Focus on - annuals and bedding plants to transform your garden

Annual plants are a great way to brighten up your garden and add some immediate colour, though they won't come back year after year like perennials. You can buy them fully grown and ready to pop straight into the garden, or as smaller plug or mini-plants which will need to be grown on for a while in the warm before they can be put outside. Many of the more hardy annual plants, such as the annual poppies will seed themselves in your garden for years if you allow them to.

Come to Greenleaf between March and July, and you will see a great range of plants available. Here are a few ideas:

Busy Lizzies

These popular favourites have the great advantage that they will thrive in poor shady soil where you may have problems getting other plants to grow. Flowers of pink, orange, or red are held on small bushy plants throughout the summer. Buy as seedlings, and grow on on the windowsill or in the conservatory till May, or buy mature plants in May ready for planting straight out into the garden. Good garden centres like Greenleaf should have the right size of plant for the time of year, but if you aren't sure, you can always ask for advice. Busy Lizzies are ideal for hanging baskets or containers in a shady spot too.

Lobelia

Hundreds of elegant red, blue, purple or white flowers appear right through the summer until the first frosts, either on a trailing plant ideal for baskets or containers, or a low bush with fine stems ideal for the border. If you have a sheltered spot, this annual may seed itself to come back for another year. Most Garden Centres will sell you a mixed lot of this popular, tough little plant, but at Greenleaf we make a point of offering a number of distinct colours and types, so that you can choose the one that fits your garden and design ideas best. Try the variety 'White lace' with one of our hardy blue-flowered geraniums - a great combination.

Nigella (Love in the Mist)

A wonderful plant for a bed which gets some sun, with finely-cut 'misty' leaves around blue, purple or white flowers. The seed pods are particularly attractive too, and can even be sprayed silver to make a trendy ornament for the house.

Pelargonium (Geranium)

These frost-tender red or orange flowered plants are often confused with the hardy Geranium, a hardy perennial. Pelargoniums are really perennials too, but keeping them through the winter can be tricky, so it's easier to buy new plants in spring. Be careful not to put them out in the garden too soon, or you may lose the lot to a late frost. By May it's usually safe to plant them outside in the Wirral and Liverpool areas. If in doubt, ask!

The Ivy-leaved geraniums are a particular favorite for hanging baskets, as their trailing growth gives you the effect of a waterfall of flowers. These are the red and white-flowering plants that you will see pouring from the window boxes of Swiss chalets in the summer. For a slightly more subtle effect, why not try the variety 'Redlaced Maiden', which has white flowers, delicately marked with deep red.

For a scented garden, there are several scented-leaved geraniums. Greenleaf has a special 'scented collection' of plants - the contents vary according to the time of year, but in May or June we are always sure to include at least one of the scented geraniums. Plant them near a door or seat, in full sun, so that you get the benefit of the scent whenever you brush by.

Many pelargoniums are available with variegated leaves, (patched with cream, or with white edges to the leaves. Why not choose a variegated pelargonium to contrast with a dark-leaved and flowered plant such as Lobelia 'Ever Night' - a favourite for summer bedding at Greenleaf.