Summer nights cutting garden collection
- 1 × collection
- £19.63
- available to order from late spring
Delivery options
- Seed Packets (only) £2.95
- Position: Full sun
- Soil: Moderately fertile, moist, well-drained soil
- Rate of growth: Fast
- Flowering period: June to September
- Hardiness: Fully hardy
An exquisite and carefully curated collection of easy to grow plant seeds destined to become wonderful and voluminous auburn and pink-hued cut flower displays.
The collection contains one packet of seeds for each of the plants listed below. Each packet comes with its own specific sowing instructions.
- Daucus carota ‘Dara': A purely decorative form that is grown for its airy umbels of pink and burgundy flowers, which create a haze of colour throughout the summer months. The feathery foliage of this hardy annual is attractive too. Grows to 90cm.
- Antirrhinum majus ‘Potomac Lavender': A delightful snapdragon with soft lavender pink blooms and long cutting stems. This Antirrhinum variety, bred for the cut flower market, bears numerous showy flowers on tall spikes that attract butterflies to the garden. Grows to 1.2m.
- Antirrhinum majus ‘Admiral Crimson': An elegant, early-flowering and easy to grow snapdragon that produces showy spires of fragrant, crimson flowers throughout summer. The flowers are excellent for cutting and look luminous when drifted through a sunny, well-drained border. Grows to 1.2m.
- Matthiola incana ‘Column Apricot': Beautiful, blousy, and blooming in time from Valentines from an October sowing, the grey-green rosette of foliage gives rise to sweetly-scented and loosely branched double pinkish-apricot flowering spikes, ideal for the cut flower vase. Sown in early spring under glass, a fragrant bed of stocks in the garden can be had in as little as 90 days, and a succession of sowings will provide continuous flower and scent to summer borders well into autumn. Grows to 75cm.
- Panicum capillare ‘Sparkling Fountain': Jewelled beads of dew will adorn this dainty, airy grass, which forms festoons of fibre optic-like panicles of pale green followed by decorative purple seed heads. ‘Sparkling Fountain’ dries brilliantly, too, making this 'witch grass' a great annual foliage plant for cut flower displays. Grows to 80cm.
- Daucus carota : A close relative of the edible carrot, this wild version is sought after for its flattened clusters of tiny white flowers, which top upright stems for most of the summer and early autumn. Grows to 90cm.
- Scabiosa stellata : Solitary, pale blue, spherical flower heads on branching stems are followed by translucent, silvery heads that pale into creamy-white globes popular in dried ‘everlasting’ displays. After flowering, each individual ‘cupcake’ base is exquisitely centred by a chocolate star that radiates fine lines throughout the papery bracts. An annual for the cut flower garden and winter vase. Grows to 50cm.
Seedlings should be potted up and grow on under glass until all risk of frost has passed and they can be planted outside in a well-prepared bed. Pinch out the growing tips to encourage bushier growth, and feed at regular intervals throughout summer with a high-potash fertiliser. Taller plants may need supporting with brushwood stems in exposed positions.