Universally popular bedding plant with thick, fibrous roots, succulent stems and glossy, fleshy leaves which are rounded and may be bright green, or bronze or purple tinted. A constant run of flowers in colours ranging from scarlet, through reds and pinks to white. Good seed series are legion, for example, ‘Doublonia’ series and ‘Stara Mixed’.
Soil preference: Any
Aspect: Sun or part shade
Season of interest: Summer
Height and spread: To 30cm × 30cm (1ft × 1ft)
Companion plants: Best for bedding schemes, on account of their ability to make long-lasting carpets of colour. Also effective as texturing plants with grasses, perhaps, or for use in mixed containers with Helichrysum petiolare, Brachyscome or Senecio ‘Silver Dust’.
Brassica oleracea
Ornamental Cabbage, Ornamental Kale Hardy biennial
Valuable for their winter displays, ornamental cabbages and kales provide strong colours from their colourful foliage. The cabbages form loose but symmetrical rosettes with purple, rose-mauve, pink or creamy suffusions mixed with green. The kales have a more open, lax habit. The flowers, which follow in late spring, are yellow and usually clash with the coloured leaves.
Soil preference: Any
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Autumn, winter, spring
Height and spread: To 45cm × 30cm (1ft 6in × 1ft)
Companion plants: Useful for a strong colour display for winter but difficult to team with smaller flowers. Certain tulips, particularly in white, purple or pink shades, go surprisingly well.
Salpiglossis sinuata
Tender annual
A South American member of the potato family with slender habit, sparsely branched stems and slightly sticky foliage. During much of the summer, these plants produce a long succession of trumpet-shaped flowers. These are deeply veined and come in attractive, dusky colours ranging through yellows, brick red and orange to violet and purple-blue.
Soil preference: Any free-draining
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Summer
Height and spread: 60cm × 30cm (2ft × 1ft)
Companion plants: Striking, characterful plants which need backing up with other, foliage-rich companions such as heliotropes, Centaurea cineraria or scented leaf pelargoniums.
Canna indica, C. iridiflora
Tender perennials
Large, coarse perennials with broad, oar-shaped, glossy surfaced leaves which unfurl like rolled banners; in some varieties these are dark-tinted or striated. The flowers, which resemble untidy irises, are produced in bunched panicles and come in shades of pink red, yellow, orange or white. The species C. iridiflora (pictured) grows taller and has gracefully hanging pink flowers.
Soil preference: Moist, fertile
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Summer
Height and spread: To 2.5m × 1m (8ft × 3ft)
Companion plants: Traditionally used as dot plants, in bedding schemes and effective when presiding over drifts of French marigolds, pelargoniums, Impatiens or nicotianas. Also fine in containers with Mexican salvias and Solanum rantonetii.
Cosmos bipinnatus, C. sulphureus
Hardy or near hardy annuals
Two variable species, with divided, often lacy foliage and an open, branching habit. The flowers are composite with yellow central florets and broad, showy outer ray florets which may be flat or, in some varieties such as ‘Seashells’, tubular. Flowers of C. bipinnatus range from deep rose or crimson through pinks to white. C. sulphureus comes in hotter colours ranging from yellow to coppery orange or near red.
Soil preference: Fertile but free-draining
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Summer
Height and spread: Variable to 2m × 45cm (6ft × 1ft 6in)
Companion plants: Fast-growing plants whose soft, lacy foliage provides a gentle tracery, striking when accompanied by bedding such as annual Lavetera, petunias or dense masses of fuchsias. Also pretty dotted in a flower border, perhaps with cleomes.
Dahlia
Half hardy perennials
A variable genus with huge plants, bearing vast blooms the size of a hat down to more modest, dwarf varieties. Many-branched stems rise from fleshy tubers in late spring and are furnished with divided, glossy, sometimes dark foliage. The late summer flowers are variable, usually brightly coloured with every hue except pure blue. Seed series such as ‘Duo’ or the dark-leaved ‘Bishop’s Children’ are good for bedding.
Soil preference: Any fertile, free-draining but not too dry
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Summer, autumn
Height and spread: Variable to 2m × 75cm (6ft × 2ft 6in)
Companion plants: Medium and small flowered varieties, especially those with dark foliage, are popular, blending with lilies among shrubs or in a late summer border with heleniums, late daisies or chrysanthemums.
Bedding Schemes Used Formally and Informally
Bedding schemes can be tailored to suit a diverse range of tastes and preferences. Plants, in formal bedding, are used en masse to create a colourful surface and their use can appear to be more akin to painting than to planting! Bold brush-strokes of colour, sometimes creating formal patterns or shapes, often in the commemoration of an event, are popular in public planting schemes and are intended to provide sudden drama and spectacle, rather than to sustain a gentle, changing scene.
However, bedding can also be used in an informal way, simply arranging for drifts of similar plants to make small statements, perhaps as part of a border, or for giving temporary lift to an otherwise dull spot.
Vibrant colours
The main picture opposite shows a harmonious spring bedding display using botanical tulips, Tulipa kaufmanniana ‘Stresa’, with Hyacinthus orientalis ‘Blue Jacket’. The three strong colours,