowerheads have multiple petals forming around and covering or replacing the stigma and stamen.
• Semi-double flowers have two or more layers of petals but the centre of the flower is still open.
• Roses with 5 petals are one of several species known in both single and double varieties as are Poppies (below) and Peonies as shown above.
• An inflorescence is a group or cluster of generally single flowers arranged on a stem.

Design of a Flower

• A bloom has four components which are clearly visible, the outermost parts are the  green leaf-like structures called sepals that enclose and protect the bud prior to opening.
• Second are the petals, the decorative layers that attract insects to pollinate.
• Third are the sexual structures, stamens the male reproductive organs and finally in the centre the carpels or female reproductive organs.

About Doubles

• Historically there were few if any double flowers until gardeners sought out the plants with extra petals.
• A genetic misfire results in the sexual structures mutating to petals resulting in the so-called double flower.
• Replacement of the sexual organs with petals renders the blooms sterile, so the double-flowering plants will not pollinate the next year.
• Doubles  frustrate pollinating insects, which are enticed to the flowers only to find an absence of stamens,   no pollen to harvest and less nectar.
• Doubles often have less of the chemicals responsible for the speed at which a flower ages. Generally the stronger the scent, the shorter the life.
• Any gardener seeking a long floral display should opt for doubles whilst singles make the fragrant garden.
• Doubles lack  viable seed so gardeners must rely on vegetative propagation.

So Doubles are harder to obtain from seed as less viable seed is produced in favour of more petals. The Begonia has got around this with ‘unisexual male and female flowers occurring separately on the same plant, the male containing numerous stamens, the female having a large inferior ovary and two to four branched or twisted stigmas. In most species the fruit is a winged capsule containing numerous minute seeds’ wikipedia

The broad bean seeds I planted earlier this year are now well in flower. I forgot to plant any Broad beans in October to overwinter but I am to be rewarded if the volume of flowers is anything to go by. However I missed an early crop.

Action Plan for Broad Beans

• I bought my seed loose by weight and am very happy with the germination.
• The varieties Masterpiece Green Longpod and Broad Bean Aquadulce Claudia were intended for Autumn sowing but I was too late and ended up sowing in February.
• Aquadulce establishes itself very quickly and will produce a very early crop. It is white seeded and the pods are up to  9 inches  long. Height:  36-40 in .
• To avoid feeding the mice I set off the seeds in 3″ pots until they are 2- 3″ high.
• I plant out in double rows 10″ apart and put in 4 corner posts with string to provide some support.
• Luckily I do not suffer from black fly (famous last words). If they were attacked I would pinch out the tips of the growing plants and the pods would not be affected.
• After cropping I compost the top haulms but leave the roots in the soil.

Order your seed varieties now for planting in October from Thompson Morgan

Read more on Young Broad Beans