Summer flowering bulbs

Fay

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some advice on how to make my garden look good in the summer months. We have a mature garden that over the years has obviously been looked after but not in the 2 years before we moved here. It's lovely in the spring with lots of bulbs and shrubs (camilia, large magnolia, apple tree and pear trees etc) and in the autumn it's quite pretty (berberis, nerrines) but the summer is a bit of a gap in the flowering.
I would love to plant some summer flowering bulbs that will re-flower each year. I've got lots of bedding seeds germinating and I have also got a few dahlias in pots to try and get going. But what else can I get?
I would like some agapanthus but not sure where to buy them-they're quite expensive so can anyoner recommend a good supplier?
Any recommendations will be considered and all advice gratefully received. I require plants for south facing front garden, and east and west facing borders in the back garden.
Thank you

lily117

Irises, blue and yellow give a nice splash of colour. Agapanthus is my favourite too, mine isn't looking very healthy at the moment

Fay

I hadn't thought of Irises lily-thank you

poodlegal

I just got a little hessian bag with about 100 bulbs from A*da for £4, the bulbs are yellow Alliums, gladioli, sword lilly, Anemones and freesia. I have put some around the garden and some in pots.

poodlegal

Also you could try starting some summer flowering perennials off from seed, things such as red hot pokers, lavenders, sedum, polygonum, aubretia etc, quite cheap to buy as seed and will add to the garden in coming years.

torbrex

Does it have to be bulbs?

May flowering perenials include
Dainthus and Peony
Bulbs include
Crown Imperials and some Hyacinth varieties

June periniels
Sweet william and Potentilla
Bulbs
Allium and Lily

July Perenials
Red hot Poker and Phlox
Bulbs
Galtonia and Gladiola

August Perenials
Aster and Anemone
Bulb
Begonia and Crocosmia

Only some examples and not including Annuals/Biennials and of course it depends on your soil as well as which part of the counrty as to when they will actually come into flower.

Fay

Thanks guys...no it doesn't have to be just bulbs. We only moved into the house 18 months ago and its a much larger garden than we had before (courtyard garden previously). As I work full time and commute an hour each way I only really have weekends to garden, so bulbs and perenials would cut down the work I have to do.
I've got lots of annual seeds and plug plants going in the greenhouse (fingers crossed they're not frozen now!).
I think the soil looks ok, although quite a lot of stones. The garden has been lovingly created by a couple that lived here for 30 years, but then the person before us renovated the house so obviously spent the time doing that...although she planted lots of things but didn't prune/take care of others.
We have a few peonies which are beautiful, one patch of lupins, a patch of aqueligia (sp?), japanese anemones...all of which we love. But as mentioned, some of it is randomly planted like the one small patch of lupins...I'm hoping to take some cuttings and propogate some of the plants.

I'm in warwick by the way, I should update my information with this and the garden is pretty much north west facing. So has a south facing front garden and also a strip down the side of the house that is east facing. We cleared a large bed last year of dead conifers and have been trying to get all the bits of root out and improve the soil with manure and compost..so looking to plant this up this year. Unfortunately this has a canopy of trees above it which have preservation orders on them (not on our property) so they take away some of the nutrients and make the bed shady in the summer.

Any more advice guys?

torbrex

I get a 100g shaker tub of annual seeds from Lidl for about £2 and just spread them on any spare patch of bare soil that is in my garden and every year I get a wonderful display of colourful flowers from about June onwards.
They also have the advantage of re-seeding themselves ready for next year.
This year I have gone for the Wildflower Meadow Mix