Create a potager paradise packed with fabulous blooms that are perfect for cutting – and pollinators will love them too
Growing flowers among your fruit and veg isn’t just about aesthetic appeal – they sing for their supper, too. You get more room to plant extra blooms, and that means you can have your own cut flower bed that also encourages in valuable pollinators. Add to that increased biodiversity, pest deterrence and a whole host of superb scent and colour, and there’s no reason not to plant up a potager paradise this spring!
Hollyhocks
Another huge bloom that evokes some old-fashioned cottage garden romance. Avoid the double varieties as they’re more difficult for bees and butterflies to get into – stick with the wonderful singles, with their open saucers that are heaven to pollinators. Sow in April for planting out by early summer – though you’ll get flowers next year. Buy ready-grown plants to bypass the wait.
TOP TIP For a traditional look, grow amix of pastel colours. Let them seed themselves about, then pot up the babies and grow on before planting out in autumn or spring.
Sunflowers
Aclassic potager garden flower and for good reason! Bold, bright, tall plants offer up huge, top-heavy, cheerful blooms through summer and beyond, attracting bees in bucketloads. Set them in a sunny spot and watch them track the sun throughout the day. They’re hungry feeders and prefer rich soil. Simply sow seed in small pots now for planting out later in spring.
TOP TIP Once they’ve finished their dazzling display, leave them long into autumn and even winter to provide shelter for insects and for birds to snack on the flower heads
Sweet peas
No plot is complete without a few rows of delectable sweet peas, and now’s just the time to get some started. Sow in toilet roll tubes, one seed per tube, then plant out in April. They like to be grown in nicely moist compost and fed with a tomato food, and cooler summers are best for them. You don’t need an excuse to grow sweet peas; their sumptuous scent and lovely cut flower potential are all the reason you need!
TOP TIP Pinch out the growing tips for bushier plants. Once flowering, keep picking the blooms to encourage more to come, and nip off any forming pods you see.
