Containers are at their best right now, finds GINA PARKINSON.

COLOURFUL containers reach their summer peak by the end of July, with pelargoniums and lobelia, impatiens and bacopa filling their pots with bright flowers.

Most will keep going through until the first frosts, so long as they are fed and well watered, and deadheaded regularly to keep new flowers forming.

As well as having a display of tender plants, I like to have perennials in pots by the house. These also give an interesting display of blooms or foliage for the summer months. Some perennials are better in a pot, especially small-growing specimens that may get overcrowded when competing with bigger plants out in a bed or border.

Two that I like to have by the house are a small hosta given by a friend a couple of years ago and a dainty dark-leafed geranium called Geranium sessiliflorum subsp. novae-zelandiae ‘Nigricans’ – such a long name for a small plant.

The hosta has small yellow leaves with a cluster of lilac flowers in early summer. It grows only a few inches high and has done well in a sunny spot, where the leaves have kept their colour well.

The pot is mulched with gravel and a few pellets of a wool-based slug deterrent, and the plant has been free from attack, apart from a couple of leaves showing recent signs of a nibble.

The geranium has small chocolate- coloured leaves that form a mound of growth topped with small white flowers during the summer. I have tried growing it in the garden, but it seems to do much better when confined to a low round terracotta pot; I think it would also be all right in a well-drained site, perhaps in a rock garden.

Like many of the hardy geranium family, it is very efficient at self-seeding, especially if put near a gravelled area, as ours is. The most minute seedlings have popped up all around in the gravel, and in cracks and spaces between paving stones. They can easily be lifted before they get too large and potted up to be grown on and given away.

A happy accident has been the appearance of a few of the geranium seedlings in the hosta pot. The contrast of the leaf shape and colour is lovely and not one I would have come with myself. For the moment, there are only a few juvenile geraniums in with the larger hosta, it will be interesting to see how they look together next year.


Weekend catch-up

AUTUMN crocus or Colchicum can be planted or divided in midsummer. Despite its common name, this bulb isn’t related to the more popular spring crocus, although the flowers that appear in the autumn are similar in shape. The bulbs need to be planted at a depth of 7.5cm/3ins and 10cm/4ins apart. Replant divided overgrown clumps straight away.


Garden news

GARDENER, broadcaster and writer Sarah Raven will hold two study days at Newby Hall in September, starting with Year Round Vegetables on Monday, September 13, and The Cutting Garden, on Tuesday, September 14. Each course begins at 10.30am and finishes at 4.30pm, with a break for lunch at 1pm. At the end of the day participants will be able to explore the gardens at Newby Hall. Tickets need to be booked in advance and cost £90 for each course or £170 for both. This includes a light lunch with a glass of wine and admission to the gardens. For more information, phone 01423 322583.


Open Gardens

Sunday, August 1


In aid of the National Gardens Scheme
Thorpe Lodge, Knaresborough Road, Ripon. Twelve-acre country garden with extensive colour-themed borders, a walled rose garden, fruit trees, canals, a pleached hornbeam walk and allees leading to walks through mature woodland. Picnic area. Open 1pm-6pm. Admission £5.

Withernsea Gardens, Withernsea, 16 miles south of Hornsea. Two gardens open on Hollym Road. Cranford has colourful borders planted with annuals, perennials, grasses, evergreens, shrubs and trees plus a pond, vegetables garden and chickens. 54 Hollym Road has a 1/3-acre garden with unusual herbaceous and woody plants, a pond, topiary hedge and a labelled collection of cactii and succulents. Open noon to 6pm. Combined admission £5.

Wytherstone Gardens, Pockley, two miles north east of Helmsley. Eight-acre garden on the edge of the North York Moors. The garden is divided by beech hedges into interlinked feature areas including Mediterranean, terraced, fern, foliage, ericaceous and bamboo gardens. Features many plants usually considered tender in the north. Open 10am-5pm, admission £5.


Gardening TV and Radio

Sunday, August 1
8am, BBC Radio Humberside, The Great Outdoors. Presented by Blair Jacobs and Doug Stewart.

9am, BBC Radio Leeds, Tim Crowther and Joe Maiden.

2pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Matthew Biggs, Matthew Wilson and chairman Eric Robson join Bob Flowerdew at his home to answer questions sent in by listeners. (Repeated from Friday).

Friday, August 6
3pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Chris Beardshaw, Matthew Biggs, Anne Swithinbank and chairman Eric Robson help gardeners from Powys in Wales with their gardening problems. Chris Beardshaw advises on growing yew hedges.

8.30pm, BBC2, Gardeners’ World. Toby and Carol go to the Ribble Valley in Lancashire to advise on common garden problems including tackling an overgrown clematis.

Saturday, August 7
7am, BBC Radio York, Julia Booth. Presenter Julia and garden expert Nigel Harrison hold their weekly plant surgery.