Last Updated on May 13, 2025 by Thompson & Morgan Horticultural Team
Plant foxgloves in the summer border
Image: Foxglove ‘Mixed’ from Thompson & Morgan
For a fresh take on traditional bedding plant displays, try adding tall perennials to the back of your beds and borders. Pollinator-friendly, long-lasting and easy to care for once established, these value-for-money plants will provide effortless colour, structure and interest all summer long.
Choose penstemons for a long season of colour
Shorter varieties of Penstemon are a great way to fill borders
Image: Penstemon ‘Miniature Bells’ from Thompson & Morgan
The long-flowering performance of penstemon is just what’s needed for colourful beds. Hugely popular, Penstemon ‘Blackbird’ is rapidly becoming one of this summer’s must-have bedding plants. The dark, wine-coloured flowers brighten up borders from early June until the first frosts, and are remarkably resilient and weather-tolerant. Additionally, penstemon plants are not affected by rust, a disease which can spoil the appearance of other flowers like snapdragons.
Plant a kaleidoscope of colours by mixing ‘Pensham Wedding Day’ with ‘Heavenly Blue’, or choose one of the Nurseryman’s choice collections put together by our head gardener.
Choose digitalis (foxgloves) to light up the shade
Foxglove ‘Alba’ produces rare white blooms
Image: Foxglove ‘Alba’ from Thompson & Morgan
In recent years, the quality of foxglove breeding has improved greatly. Hardy Foxglove ‘Alba’ produces large white flower spikes at the beginning of the summer and thrives in shady areas of the garden. Try our award-winning Foxglove ‘Illumination Flame’ and drought-tolerant Foxglove ‘Illumination Ruby Slippers’ if your garden typically experiences long periods of dry weather during the warmer months.
For lots of flowers throughout the entire summer, the pick of the bunch is Foxglove ‘Dalmatian Mixed’. ‘Dalmatian’ sends up flower spikes in peach, purple and pink, producing plenty of secondary blooms once the main spike has faded. This impressively quick-to-flower variety can also be grown as an annual, ideal for summer bedding schemes.
Michael Perry, former T&M product development manager says, “In the UK, we sometimes get caught in a bit of a bedding ‘rut’, habitually planting up lacklustre marigolds which don’t really ever give us the display we hope for. But by thinking differently about what we plant, we can create easier-to-care for, longer-lasting, more robust bedding displays”.
For more information and advice on bedding plants, head over to our dedicated hub page to find growing guides and articles. Share your bedding display with us via our social channels – we love to hear from you!
Rebecca works in the Marketing department as part of the busy web team, focusing on updating the UK news and blog pages and Thompson & Morgan’s international website. Rebecca enjoys gardening and learning about flowers and growing vegetables with her young daughter.
ARE SLUGS ATTRACTED TO THEM
Hi Derek,
Slugs do tend to go for any young growth at this time of year, I have already seen damage on some digitalis. using repellent and careful use of slug killer might be advisable around young plants
Received Hibiscus bare root plants last week .No instructions with them .planted them in large pots in good compost with root excellorator and kept them in greenhouse. When will l see some growth and when do I take them outside ?
Hi Mary,
Thank you for your post. ? These are hardy perennials so can go outside now (and remain outside year round). They are late to wake up in spring, so don’t be surprised if new growth doesn’t show until late May. A sunny spot will encourage the quickest regrowth. The plants die down completely after the autumn frosts, and will disappear from show until late spring the following year. I hope this helps but please do come back if you need anything further. Kind regards, Wendie
Ordered 24 plants, they arrived a month late and three of the plugs were dead. hoping the rest will come on now I have planted them on. would think twice before ordering plug plants again.
Well we thought they looked super too and ordered some immediately. Payment was taken on 23rd April but as yet no plugs. Can I ask where they are?
Dear customer, I have picked your order details up from your email address and passed this on to Customer Care to investigate why your plants haven’t been received. Hopefully someone will be in tocuh asap. regards Craig
My box of 24 arrived this morning (23.5.13) and they look good healthy plants, but given we will all be planting out in two weeks time, it seems very late to send them out – there is no way they can catch up by the first week of June (my usual summer bedding planting out date) even though I potted them up today and will feed them well. Perhaps an earlier posting date would mean we could get the plants potted on far earlier, so that by now they will be a decent sized plant. Also an expected flowering date would be useful too, to give novice and experienced gardeners alike some idea when they put in their order, when they can expect the plants to flower.
Hi Sue, I do understand your point about sending plants out later than expected, but our growers have also been affected by the weather – cold temperatures and low light levels do nothing to promote good plant growth. I’ve just spoken to one of our horticultural experts and he said the same. We just have to hope that the weather improves vastly in the next couple of weeks to at least give the plants a fighting chance. Thanks also for your suggestion about flowering dates, we do in fact include these on all product pages of our website (they weren’t featured in the blog post though). I hope this helps. If you have further questions please contact our customer care team – ccare@thompson-morgan.com.
‘orchestra mix’ has produced a symphony of colour from the vibrant brassy reds, through sutt subtle wind washed whites and the strings of mauves and blue holding the arrangement together.
These penstemon are gorgeous,I must get some!