Turn up the heat

from The Oxford Times

I do hope that you're not getting too distressed about your garden during the hot, dry weather. We gardeners have to take what's on offer, even if it is over an inch of rain in one hour or less! Be reassured, though in a few weeks the cooler September nights will be upon us and the garden will regain some sparkle, refreshed by night-time dew.

Most of your plants will recover, but gardens will inevitably have to change if these summers persist. We'll have to grow plants that hail from countries where relentless summers are the norm.

If you want some inspiration, head for Adderbury this weekend, just south of Banbury, and pay a visit to Ball Colegrave's open weekend (entrance is £5).

Their trial ground and display area are packed with colourful flowers, many of them are tolerant of droughts. The new varieties will find their way into the major seed catalogues, DIY stores and nurseries for next year and you'll also see them in parks and floral displays.

You could go Mexican and plant the new Zinnia Zesty', a semi-double, vigourous zinnia, which comes in lemon, scarlet, cream-white and sunny yellow. Their neat pompoms make perfect partners for dahlias, also Mexican beauties.

The dark-leaved, softly orange David Howard' would look wonderful with any of the zinnias.

Plant your dahlia tubers in the greenhouse in April and then plant them outside in late May. They will flower from July until the first frosts and their water-filled tubers will sustain them without extra watering.

Many local gardeners are leaving their dahlia tubers in the ground over winter, rather than lifting and storing them. Some tell me that their tubers even survived this year's cold winter.

Add some South American annuals and tender plants, too.

The deep-red tassels of love-lies-bleeding (amaranthus) and varieties of willowy cosmos (in shades of pink and white) are all thriving in my garden without any extra water. There are also hundreds of South American salvias and verbenas you could use, along with penstemons. These are all very tolerant of droughts.

Petunias arouse strong emotions, but I've always liked the small flowered petunias' known as Million Bells'.

Their correct name is Calibrachoa, and Colegrave's have developed a new Cabaret Strain' which is well-branched and uniform. It has a trailing habit and makes an ideal container or basket specimen. There are many colours, but I particularly liked the apricot variety, which was subtly flecked with yellow and red.

You can also see varieties of gazania from Tropical Africa. These have jagged leaves, and the enormous daisies, which open in bright light, usually come in strong colours.

South African osteospermums have smaller daisies held on wiry stems and both tend to come into their own once the days begin to shorten.

If your garden's shady, you can still inject some colour by using tropical begonias and impatiens (or busy lizzies). Begonia Million Kisses' looks rather like a Christmas cactus with its masses of orange-red, claw-like flowers. Several would light up a dark corner, and impatiens always loves a shady spot.