Celebrate St Valentine’s this month in your garden by planting some of the floral “sweethearts” of our country, blue felicia, apricot diascia, frilly pink nerine, scarlet cyrtanthus, mauve scabious, the berg lily (galtonia) and the pineapple plant (eucomis).
What could be a more romantic focal point in the garden than a bubbling fountain surrounded by beautiful roses? Antico Amore is a delicate pink, suffused with apricot and a gentle sweet fragrance, floribunda rose Champagne Pearl is creamy apricot, and English rose Sharifa Asma is blush pink with a rich scent.
Traditionally, the first sowing of sweet peas is made on St Valentine’s Day. Soak seed overnight. Plant in open, sunny position in well-composted soil.
To encourage fruiting of citrus trees, fertilise with 3:1:5(26) as far as the drip line of the branches. Water well after fertilising.
Soften a boundary wall with waterwise wild iris Dietes grandiflora, which bears white flowers with yellow and lilac markings, and Chlorophytum saundersiae (Anthericum saundersiae), a perennial with grass-like foliage and tiny, starry white flowers that will grow in sun or shade.
Cool down the hot colours of summer with purple-blue Salvia farinacea ‘Victoria’, Salvia azurea with grey-green leaves and dainty, blue flowers, and Salvia patens with larger, deep-blue flowers.
Use hot pink, purple, cinnamon and tangerine found in bougainvillea and canna, and in summer annuals of celosia, gomphrena, marigold, zinnia and verbena to create a Mediterranean-type garden. - Saturday Star