Flower Show

If You Love to Make an Impression, Here’s How to Create Colour, Fragrance and Impact With Beautiful Blooms.

- Diana Moore

FEW THINGS ARE more rewarding than giving your garden serious street appeal with a flush of show-stopping blooms, like stunning peonies (above), and filling it with colour and scent – even better if you can cut down on the florist’s bill by growing them to display indoors. Read on for a mini masterclass on choosing, planting and caring for flowering plants, with expert tips on how to get the best from your florals.

plan for perfection

One of the most important factors for gorgeous flowers is how your garden grows. Verdant foliage and healthy blooms are what you’re after, and that’s largely down to plant choice and type of soil. Check out your neighbours’ gardens to see which species grow well in your area, and plan your garden carefully according to how the sun and wind impact your property. A little pre-purchase research will save expensive mistakes. “There’s no point attempting to grow a hydrangea in an apartment block facing west,” says Nicholas Vale of Garden Life in Sydney’s St Peters. Instead, he recommends an eastern position, or the south side of a house where it will get morning sun.

focal point florals

Select flowers according to the size of the plant itself, as well as the blooms. “Layering is vital,” says Charlie Albone, double Chelsea Flower Show Silver Gilt medallist and co-host of Selling Houses Australia. “Hollyhocks are a great seed to sow for a vertical accent.” Nicholas Vale of Garden Life likes rudbeckias. “You can’t go past a really good daffodil in winter, when everything else is bare or looking wintry,” he says. “Plant them where it makes them easy to pick and enjoy.”

ground control