Something blue

Earlier in the summer I planted up a few pots, deciding to stick to a colour theme rather than going for the usual patchwork I generally prefer, with a couple of blue containers and two using hot reds and oranges.

The blue pots are very simple, just a mix of dark-blue and light-blue lobelia surrounding heliotrope which is a shrubby tender perennial grown as a summer bedding plant with the common name of Cherry Pie.

The blue-purple flowers are sweetly scented and appear from late spring to the end of the summer and later if the conditions are right. However it doesn't like temperatures lower than 5-7C/41-45F and needs to be brought in to a heated greenhouse or a cool room indoors if it is to survive the winter. Because of this it is usually grown as an annual in this country with seeds sown in February or March and the plants put outside in well-drained soil and full sun in June. Regular deadheading will keep the plant in check and give a continuous supply of flowers and a leggy plant will respond well to hard pruning when necessary.

The leaves of the heliotrope, or Heliotropium peruvianum, are mid green and slightly rough with a dull sheen to them. Individual flowers are very small but they mass together in large heads and although one plant could easily fill a fair-sized pot, a smaller more delicate plant such as lobelia gives a good contrast.

Mine grows with 'Mrs Clibran', the popular white-eyed, dark-blue flowered variety and the pale blue 'Cambridge Blue'.

Lobelia is an easy annual to grow as long as the soil is kept fairly moist, and it will flower freely from June to September. Small plants are seen for sale everywhere in spring but it can also be grown from seed sown in gentle heat from January to March and planted out in late May or early June.

The hot pots are also in a sunny spot and have been planted with a mass of orange and red bi-coloured anthirrhinums in one container and small bronze grasses, lantana and Cuphea llavea in the other. The latter plant has the charming name of 'Tiny Mice' but, according to the Plant Finder, this is incorrect and should in fact be 'Georgia Scarlet'. It does indeed have scarlet flowers, or rather two swept-back, brilliant-red petals that reveal the purple inner petals of the bloom. It has grown around 30cm/12in tall with flowers and leaves appearing along the stems but it will grow taller and should bush out when the faded flower shoots are removed. Like the heliotrope it is a tender plant and will need to be brought indoors for the winter.

The latana had been disappointing and is only just beginning to put on some growth. It has flowered - little cluster of red and orange flowers - but these have been few and far between and the colourful bushy plant I envisaged growing with the cuphea has not happened.

Another tender perennial, lantana, is grown as an annual which, in the right conditions, can grow into a reasonably-sized shrubby plant, about 1m/3ft tall, with strongly scented leaves when touched.

Weekend catch-up

There is still time to divide congested clumps of bearded iris. Cut off the old flower and lift the clump and shake off the soil.

Wash the rhizomes if it is hard to see where to cut them. Then cut the young rhizomes that are growing from the side of the central, oldest rhizome making sure each section has a fan of leaves and some roots. Discard the old root and reduce the leaves on the new sections by half and replant in shallow soil in groups of three or four in a sunny spot.

Open gardens

Tomorrow

In aid of the National Gardens Scheme

Londesborough Cross, Shiptonthorpe. Turn off the A1079 York-Hull road in Shiptonthorpe down the side of the church. The garden is at the bottom of Town Street. A former railway goods yard transformed over 20 years into a garden with ponds, bog area, island beds, herbaceous borders, scree and rock gardens and a new woodland garden with a large collection of hardy ferns and woodland plants.

Open 1-4pm. Admission £2.50 adult, accompanied children free. Also open on Wednesday 1-4pm.

Lullaby, 22 Barra Close, Hull. Small, peaceful retreat planted to attract wildlife with colourful borders, shrubs, unusual plants, small woodland walk, courtyard garden, pergolas and summerhouse.

Open 2-5pm. Admission £1.50 adult, accompanied children free.

Monday

In aid of the British Red Cross

Sussex House, Barningham. Approximately eight miles west of Scotch Corner on the A66. One-acre garden designer and freelance writer's garden with well-stocked herbaceous beds, moss garden. loggery, gravel garden with mosaics and fragrance garden. The owner has also made a 70-minute video called Spirit Of Place which takes the viewer through a year in her garden. The video is for sale either from the owner or the Red Cross with a percentage of the sales going to the Red Cross.

Open 11-4pm. Admission £2 adult, accompanied children free.

Wednesday

In aid of the National Gardens Scheme

Hunmanby Grange, Wold Newton.

About 12.5 miles south east of Scarborough. A three-acre garden created from an exposed field on top of the Yorkshire Wolds. Hedges and fences give shelter from the wind to a series of gardens with year-round interest and seasonal highlights. Adjacent nursery open. The garden has featured in The Dalesman and Gardens Monthly 2004.

Open 1-5pm. Admission £2.50.

Londesborough Cross, Shiptonthorpe. Details above.

Updated: 11:19 Saturday, August 27, 2005