Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => General Gardening => Topic started by: Rich72 on April 01, 2012, 22:46
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Hi all. Had a major garden reshuffle this year. I have been growing veg in pots for last 3 years and now I have an allotment I am left with empty pots and baskets at home this year. I have made a herb garden out of a pallet. Can anyone one give me hints of what flowers to put in my empty tubs. I really wanted a tropical feel to the patio, to remind me of relaxing holidays but I also want something heavily scented and attractive to the bees.. Any advice will be great fully received .
Ps I have a few small lavender plants dotted around
Rich
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This is a lovely Nicotiana affinis (http://www.thompson-morgan.com/flowers/flower-seeds/half-hardy-annual-seeds/nicotiana-x-sanderae-fragrant-cloud/6534TM) You can buy seed cheaper on ebay
I grow it every year in the tubs by my front door :)
The coloured bedding Nicotiana you see in the shops just don't smell as sweetly as this one does. if your tubs are somewhere sheltered it sometimes regrows, as it is a tender perennial but the seeds grow very quickly/easily.
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Heliotrope (cherry pie) smells fab :)
Night scented stocks smell gorgeous but are not lookers but they can be sowed in situ once you've placed your other plants in the tub. They are spindly, weedy looking jobs but they should be hidden by the other plants. The smell is amazing in the evenings :)
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If you have the space for a crawler, jasmine and honeysuckle give off great smell. If you have space for a shrub, a lilac or an oleander if you are somewhere sunny.
Look for a white, cream, apricot, yellow rose which give off a sweeter/fruitier smell than red/pink roses. Try to find an open cup rose, like a rugosa, which is easier for the bees.
Dont forget the classics like summer flowers which come in seed packets and can fill a good sized tub all summer with a variety of colours.
Iris and dahlia look tropical and are good for pollinators. Scabiosa come again each year.
dont forget to provide shelter for pollinators in the form of bug houses etc.
Please post pictures when you can, sounds exciting!
BB
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Thanks guys.
Babycat, I had a honeysuckle when I moved into my house. I loved it but it died. I built a bughouse a couple days ago, seen a bee on it already. I have some scabious (loads of it actually, spreads like nobody's business) and have dug some up and moved it around.
Can you recommend something sweet smelling and attractive to bees for my hanging baskets?
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Depends on your style. You can get loads of scented trailers like begonia but not sure how bees feel about those. Likewise, if you go a little 'rustic', a sweetpea tumbliong down can also look very nice.
My baskets are all about the colours and not very smelly.
Re scabiosa - you might also like achilleas which come in vibrant red, orange, pinks to offset them.
I got a small bedding plant in BandQ last year that had the most outrageous vanilla icecream smell and I am happy to see the ones I left in a large rose planter have survived the winter. I have NO idea what they are called but they look a little like lily of the valley. Will try to find out for you when I can ID them when flowering...
BB
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Right now there are skimmias in flower (about 3ft across) on our patio in pots and they smell lush. In the summer their deep green leaves are a great background for some of the stronger coloured or white flowers
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I have a skimmia and its smell always reminds me of Persil washing up powder. WhichI like.
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For a quick fix, I was in ALDI today on a chocolate mission and they had flower seed mixes of 20 varieties in various themes. If you wanted to fill an area this year and dont mind some of them being perennials, then there are some nice options. The mixes are also bees friendly 8)
x BB
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If you have a big enough pot and want the tropical look with an evening fragrance to die for, go for a brugmansia (Angels Trumpet). They are fast growing, easy to grow and a proper eye catcher. I have three of them out all summer and people come to visit, just to see and smell these flowers.
Dave.
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where do you overwinter them, though Dave......mine look very dead in the cold greenhouse :(
Luckily my Oleanders look ok ;)
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When it gets too cold for them outside, I bring therm inside in the unheated conservatory. But first I cut them back brutally. I cut the rootball right down to about half it's original size then get a saw on the top half till I am basically left with a big 'Y' shape, then pot them up in smaller pots,. I have a small 200watt heater that I put in the conservatory if the temperature outside drops below about -5 C and just give them enough water now and again to keep them damp. They will carry on growing like this and this year I still had a couple of flowers on in December.
Dave.
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I got an everlasting wallflower (Erysimum 'Winter Orchid') this time last year & it hasn't stopped flowering since. Scent is not quite as strong in cold weather but lovely in summer & the flowers are great all year.
Or you could try other herbs which smell when you touch them & the bees love the flowers.
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We grow buckets and buckets of night scented stock in succesional sowings for our patio as it just smells divine when you are actually able to sit out of an evening - weather and temperature permitting!
The weather in this country does annoy me at times!
Also sweet peas - any packet that says 'heavily fragrant' - if no mention of fragrance then don't bother - I like a flower with substance as well as looks. I grow loads of sweetpeas - both for the garden and for the allotment as merged with the beans they aid pollination by attracting the bees.
Incidently has anyone noticed that there seems to be more seeds in a packet of sweet peas this year???
Normally I seem to get between 15 and 21 seeds maximum per pack - so I normally buy about 5 or 6 packets. This year I bought 5 packets and they all had 40+ seeds in each one so this year I will be beautifully inundated with flowers :D
Chocolate cosmos smells precisely of that which is nice.
Agree with Agatha re: everlasting wallflowers - we always have these and in the spring, normal wallflowers smell fantastic too.
Wisteria is a great climber and smells great.
And a garden wouldn't be a garden in my eyes or nose - without roses :D
Emma
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Thanks for your thoughts guys. I have been looking at roses because I love the smell but I don't know the first thing about them. Anyone know which is best for scent? I would ideally like a red one
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Trachelospermum jasminoides (false or star jasmine) has evergreen leaves and loads of beautiful jasmine scented flowers all summer.
Gardenia Kleim's hardy is good for a large pot, planted in ericaseous compost. The most glorious scent in the summer evenings. Keep in a sheltered sunny spot.
An evergreen shrub that I love for the fragrant flowers is Osmanthus. Several sorts: delavayi small pointed leaves, burkwoodii larger leaves, and heteraphylos which has holly like leaves. They are all covered in small white flowers that give off the most amazing scent in the spring. they will grow to about 6 foot but not if you have a pair of secoteurs in your hands ;)
If you want a winter flowering shrub that will blow your socks off for scent sarcococca, common name winter box. Everygreen again.
I keep several in pots by the back door for the scent to cheer me up in the winter months. the flowers are like little fluffy white mops.
Definately sweet peas.
Also the evergreen clematis Armandii is in flower now and the scent of that is gorgeous. You can get them with a white or pink flower.
Lillies all sorts of colours but make sure you get the scented ones. The Asiatic lilies look good but don't give you the scent. ALso be on the look out for the dreaded lily beetle if you plant any.
Can't help you with the roses, we don't like 'em.
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Given me some good ideas there, thanks mrs ball
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Evening Primrose is another lovely smelling plant and long flowering. :)
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Glad to help. My garden is planted for scent and all round interest hence all the evergreens. :)
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I have the 'Brownie Rose' which is yellow. That one smells fabulous.
I can't remember the name of my red one - it's been in the garden for years but it still smells great. It might be 'Ena Harkness' - not sure.
I simply went around the garden centre sticking my nose into various roses until I found one with the strongest fragrance and the colour I wanted. Can'tgo wrong that way.
Some say they are fragrant when really they're lacking in that department compared to others.
At the RHS garden Rosemoor in Devon there are 2 lovely rose gardens - found a peachy orange one that smelt so fragrant it was absolutely stunning. The scent of a rose is like a drug and I am addicted.
Now I wrote the name of that rose down somewhere...
Emma
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Thanks for your thoughts guys. I have been looking at roses because I love the smell but I don't know the first thing about them. Anyone know which is best for scent? I would ideally like a red one
Try David Austin's Roses - they are amazing, old fashioned types but with great disease resistance and loads are strongly scented and repeat flowering. Would be worth asking them what they recommend as they are really helpful.
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Thanks agatha
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Ooh Mrs Ball - forgot about Gardenias - divine scent!
:D
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Ooh Mrs Ball - forgot about Gardenias - divine scent!
:D
Totally, totally divine :) Can't wait for the warmer weather. We have one in a tub outside the patio doors and sitting on the patio or in the living room with the doors open and a glass of wine in hand is an absolute delight. :D :D :D
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Have just read a piece in the Garden News about plants withgreat scents.
Apparently the writer of the piece highly recommends Petasites frigidus palmatus.
Tall stems with with clusters of white scented flowers that appear just before the foliage. Apparently it looks rather jungly, which I think you were looking for. Down side is that it is a tad rampant so pots would probably be a good idea ;)
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About the roses - Peter Beales roses http://www.classicroses.co.uk/index.php (http://www.classicroses.co.uk/index.php) have a very comprehensive selection and the website is great as the search function is brilliantly useful at narrowing down the roses by colour/scent/type etc etc. by using the options on the left.
Had a lovely yellowy-orange rose from them called Whiskey mac which smells gorgeous.
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At the RHS garden Rosemoor in Devon there are 2 lovely rose gardens - found a peachy orange one that smelt so fragrant it was absolutely stunning. The scent of a rose is like a drug and I am addicted.
Now I wrote the name of that rose down somewhere...
I think you will find that rose is called Fellowship and I must agree with you
it is absolutely stunning
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I remember buying a couple of Mr Lincoln roses from a cheapie shop and they are lovely, fragrant, and red. We also had a Pink Peace which had a lovely scent too. :)
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Lilac is another beautifully scented plant - can't believe I forgot about it!
Also - Choysia (possibly spelt that wrong but at least I remembered what it was called) - mock orange blossom - gorgeous. Our small plant has grown more than 10 times the size of our original plant in just 4 years. Worth every penny.
Emma
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Lilac is another beautifully scented plant - can't believe I forgot about it!
Also - Choysia (possibly spelt that wrong but at least I remembered what it was called) - mock orange blossom - gorgeous. Our small plant has grown more than 10 times the size of our original plant in just 4 years. Worth every penny.
Emma
Lilac can be a bit of a thug in a small garden. Can't believe I forgot Choisyia. A real doer as you get evergreen leaves all year. Thre diiferent types too. 2 types of green but with different shaped leaves and one called 'Sundance' if I have remembered correctly with yellow green leaves and if planted in a shady area brings a brightness to it. Have several in the garden. :D
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I'd sniff a Choisya in flower before buying to make sure you like it - I bought one years ago without knowing what the flowers were like & had to keep it permanently pruned back till I got rid of it as I found I couldn't stand the scent!!! :D
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I'd sniff a Choisya in flower before buying to make sure you like it - I bought one years ago without knowing what the flowers were like & had to keep it permanently pruned back till I got rid of it as I found I couldn't stand the scent!!! :D
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:ohmy:
Really?
I love the orangey fragrance.
S'pose a smell can't be everyone's cup of tea. :)
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I'd sniff a Choisya in flower before buying to make sure you like it - I bought one years ago without knowing what the flowers were like & had to keep it permanently pruned back till I got rid of it as I found I couldn't stand the scent!!! :D
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:ohmy:
Really?
I love the orangey fragrance.
S'pose a smell can't be everyone's cup of tea. :)
I think it can be an aquired taste. I think it smells like furniture polish. I like it because of the evergreen leaves.