With long days, warm soil, and the garden in full swing, now is the perfect time to add impact with flowering perennials, architectural shrubs, and pollinator-friendly plants. Whether you’re refreshing a tired border or potting up a summer display, these standouts from our stock list are ideal for planting now and many are grown at our own Old Barn and South Down Nurseries.
🌹 Bush Roses
Location: Full sun, sheltered spot
Care: Moist but well-drained soil enriched with organic matter. Feed well in spring and early summer. Keep deadheading to encourage more flowers all the way to the frosts.
Highlights: Blooming over a long period in summer with masses of flowers. Choose from either Hybrid Tea (single stems or small clusters) or Floribunda roses (large clusters of flowers). Roses come in every colour except true blue or black and with single open flowers or multi-petalled double flowers. Many have gorgeous fragrance.
💛 Crocosmia ‘George Davison’
Location: Full sun
Care: Free-draining soil, leave foliage to die back naturally
Highlights: Arching stems bear soft golden-yellow, funnel-shaped flowers from midsummer. A more subtle Crocosmia, excellent for weaving through borders. Good drought resistance. RHS Award of Garden Merit
🌸 Dahlias
Location: Full sun
Care: Deadhead regularly. Feed pot-grown plants weekly and support taller varieties with canes. If you are not on well-drained soil, lift and store tubers over winter in a frost-free place.
Highlights: Unrivalled for sumptuous showy summer colour, dahlias come in all shapes and sizes from compact bedding varieties to 1.5m border varieties. With open single flowers, doubles, ruffled petals, cactus-style, anemone style and many more there will always be one for you. Great for cutting for the house too. Most will continue flowering up to the frosts if deadheaded.
🌸 Echinacea
Location: Full sun
Care: Free-draining soil
Highlights: Large bold daisy-like flowers with a contrasting central stiff cone. Flowers can be pink, white, red or orange and are adored by pollinators. Grow mid-border behind lower perennials such as Geranium ‘Rozanne’ to mask late-season foliage. Drought resistant.
🌼 Erigeron karvinskianus
Location: Full sun or partial shade
Care: Free-draining soil; thrives in crevices
Highlights: Clouds of tiny white daisy flowers that age to pink. Self-seeds into walls and paving cracks. Great for cottage-style gardens or softening hard landscaping.
🌸 Fuchsia ‘Mrs Popple’
Location: Sun or part shade
Care: Low maintenance; prune in spring as needed.
Highlights: Flowering continuously from midsummer until the frosts with delightful bi-coloured pendant flowers looking like little bright ballerinas wearing tutus dancing on the bush. Some fuchsias are tender and make great additions to summer pots and baskets. Mrs Popple is a hardy variety with bright red and violet-purple flowers en masse through summer and autumn. RHS Award of Garden Merit.
💙 Geranium ‘Rozanne’
Location: Sun or partial shade
Care: Easy to grow, prune hard after the first flush for a second flush later in the season.
Highlights: A vigorous perennial which is fantastic for filling gaps between other plants with open violet-blue flowers over neat foliage. RHS Award of Garden Merit.
🌞 Hemerocallis
Location: Full sun
Care: Very low maintenance; trim whole flower stems back to the ground after they have gone over to encourage more to grow.
Highlights: Known as daylilies for their large trumpet-shaped flowers in rich or fiery shades, that last just a day each; but don’t worry they keep producing more over many weeks! These easy to grow plants develop into long-lived clumps that can be divided to create more plants.
🌸 Hydrangea macrophylla
Location: Partial or light shade, sheltered spot
Care: Moist, fertile soil. Leave dead blooms in place over winter and prune in mid spring by cutting off the faded flowers to the next strong pair of buds.
Highlights: Grown for their large clusters of tightly packed long-lasting flowers in red, pink, blue, green and white. Flower colour may depend on soil pH with naturally blue hydrangeas only remaining blue in acidic soils. Compact varieties are great for pots or larger varieties for borders.
💜 Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’
Location: Full sun
Care: Well-drained soil, prune after flowering
Highlights: A classic English lavender with deep purple flowers and grey-green foliage. Highly fragrant and neat growing – ideal for edging, containers or formal beds. RHS Award of Garden Merit.
🌿 Lonicera periclymenum ‘Graham Thomas’
Location: Sun or partial shade
Care: Moist, well-drained soil; train on supports
Highlights: A fragrant climbing honeysuckle with creamy-yellow blooms from summer to autumn. Attracts bees, butterflies, and evening scent lovers! RHS Award of Garden Merit.
💙 Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’
Location: Full sun
Care: Well-drained soil; cut back after first flush to encourage more flowers
Highlights: Masses of soft purple-blue flowers on tall stems with aromatic grey-green foliage. Loved by pollinators and cats alike. Great with roses or in a dry border. RHS Award of Garden Merit.
💐 Penstemon
Location: Full sun
Care: Well-drained soil, mulch for winter protection, deadhead regularly
Highlights: Upright bushy perennials with narrow leaves. Spires of small trumpet-shaped flowers similar to foxgloves in white, pink, red, purple and blue, often bicoloured. Flowering from from June to October. A favourite for long-lasting colour.
💙 Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’
Location: Sun
Care: Well-drained soil; prune back hard in early spring
Highlights: This silver-green shrub with white stems produces tall spires of violet-blue flowers from late summer through autumn. Adored by pollinators and drought resistant. Perfect for dry gravel gardens or Mediterranean-style planting. RHS Award of Garden Merit.
🌻 Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’
Location: Full sun or light shade
Care: Moist, well-drained soil, deadhead regularly then leave remaining stems for winter structure. Cut back in late winter – early spring
Highlights: Masses of sunny yellow daisy flowers with dark eyes on stems up to 60cm. Grow in repeated clumps through a border to add some summer sizzle. Pollinators love it. RHS Award of Garden Merit.
💜 Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’
Location: Full sun
Care: Well-drained soil; cut back after flowering
Highlights: Tall spikes of deep violet flowers with striking black stems. Long flowering and drought-tolerant, it’s a border staple with real flair. RHS Award of Garden Merit.
💠 Scabiosa ‘Butterfly Blue’
Location: Full sun
Care: Deadhead regularly for prolonged flowering
Highlights: Pale blue pincushion flowers on wiry stems loved by bees and butterflies. Neat clump-forming habit, great for borders and containers. RHS Award of Garden Merit.
🍂 Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’
Location: Full sun
Care: Well-drained soil, drought-tolerant
Highlights: Succulent foliage and pinkish-bronze flower heads that deepen in colour into autumn. Excellent for late-season pollinators. A great plant for structure and texture.
🌸 Summer Flowering Clematis
Location: Full sun with shade over the roots
Care: Plant deeply in fertile, moist but well-drained soil; prune in early spring following the instructions on the label.
Highlights: Stunning climbing plants. With many varieties available, flowering in mostly pinks, purples, blues and whites and with single or double flowers, there will be a variety perfect for your garden. Grow up trellis, an obelisk, or allow to scramble through shrubs or roses.
💜 Verbena bonariensis
Location: Full sun
Care: Free-draining soil; self-seeds if happy
Highlights: Tall, airy stems topped with clusters of lilac-purple flowers that float above other plants. Ideal for adding vertical interest and attracting pollinators.
🌿 Visit Us This Summer
Whether you’re filling sunny borders, planting up pots or looking for pollinator-friendly blooms, we’ve got something for every garden. Visit us this summer to bring your garden alive with colour, texture, and seasonal beauty.
