The spring and summer catalogues have landed, with a deliciously glossy thud, on the doormat. Seductive swathes of bedding, pretty-princess perennials and the as-yet-unexperienced delights of new varieties. I save them up, going through them when I need the green. Days that are too grey, too stressy, too anxious. Lift them with flowers. Imaginary flowers. The fashionable faces of the season. As ever, some patterns begin to emerge. Is this the look of the season?
- Velvety goths Oh the black, purple and burgundy foliage that always looks better in photos than against your English mud. These ones, though, are piqued with flowers in dense deep washes, like lace dyed by colour-leaking cotton. Sink into your darkness with Rhodochiton atrosanguineus Purple Bells, Ipomoea SunPuma Purple Princess and Begonia Viking Red on Chocolate.
- Candyflip pinks Too hot to handle, barbie-does-a-backflip, screaming pinks and nigh-fluorescent magentas. Go hot and go home. Get pinked with Erysium Winter Orchid, New Guinea Busy Lizzie Roller Coaster Hot Pink, and Begonia Funky Pink.
- Washed-out blues Distressed denim colours, speckles and flecks and flakes of white, faded patterns. Creased stonewash and decorative damage. Get ripped with Erysium Plant World Lemon, Sweet Pea Earl Grey, Petunia Sweetunia Starfish, and Petunia Lavender Sky.
- Shredded heat Reds and crimsons given a dying fall by delicately shredded falling petals. Hot yet demure. Delicate yet flaming. Like a fanciful waterfall made of boiling lava. Embrace the contradictions with Fuchsia Triphylla Eruption, Echinacea Pallida, Begonia Bossa Nova Night Fever Papaya and the stunning Fuchsia Rocket Fire.
- Beetle wings Insect-mimic petals, Carapacial sepals. Plants that flip the insect switch in the brain, that double take with their double flowers. Some delightful creepy-crawlies are Rhodochiton atrosanguineus Purple Bells, Dicentra formosa Bacchanal, Fuchsia Blacky and Fuchsia Bella Olivia,
- Acid yellow lime Cooler than hot, foliage has gone yellow this season, in a good way. Get your greens yellowd with Erysium Plant World Lemon, Petunia Sophistica Lime Green, and last year's plant of the year, Sedum Atlantis.
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