white, cream, purple or near red, but these plants need to grow in bold drifts to create a strong effect.
Soil preference: Sandy, free-draining but not too dry
Aspect: Sun or part shade
Season of interest: Summer
Height and spread: 20cm × 10cm (8in × 4in)
Companion plants: Best sown in patches at a border front, with taller perennials behind, or among cottage garden flowers in an informal planting. These are often blended with night scented stock, Matthiola bicornis, for evening fragrance.
Papaver rhoeas ‘Shirley Series’
Shirley Poppy Annual
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Developed in the 19th Century by the rector of Shirley, Rev. Wilkes, from the showiest of cornfield weeds, this series has flowers ranging from lemon through pink to red, some with picotee edges in pale pink or white. The pollen is always golden, in contrast with wild field poppies, whose pollen is dark grey. More annual poppies on pages ref 1 and ref 2.
Soil preference: Any
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Summer
Height and spread: 30–60cm (1–2ft) × 20–40cm (10in–1ft 4in)
Companion plants: Other annual poppies work beautifully with Shirley seedlings, especially if allowed to naturalize in a gravel garden or sown at random in an annual border with such annuals as marigolds, clarkias, larkspurs and cornflowers.
Nigella damascena
Love-in-a-mist Annual
Lacy, filamentous foliage makes a soft and alluring background for the flowers, whose distinctive blue petals nestle among the feathery leaves. Garden series such as ‘Persian Jewels’ have purple and white flowers, as well as those in various shades of blue. The large, inflated, lantern-like seed capsules are almost as decorative as the flowers and last until autumn.
Soil preference: Any
Aspect: Sun or part shade
Season of interest: Summer, autumn
Height and spread: 30–45cm (1ft–1ft 6in) tall
Companion plants: A lovely annual to naturalize among roses, especially the older varieties. Also effective for gap-filling, in a mixed border or for lining a lavender hedge.
Lagurus ovatus
Hare’s Tail Grass Annual grass
Mediterranean species with grassy foliage and silvery grey flowers which are broadly oval and furry to the touch, resembling the tail of a hare or rabbit. This grass grows taller on rich soil but thrives as a smaller plant in harsh conditions. A dwarf form, ‘Nanus’, may be more suitable for gardens with rich soil.
Soil preference: Any free-draining
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Summer, autumn
Height and spread: 15–50cm (6in–1ft 8in) × 30cm (12in)
Companion plants: A worthy addition to a grass border, especially if planted with other annual grasses such as Briza maxima, but also lovely among flowering annuals. Scatter seed among pot marigolds, cornflowers or tagetes.
Anagallis monellii
Shrubby Pimpernel Perennial grown as a tender annual
A low, straggly plant with semi-trailing stems and small, triangular leaves grouped in threes along the stem. At each leaf joint, buds form which open as conspicuous, five-petalled flowers in the deepest, most intense blue. Similar, but larger in all its parts, to the wild blue pimpernel, Anagallis foemina.
Soil preference: Fertile, well-drained
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Summer
Height and spread: 20cm × 30cm (8in × 12in)
Companion plants: An excellent hanging basket or container plant which is especially effective when contrasted with bright yellow Bidens ferulifolia or harmonized with variegated trailing Plectranthus or with red pelargoniums.
Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’
Honeywort Annual
Cornfield annual from the Mediterranean with curious, glaucous foliage and, in early summer, metallic purple bracts which are remarkably luminous and which half conceal the strange brownish purple and yellow tubular flowers. The seeds are large and stone-hard. Although when established it will self-sow, the species is not hardy in sustained frost.
Soil preference: Any well-drained
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Summer
Height and spread: 50cm × 30cm (1ft 8in × 12in)
Companion plants: A distinctive plant for a Mediterranean garden among grey and silver-leaved herbs such as lavenders, Teucrium and sages. Excellent in gravel, too, among brown sedges such as Carex buchananii and also with Californian poppies.
Brachyscome hybrids
Swan River Daisy Annuals
The narrow, fresh, often lacy green leaves on these Australian native plants are almost hidden behind a generous covering of bright daisy flowers, in mauve, pink or white. A neat, but semi-trailing habit, coupled
