Mind The Gap

Conrad McCormick offers his expert advice to ensure your garden is full of life and colour during this notoriously tricky time of year in the gardening calendar.

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Commonly known as the June gap, this month is a time of transition, a potentially tricky period of limbo when the garden moves from spring bloomers to high summer drama. The very last of the spring bulbs like Tulips will have finished in May and summer is thinking about getting underway, spluttering in its usual start-stop fashion.

It can also be a difficult time for pollinators, as there's a dramatic reduction in the volume of blooms that they can visit until the flowers of summer take over, so any assistance in the form of flowers will have them making a literal beeline to your patch.

Adding layers of plants to your border scheme is a good way to squeeze in additional colour, bulbs such as Alliums with their bold, spherical flowerheads and can be integrated through herbaceous perennials and shrubs. Either planted in drifts, if there is space, or in pockets between established plants and repeated through the border, they will add depth and dynamic visual interest to the scene. Plant some both toward the front, as well as farther back rather than all in the middle. Bear in mind that the leaves of Alliums are usually starting to brown and look their worst just as they come into flower, they can be disguised by plants.

ASIATIC LILIES

Lilies are a favourite of mine and the asiatics can be relied upon to bloom in June, while this group of lilies, normally unscented, more than make up this deficiency with their eyecatching exotic flowers in a rainbow of colours. Plant single colours in blocks or uneven numbers where space allows in the border, they'll also perform well in large containers.

PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM