{"title":"Mixed Colour Flowers","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"snapdragon-crown-mixed-seeds","title":"Antirrhinum Crown Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eA bedding snapdragon rather than a cutting one, and honest about it. Bushy plants at 35 to 45cm that branch freely from the base, in a full rainbow of scarlet, hot pink, yellow, deep purple and white, flowering from June to the first hard frosts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe virtue here is that it asks nothing of you. The taller cutting varieties want pinching, staking and careful handling. Crown Mixed goes in the ground and gets on with it, and the spikes are dense and weather-resistant enough to take a wet summer without collapsing. If you want long stems for the vase this is the wrong snapdragon; the stems are short and bushy and only really suit a jam jar posy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is the classic dragon's mouth flower, the one children squeeze open and shut, which is reason enough on its own to put a row of it where they will find it. Bumblebees are the only insects heavy enough to force the petals apart and reach the nectar, so a bed of these is a bumblebee bed specifically. In a mild garden it behaves as a short-lived perennial and will sometimes overwinter.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961869996219,"sku":"ANT-CRN","price":2.15,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/Antirrhinum_Crown_Mixed_1.jpg?v=1775753814"},{"product_id":"china-aster-duchess-mixed-seeds","title":"Aster Duchess Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eDense incurved peony-form heads in violet, hot pink, lavender, crimson and white, on sturdy 60cm stems, arriving in August just as the cutting patch starts to look thin. Vase life runs to ten days.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWorth being clear on what these are. China asters are Callistephus chinensis, a half-hardy annual, and nothing to do with the perennial Michaelmas daisies that share the name. You grow them fresh from seed every year. That is the cost. The return is four or five weeks of generous cutting through September and October, when very little else is producing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo practical warnings. The heads are heavy and a windy site will lay them flat, so net or stake them if you are exposed. And China asters are prone to aster wilt, a soil-borne fungus that kills plants at the point they start to flower, which is heartbreaking timing. It builds up in ground that grows them repeatedly, so move them round the plot on a three or four year rotation rather than putting them back in the same bed.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961870061755,"sku":"AST-DCH","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/Aster_Duchess_Mixed_1.jpg?v=1775757110"},{"product_id":"china-aster-ostrich-plume-seeds","title":"Aster Ostrich Plume","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn heirloom China aster grown for well over a century, with long narrow petals that curl and twist outward in every direction to make a shaggy, feathered head. It looks like an expensive florist chrysanthemum and is a great deal easier to grow.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe mix runs through shell pink, lavender, deep violet and crimson to white, on stems of 50 to 60cm. It is softer and less formal than the modern peony-flowered strains. Where those give you a tight rounded ball, this gives you something loose and slightly dishevelled, which suits a rustic arrangement far better than a wedding one.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt flowers from August to October, half-hardy and sown fresh each spring, and holds up to a fortnight in a cool room. The usual China aster cautions apply. Being an older open strain rather than a modern F1, the plants are less uniform, so expect some variation in height and flowering date across a row. And aster wilt is the thing that will lose you a crop, so rotate the bed and do not grow them in the same ground two years running.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961870094523,"sku":"AST-OST","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/aster-ostrich-plume-1.jpg?v=1790121568"},{"product_id":"calendula-art-shades-mixed-seeds","title":"Calendula Art Shades Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eMost pot marigolds are a flat carnival orange. Art Shades is deliberately softer: apricot, cream, pale peach and warm buff, on bushy plants at 60cm flowering from June to the first hard frosts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe mix gives you a range of flower forms as well as colours, from fully double through semi-double to plain single. That is worth knowing before you sow, because the singles are the ones the bees can actually use. A fully double calendula has petals where the nectar should be. A row of Art Shades will feed pollinators, but not as well as a row of singles would.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeing a mix, it also throws the occasional plain bright orange, and the more it self-seeds around your garden the more of those you will get. The soft shades are the selected end of a species that wants to be orange, and left alone it drifts back. Save seed only from the palest plants if you want to hold the palette. The petals are edible and it is one of the easiest things a beginner can grow.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961871143099,"sku":"CAL-ASM","price":2.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/Calendula_Art_Shades.jpg?v=1789377573"},{"product_id":"canterbury-bells-crown-mixed-seeds","title":"Canterbury Bells Crown Single Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eTall spires crowded with big open bells, five to eight centimetres across, in deep purple-blue, pink, white and clear lilac. It has been in British gardens for the best part of five hundred years and it is one of the few flowers that genuinely deserves the word stately.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis is a biennial, so nothing happens in the first year.\u003c\/strong\u003e You sow it one summer, it makes a sturdy leafy rosette and sits there, it overwinters, and it flowers the following May to July. Anyone expecting flowers the season they sow will be disappointed. The way round it is to sow a short row every year so there is always a crop coming, which is how these were grown when every cottage had them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe wait buys you something no annual matches. The bells are substantial enough to have real presence in a vase, they last well cut, and bumblebees crawl bodily inside them, which is worth watching on its own. At 60 to 80cm the spires want a spot with some shelter. A wet windy June will lean them over, and once a flowering stem goes down it does not come back up.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961871372475,"sku":"CNT-MIX","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/Canterbury_Bells_Crown_Single_Mixed.jpg?v=1789381616"},{"product_id":"clarkia-crown-double-mix-seeds","title":"Clarkia Crown Double Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eTall slender spikes packed with intricate ruffled double flowers that look more like small orchids than a hardy annual has any right to, in soft rose, salmon, mauve and white. The flowers open progressively up the spike, so one stem gives weeks of display.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlmost nobody grows it, which is a shame and also a clue. Clarkia wants cool. It comes from the Pacific North-West, where it flowers as spring turns to summer, and the American name Farewell to Spring is a fair description of its season. In a hot dry British summer it goes over quickly, and on rich, well-fed ground it makes soft leafy growth and flops. Poor thin soil and a cool spring give the best plants, which is the opposite of most people's instincts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSown early and given lean ground it is one of the best cut flowers in the hardy annual range, at 60 to 75cm with good vase life and a genuinely old-fashioned character that suits a cottage bouquet. It self-seeds gently. Plant it in fives or sevens; the spikes are slender and a single one disappears.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961872224443,"sku":"CLA-CRW","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/Clarkia_Crown_Double_Mix.jpg?v=1789381064"},{"product_id":"cornflower-polka-dot-mixed-seeds","title":"Cornflower Polka Dot Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eA dwarf cornflower, bushy at 30 to 50cm, bred in 1960 for gardeners who wanted the whole colour range without the height. The mix runs blue, deep maroon, raspberry, rose, pink, lavender and white, which is the widest palette in the family.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe compact habit is the point. It needs no staking, it does not lean after rain the way the tall Ball types do, and it will grow in a window box or a patio pot where a 90cm cornflower would be absurd. At the front of a border it makes low multicoloured mounds that hold their shape all season.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe trade-off is on the stem. The flowers are smaller than the tall varieties and the stems are short, so this is a plant for looking at rather than for the cutting patch; a small jug of informal posies is about as far as it goes. Self-sown seedlings keep the dwarf habit reasonably well, which is unusual and useful. It is about as easy as a hardy annual gets, which makes it a good one for a child's patch.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961872650427,"sku":"CRN-MIX","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/2048800b41e2f062b2de826_upscale.jpg?v=1774112583"},{"product_id":"cosmos-seashell-seeds","title":"Cosmos Seashells Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eEvery petal rolled into a tube, so the flower reads as a ring of small trumpets or shells radiating from the gold centre. It is a stable genetic quirk rather than a trick of breeding, and it won a Fleuroselect Novelty award for it. Visitors always stop and ask.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe mix gives soft pink, white, deep carmine and bicolours, all quilled, on tall plants at 100 to 120cm. In an arrangement the tubular petals bring a three-dimensional quality that a flat daisy cannot, which makes it more interesting in a modern vase than a traditional one.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBe prepared for some inconsistency. Not every flower quills fully. A proportion open half-rolled or nearly flat, particularly early in the season and on plants that have had a check, and it settles down as they mature. Unlike the fully double cosmos the centre is left open here, so bees can still use it. Lean soil, full sun, no feeding, and keep cutting to keep it flowering to the frosts.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961872814267,"sku":"COS-SEA","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/2048800013061aa7ac4177c_upscale.jpg?v=1758898588"},{"product_id":"cosmos-sensation-mixed-seeds","title":"Cosmos Sensation Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe benchmark. Large single flowers, 8 to 10cm, in the full range of pinks, whites and carmines on stems of 90 to 120cm, and no other plant in a cutting patch produces this many stems per square metre.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt holds an RHS Award of Garden Merit, and it is the one to give a beginner, because it is close to unkillable given sun and poor soil. Sow in spring, plant out after the frosts, keep cutting, and it will supply a household with flowers from July until the frosts finish it in November.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo notes on the mix. You get what you get, since there is no sorting by colour before the buds open, and the deep carmine tends to be the most vigorous, so a self-seeded colony drifts towards magenta within a few years. Pull the ones you do not want while they are small. And here is the standard cosmos warning again, because it is the thing that goes wrong most often: \u003cstrong\u003edo not feed it, and do not plant it in good soil.\u003c\/strong\u003e Rich ground gives you a huge leafy plant and almost no flowers.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961872847035,"sku":"COS-SEN","price":2.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/2048800fe1bf8a8dcd0eb5c_upscale.jpg?v=1758898589"},{"product_id":"dahlia-cactus-mixed-seeds","title":"Dahlia Cactus Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eEvery petal rolled into a tight quill, so the flower opens as a spiky starburst rather than a disc. The mix runs hot pink, yellow, orange and ruby red on substantial plants to 120cm, with stems long enough to cut.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe quilling has a practical benefit nobody mentions on the packet. Water runs straight off a rolled petal instead of pooling in the middle of the flower, so cactus dahlias come through a wet British August far better than the heavy decorative and dinnerplate sorts, which sit full of rainwater and rot in the head. In a wet summer that is the difference between a crop and a mess.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a half-hardy perennial grown from seed as an annual, flowering July to the first frosts, and the tubers can be lifted and stored over winter if you want bigger plants next year. At 120cm with heavy heads it needs staking, and it needs it in June rather than after the first gale. Slugs find the young plants before anything else does, so protect them when they first go out.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961873010875,"sku":"DAH-CAC","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/Gemini_Generated_Image_fbxgldfbxgldfbxg.png?v=1778507358"},{"product_id":"dahlia-early-bird-mix-seeds","title":"Dahlia Early Bird Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eA dwarf dahlia bred for speed. Ten to twelve weeks from sowing to the first flower, against twelve to fourteen for most, which in practice means colour in late June when other dahlias are still building.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt 50 to 60cm the plants are bushy and self-supporting, so there is no staking and no tying in. That makes them the practical choice for a patio pot, a window box or the front of a border, where a 120cm dahlia would be a nuisance. The mix gives semi-double and double flowers in red, violet, yellow, orange and bronze.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo things to weigh. The stems are short, so this is not a cutting variety; you can float a head in a bowl but you will not make a bouquet from it. And a dwarf bushy dahlia in a wet season holds moisture around its centre, so keep the spent flowers picked off or the middle of the plant goes mouldy. The open-centred flowers in the mix are useful to bees, which the tight ball and cactus types are not. Tubers can be lifted and stored, though most people treat these as an annual.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961873076411,"sku":"DAH-ELY","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/Gemini_Generated_Image_a5nunka5nunka5nu.png?v=1773851663"},{"product_id":"hollyhock-bishy-barnabee-mix-seeds","title":"Hollyhock Bishy Barnabee Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eOur own blend, picked from the hollyhocks we grow and trial here at Salle Moor Hall Farm. It deliberately mixes the heavy ruffled Chater's doubles with open single saucers, in soft lemon, crimson, apple-blossom pink, white and near-black chocolate-maroon, on spires of 1.8 to 2.2m.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIncluding both flower forms is not an accident. The doubles are the showpieces and the singles are the ones bumblebees can actually get into, so a mixed row gives you the display and does something useful at the same time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow the thing every hollyhock grower has to deal with. \u003cstrong\u003eRust is more or less inevitable, and it will cover the lower leaves in orange pustules by midsummer.\u003c\/strong\u003e It disfigures rather than kills. Water at the base rather than over the leaves, give the plants air, and strip the worst leaves off as they go. Treat them as a two-year crop and start fresh plants each year rather than nursing old ones along.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe stems and leaves are bristly and irritate sensitive skin, so wear gloves.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961873797307,"sku":"HLY-BBM","price":2.1,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/hollyhock-bishy-barnabee-mix-1.jpg?v=1790122137"},{"product_id":"hollyhock-summer-carnival-seeds","title":"Hollyhock Summer Carnival","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe hollyhock that does not make you wait a year. Sown early enough, in January or February under cover, it runs the whole cycle in a single summer and gives you 1.5m spikes of fully double ruffled flowers the same season. It holds an RHS Award of Garden Merit.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe flowers are the peony-like Chater's type, packed and powder-puffy, in pink, scarlet, yellow and white. They are showier than the singles and of considerably less use to bees, which cannot get past the petals.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe early sowing is not optional. Sow it in April and you have an ordinary biennial that flowers next year, which defeats the point of buying it.\u003c\/strong\u003e It also makes a deep taproot and hates being moved, so raise it in deep pots and plant out without disturbing the rootball.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRust will find it like any hollyhock. Water at the base, keep air moving round the plants, and cut them down after flowering rather than leaving infected material standing. The bristly stems and leaves irritate sensitive skin, so wear gloves.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961873862843,"sku":"HLY-SUM","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/hollyhock-summer-carnival-flower-seeds-petal-leaf-861.jpg?v=1758898690"},{"product_id":"honesty-lunaria-annua-mixed-seeds","title":"Honesty Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eTwo plants for the price of one. In spring, branching stems at 75 to 90cm covered in violet-purple and white four-petalled flowers over heart-shaped leaves. Then, from late summer, the thing people actually grow it for: flat seed pods whose outer skins peel away to leave translucent silver discs that hold light like small moons.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThose silver pennies are among the best dried stems you can produce at home, and they cost nothing. Cut them when the pods have gone papery, rub the brown outer layers off between finger and thumb, and you have silver for a winter arrangement or a Christmas wreath.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a biennial, so leaves in year one and the performance in year two, and it self-seeds prolifically. Once it is in a garden it stays, turning up in shade and gravel and the backs of borders for years. That is usually welcome, and it is worth knowing before you sow it. It is also an orange tip butterfly food plant, so leave a few stems uncut. Being a brassica, it mildews after flowering and looks shabby while the pods ripen.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961873928379,"sku":"HON-MIX","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/533AB2CA-7D75-4D17-84A4-5A098304BA5F.jpg?v=1772916348"},{"product_id":"larkspur-giant-imperial-mixed","title":"Larkspur Giant Imperial Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe larkspur that gives you more than one stem per plant. Where the single-spike varieties produce one column and stop, 'Giant Imperial' branches from the base into three to six flowering stems, which multiplies the harvest from any given patch of ground.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe flowers are fully double and ruffled in the classic cottage palette, violet, deep blue, rose, carmine and white, on rigid stems of a metre or more that need very little staking. It cuts well, dries beautifully, and the dried petals are the traditional biodegradable wedding confetti.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo things matter when sowing. The seed needs darkness, so cover it with about 5mm of soil rather than surface-sowing. And it goes dormant if it gets too warm; a week in the freezer before sowing mimics a sharp frost and wakes it up. \u003cstrong\u003eAll parts are toxic if eaten\u003c\/strong\u003e, so wash your hands after handling and keep it away from children and pets.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961874256059,"sku":"LRK-GIM","price":2.1,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/8409EB28-6737-40EF-9E0D-462ACE770C6B.jpg?v=1773344107"},{"product_id":"nasturtium-tom-thumb-seeds","title":"Nasturtium Tom Thumb","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe dwarf bushy nasturtium: a tidy mound of 25 to 30cm that stays where you put it, rather than the trailing sorts that set off across a bed. Classic trumpet flowers in scarlet, orange and yellow held above rounded shield-shaped leaves.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEvery part of it is edible and peppery, like a hot watercress. Leaves and flowers go into a salad, and the green seed pods pickle into something close to capers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe one rule that matters: do not feed it.\u003c\/strong\u003e On rich manured ground you get a magnificent leafy plant and almost no flowers, which is the commonest nasturtium failure of all. Poor lean soil gives you flowers. In the kitchen garden it works as a trap crop as much as a companion; blackfly go for the nasturtiums in preference to the beans, which is useful, and does mean accepting that your nasturtiums will be covered in blackfly by July. That is the deal. It self-seeds reliably, the seeds are big enough for a child to handle, and it germinates in a week, which makes it about the best first plant there is.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961874616507,"sku":"NST-TOM","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/2048800279bd217aa6e698f_upscale.jpg?v=1774546635"},{"product_id":"nigella-mixed-seeds","title":"Nigella 'Miss Jekyll Mixed' (Love-in-a-mist)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe full Miss Jekyll palette in one packet: sky blue, deep violet-blue, white and soft rose, each flower nestled in the same ruff of thread-fine foliage. At 45 to 60cm a drift reads as an impressionist haze rather than as individual plants.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYou get two performances from it. The flowers come first, then each one swells into a striped balloon-shaped seed pod that stands through autumn and dries beautifully for a winter arrangement. \u003cstrong\u003eYou have to choose which you want, though. Deadhead for more flowers over a longer season, or leave them alone for the pods; you cannot have both from the same plant.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSow it where it is to grow, because the taproot resents moving and a transplanted nigella sulks. September sowing gives earlier, stronger plants than a spring one. Keep it lean, because rich ground gives you more mist and fewer jewels. The black seeds in the dried pods are kalonji, the nutty peppery black cumin used in Indian and Middle Eastern cooking. It self-seeds freely and the mix largely holds, though the proportions drift over the years.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961874682043,"sku":"NIG-LIM","price":2.1,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/2048800b2d4639fe08a838a_upscale.jpg?v=1773506081"},{"product_id":"scabious-imperial-mix-seeds","title":"Scabious Imperial Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe colourful counterpart to 'Black Knight'. The same domed pincushions on the same wiry 90cm stems, but in the full jewel range: deep blackcurrant, crimson, soft lavender, salmon pink and white, all flowering together from midsummer to the first frosts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is one of the hardest-working plants in a cutting patch. Cut-and-come-again in the truest sense, honey-scented on a warm day, and covered in butterflies, which use the flat dome as a landing platform. A short row will keep a household in flowers for four months.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen the seed heads. Stop deadheading in late August and the central cushion elongates into an architectural globe that ripens through autumn and dries well for a winter arrangement. Before August, keep cutting, because a plant left to seed early stops flowering. Two conditions matter: full sun, and neutral to alkaline ground with real drainage, since scabious sulk and rot on heavy wet clay. And \u003cstrong\u003eget the support in at 20 or 30cm\u003c\/strong\u003e, because 90cm stems in an August storm go flat and cannot be rescued afterwards.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961876451515,"sku":"SCB-IMP","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/2048800b7a77bf32ba3f6f5_upscale.jpg?v=1758898790"},{"product_id":"strawflower-helipterum-roseum-mixed-seeds","title":"Strawflower Helipterum Roseum Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe other strawflower, and the delicate one. Small daisies of three or four centimetres in blush pink, rose and white, each with a gold or dark eye, on slender stems at 40 to 50cm above narrow grey-green leaves. The bracts are tissue-thin, almost translucent, and hold their colour for years once dried.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIts job is filling. Where helichrysum is bold and saturated and does the focal work in a dried arrangement, this is small and soft and Victorian, and it fills the space between the big heads with something considerably lighter. Grown together, the difference in scale does most of the design work for you.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt appears in catalogues under three names, so do not be confused. Helipterum roseum is the traditional one, Acroclinium roseum the older, Rhodanthe roseum the current. Same plant.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCut when two to four of the outer bract layers have opened, before the flower is fully out\u003c\/strong\u003e, with 20 to 25cm of stem, and hang in small loose bunches somewhere warm and dark. Handle the dried stems carefully, because it is more fragile than helichrysum. It is half-hardy and cannot go out until the frosts are done.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961876877499,"sku":"STR-ACR","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/25AAA24B-9156-4D1D-8582-7B400A04C1EC.jpg?v=1773349696"},{"product_id":"sweet-pea-bishy-barnabee-mix-seeds","title":"Sweet Pea Bishy Barnabee Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eOur own blend, put together from the sweet peas we trial here at Salle Moor Hall Farm each year, chosen first for scent, then for stem length, then for colour. Soft pinks, deep crimsons, whites, rich purples and the bicolour picotees, climbing to about two metres on a decent support.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFragrance is what a sweet pea is for, and it is worth saying that the modern large-flowered Spencer types have often traded some of it away for size and ruffle. Everything in this mix was picked with the nose first.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAutumn sowing is markedly better than spring.\u003c\/strong\u003e Sow into deep pots or root trainers in October or November, overwinter them in a cold frame, and the root system they build gives stronger plants and flowers from May. A spring sowing works and gives you less. Soak the seed in tepid water for a few hours to soften the coat, and sow into something deep, because the taproot is long. And \u003cstrong\u003epick every single flower as it opens, whether you want it indoors or not.\u003c\/strong\u003e Let one set a seed pod and the plant decides its work is done.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe seeds look like garden peas and are mildly toxic. Keep them away from children.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961877369019,"sku":"SWP-BBM","price":2.1,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/204880099bece0c7daea949_upscale.jpg?v=1773496946"},{"product_id":"sweet-pea-heaven-scent-seeds","title":"Sweet Pea Heaven Scent","description":"\u003cp\u003eLarge ruffled blooms in creamy salmon and rose-pink, and a scent strong enough that one small bunch fills a room. It sits between the two sweet pea camps: the old Grandifloras, which smell extraordinary and have small flowers, and the modern Spencers, which are big and ruffled and have often lost most of the perfume. This one has the Spencer flower and most of the Grandiflora nose.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat trade-off is worth understanding before you choose any sweet pea. A great many of the large-flowered exhibition varieties were bred for the show bench, where size and form are judged and fragrance is not, and it shows. If scent is why you grow sweet peas, choose accordingly.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is vigorous and climbs to about two metres, giving a dense screen of flower, and bees find it from across a garden.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePick every flower as it opens, whether you need it or not.\u003c\/strong\u003e One seed pod left to form tells the plant its year's work is done, and the flowering stops within a fortnight.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961877401787,"sku":"SWP-HVN","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/sweet-pea-heaven-scent-1.png?v=1790121274"},{"product_id":"sweet-pea-old-spice-starry-night-seeds","title":"Sweet Pea Old Spice Starry Night","description":"\u003cp\u003eVelvety bicolours in deep violet, indigo, maroon and purple, and the most powerfully scented thing in the whole range. It's a firm favourite here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese are Grandifloras rather than Spencers, and the difference is a real trade. The flowers are smaller and the stems shorter than a modern exhibition variety, and in return you get roughly double the perfume, which is the original wild sweet pea scent the Spencers largely bred out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe other advantage is heat. The Old Spice series was selected for tolerance of hot weather, and in a warm British July, when standard Spencers stop flowering and go over, these keep going. In the kind of summers we are getting now, that is worth more every year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt wants rich ground, a sturdy support and daily picking. \u003cstrong\u003eCut every flower as it opens; one seed pod is enough to tell the plant to stop. And the seeds look like garden peas and are toxic, so keep them from children and do not eat the pods.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961877467323,"sku":"SWP-OSN","price":2.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/Gemini_Generated_Image_m7ijmmm7ijmmm7ij.png?v=1773959105"},{"product_id":"zinnia-giants-of-california-seeds","title":"Zinnia Giants of California","description":"\u003cp\u003eHuge fully double flowers, ten to twelve centimetres across, on sturdy stems at 90cm to a metre, in the full bold palette: scarlet, crimson, pink, orange, yellow, white and bicolours. An heirloom strain that has been in cottage cutting gardens for generations.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor cutting they are hard to beat. The stems are strong enough to hold a big head, the flower has real visual weight in an arrangement, and vase life runs ten days to a fortnight, which very few annuals of this size manage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe one rule that matters is heat. Zinnias detest cold wet ground, and a plant put out too early turns yellow, sits still and often never recovers.\u003c\/strong\u003e Wait for genuine June warmth. Patience is the whole of zinnia growing; everything else about them is easy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThey flower from July to the first frost, and the flat open heads make a stable landing platform, so butterflies use them heavily on hot afternoons. Keep cutting and the plant keeps producing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961879007419,"sku":"ZIN-GOC","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/D13727FA-EEB8-4F45-95DB-EDF74EAD5FFD.jpg?v=1758898880"},{"product_id":"zinnia-lilliput-mix-seeds","title":"Zinnia Lilliput Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eSmall round pompon balls of three to five centimetres in the bright cottage primaries, red, pink, orange, yellow, white and bicolours, on bushy plants at 45 to 60cm. Dozens of flowers per plant rather than a few big ones.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is the zinnia for a container, a small garden or the front of a border, where 'Giants of California' would be out of scale. It also starts earlier, often opening in the first week of July, and keeps going into October. For butterflies the many small heads work better than a few large ones, because each is a landing platform and there are more of them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe usual zinnia rules apply, and the first is the important one. \u003cstrong\u003eThey loathe cold wet ground: a plant put out in May sits yellow and sulking and frequently never picks up. Wait for June.\u003c\/strong\u003e Sow them individually so the roots are never disturbed, pinch at 10 to 15cm for a bushy plant, and water at the base rather than over the foliage, because mildew is their weakness. Deadhead and they keep producing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961879072955,"sku":"ZIN-LIL","price":2.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/989812A4-BB39-4CD4-9C9E-AEC1409E1C23.jpg?v=1773496875"},{"product_id":"viola-cornuta-large-flower-mix","title":"Viola Cornuta Large Flower Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eLarge pansy-like flowers in blues, purples, yellows, whites, oranges and bicolours, with the usual face markings, on neat mounds at 15 to 20cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe reason to choose Viola cornuta over an ordinary pansy is hardiness. Standard bedding pansies collapse in a cold wet British winter. This species is genuinely hardy enough to overwinter outdoors in most gardens, and it flowers from October through to April or May, sometimes right through a mild winter without stopping.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat makes it the workhorse of the cool months: for a window box or container that would otherwise sit empty from November, and for underplanting spring bulbs, where it carries the colour at ground level while the tulips come up through it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe one thing it needs is deadheading. Let it set seed and it decides its job is done and goes over quickly; keep the spent flowers picked off and it runs for months. The flowers are edible with a mild sweet flavour and are excellent on a cake.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961879564475,"sku":"VIO-COR","price":2.25,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/2048800864ec3a41f7fcf7b_upscale.jpg?v=1758898918"},{"product_id":"sweet-william-auricula-eyed-mixed-seeds","title":"Sweet William Auricula Eyed Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eDense flat-topped clusters of small florets in crimson, purple and pink, each one marked with a contrasting pale eye at the centre, after the elaborate eye markings of a Victorian auricula. On sturdy stems at 45 to 60cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe scent is the reason they have been grown in Britain since the 1500s. It is a rich clove perfume, and one small bunch will scent a room. In the vase they hold ten days to a fortnight, which is exceptional. They also fill an awkward gap: the spring biennials are finishing, wallflowers and forget-me-nots, and the summer annuals have not started, and this is what covers late May and June.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt is a biennial, so nothing happens the first year.\u003c\/strong\u003e Leaves and a strong green rosette, then the display the following spring, then it sets seed and dies. Sow a short row every year and there is always a crop coming. It self-seeds freely once established, so a colony keeps itself going. The petals are edible, with a mild clove flavour.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42961879695547,"sku":"SWW-AUR","price":2.1,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/204880097561c2322302a8d_upscale.jpg?v=1758898932"},{"product_id":"painted-daisy-seeds","title":"Chrysanthemum Painted Daisies","description":"\u003cp\u003eBig daisies with sharply defined concentric rings of scarlet, mahogany, gold, white and purple radiating out from a dark eye, like a bullseye or a stopped kaleidoscope. Every flower is patterned slightly differently and one plant will produce hundreds across a season.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWorth clearing up the name. These are true hardy annuals, botanically Ismelia carinata and still often sold as Chrysanthemum carinatum, and they have nothing to do with the perennial autumn chrysanthemums people buy in pots. They go from seed to flower to finished in a single season, sown in spring and gone by the first hard frost.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBushy mounds at 40 to 50cm with succulent ferny leaves, and unusually good weather resistance for something this showy. The habit does get sprawling by late summer, particularly on rich ground, so they suit an informal meadow-style planting better than a tidy border edge. Bees work them hard on a sunny day, the petals are edible, and they cut well for a casual arrangement. The retro bullseye look either delights people or does not; there is not much middle ground.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43056661364923,"sku":"CHR-PTD","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/chrysanthemum-painted-daisies-1.jpg?v=1790121346"},{"product_id":"sweet-william-indian-carpet-mixed-seeds","title":"Sweet William Indian Carpet Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe dwarf form, at 15 to 25cm instead of 45 to 60, and bushy with it. Same dense bicolour clusters and the same clove scent, on a plant small enough for the front of a border, a rockery, a path edge or a window box.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe bicolours in this strain are particularly vivid: red with white eyes, pink with crimson blotches, rose with pale centres, deep maroon edged in white. Nothing else easy to grow gives quite that palette of tightly packed two-tone clusters.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe trade-off is on the stem. At this height it is not a cutting flower; you get the scent by walking past it rather than by having it in a jug. If you want sweet william for the vase, grow the tall one.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt is a biennial, so the first year is leaves only and the flowering comes the second spring.\u003c\/strong\u003e Sow a short row each year to keep it coming. It self-seeds reliably once you have it, and the dwarf habit largely holds in the offspring.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43092099334331,"sku":"SWW-IND","price":2.15,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/20488002b0b77b0b4e8da17_upscale.jpg?v=1758898997"},{"product_id":"achillea-pastel-mix-seeds","title":"Achillea Pastel Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eA seed mix rather than a single variety, giving flat yarrow plates in apricot, peach, dusty rose, cream, soft yellow and pale lilac. Every plant comes out slightly different and the drift reads as one soft faded haze rather than a block of colour.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat is also the honest drawback. You do not get to choose what you get. Sow twenty and a few will be muddy, or so pale they barely register, and if you have set your heart on a particular apricot you would be better buying a named cultivar. Grown in a group and allowed to blend, though, the variation is the whole charm, and it is the achillea that sits most easily with roses, lavender and silver foliage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKeep it lean and sunny. Rich soil gives soft floppy growth and washes the colours out further. It is thoroughly drought-tolerant once the roots are down. For drying it is the pick of the yarrows, because the pastels warm and deepen as they dry into the vintage tones that are hard to get any other way.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44348202680507,"sku":"ACH-PST","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/C8B4383F-2085-4B46-ABBA-34E41F93BB6D.jpg?v=1774740709"},{"product_id":"strawflower-helichrysum-swiss-giant-mix-seeds","title":"Strawflower Swiss Giant Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eIf you grow one flower for drying, make it this. Fully double heads up to six centimetres across in scarlet, tangerine, gold, hot pink and white, on sturdy stems at 90cm to a metre.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat you are touching is not petal. The coloured parts are bracts, modified leaves, and they feel crisp and papery while the plant is still growing in the ground. That is why they keep their shape and colour for years rather than months. There is a quirk that catches people out, too: helichrysum is hygroscopic and responds to humidity, opening in dry air and closing in damp, so a dried bunch in a steamy kitchen will shut itself and open again when the room dries. That is the plant still doing what it evolved to do to protect its seed from rain.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePick when the buds are half open.\u003c\/strong\u003e They carry on opening as they dry, and a fully open flower often turns inside out or browns. Hang them somewhere warm, dark and dry. \u003cstrong\u003eGet the support in early, while the plants are young\u003c\/strong\u003e, because a metre of brittle stem cannot be staked after the fact. Full sun, lean soil and slightly dry conditions give the strongest colour.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43093617967291,"sku":"STR-HEL","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/strawflower-swiss-giant-mix-1.jpg?v=1790122324"},{"product_id":"foxglove-bishy-barnabee-mix-seeds","title":"Foxglove Bishy Barnabee Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eOur own house blend, put together from the foxgloves we grow and trial here at Salle Moor Hall Farm each year. Classic tall pinks, pure whites, soft purples and creams in one packet, so a single sowing gives you a whole cottage-garden display rather than a block of one colour.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eExpect spires of 1.5m and often more, with heavily speckled throats. Those markings are not decoration. They are landing lights, evolved to steer long-tongued bumblebees down the tube to the nectar, and on a warm June morning the plants are genuinely busy. Being a mix, it is a lottery, and that is the point of it; you will not know what any given plant is until it opens in its second year. If you need a specific colour, buy a named variety.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a biennial, so leaves the first year and flowers the second. Leave a few heads to ripen and it will keep a wandering colony going indefinitely.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEvery part of a foxglove is highly toxic and eating any of it can be fatal. Wear gloves to handle the plants, keep the seed away from small children, and do not plant it where pets or grazing animals can reach it.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43488051101883,"sku":"FOX-BBM","price":2.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/foxglove-bishy-barnabee-mix-1.png?v=1790121361"},{"product_id":"china-aster-peony-mix-seeds","title":"Aster Peony Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eDensely double incurved heads that mound into perfect rounded balls of 8 to 10cm, on sturdy 60cm stems, in a deliberately cool palette weighted towards violet-purple with pink and white running through it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the quieter of our two peony-flowered mixes. Where the Duchess series gives you a full riot of cottage colour, Peony Mix stays in the cool half of the spectrum, which makes it far easier to use in a considered arrangement and rather less cheerful in a border. If you want colour to lift a September bouquet, take the Duchess. If you want something that sits alongside silver foliage and grey stone without shouting, take this.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt flowers August to October, holds up to two weeks in a cool room, and is a half-hardy annual sown fresh each year. The heads are heavy enough to want support on an exposed site. Aster wilt is the one real risk with any Callistephus, so rotate them round the plot rather than returning them to the same bed, and pull and burn anything that collapses at flowering time.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44033712914619,"sku":"AST-PEO","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/Aster_Peony_Mix_1.jpg?v=1775774908"},{"product_id":"didiscus-madonna-mixed-seeds","title":"Didiscus Madonna Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe same lacy umbels as 'Blue Lace' in three colours instead of one: powder-blue, soft pink and white, on slender stems at 45 to 60cm above ferny foliage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor a cutting patch the mix is the more practical buy. You can pull the blues for a cool arrangement, the pinks for a warm one and the whites as a neutral, all off one row, and it makes a softer and more interesting alternative to a bed of ammi. Faintly scented in the evening, like its blue relative.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe same warning applies, and it is the important one. \u003cstrong\u003eDidiscus is Australian and needs warmth, sun and shelter to do anything worthwhile in Britain.\u003c\/strong\u003e In a cold exposed garden or a poor summer it stays small and flowers thinly. Give it the warmest, most sheltered bed you have. It resents root disturbance, so sow it where it is to grow, or raise it in deep modules and plant out without breaking the rootball. Half-hardy, flowering July to September. If it likes you, it is a flower people will ask about.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44114618253499,"sku":"DID-MAD","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/Gemini_Generated_Image_dbz58udbz58udbz5.png?v=1773875296"},{"product_id":"linaria-toadflax-seeds","title":"Linaria Fairy Bouquet Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eA rainbow in weeks. Masses of tiny snapdragon flowers barely a centimetre across, in cream, yellow, pink, rose, magenta, purple and white, many with contrasting throats, all on slim wiry stems above narrow grey-green leaves.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is the fastest hardy annual you can sow — eight to ten weeks from seed to a full flush of colour — which makes it the one to give a child or a beginner. Nothing builds confidence like a packet that delivers that quickly.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt 25 to 35cm it forms tidy mounds that suit the front of a border, a window box, a container, or a crack between paving. Grow it lean; rich ground gives you leaf and fewer flowers. Shear it back by half when the first flush fades and it will come again into autumn.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44233076342971,"sku":"LIN-FAI","price":1.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/Linaria_1.jpg?v=1781188130"},{"product_id":"larkspur-limelight-mix-seeds","title":"Larkspur Limelight Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe workhorse colour mix: carmine, dark blue, light blue, pale pink, lilac and rose on slender spires of 90 to 120cm, fully double and ruffled, flowering June through August. Every plant is slightly different, so a row reads as a tapestry rather than a block.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf you grow one larkspur for the cutting patch, this is the sensible choice. The mix gives enough range to build different arrangements from a single row, the stems hold seven to ten days in water, and the dried petals are the traditional wedding confetti.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo habits worth knowing. Cut the main central stem first, when about a third of its flowers are open, and the plant throws side branches with their own spikes, which extends the harvest by weeks. And unlike most hardy annuals it is hungry, so ground with well-rotted compost dug in gives noticeably thicker spires.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSow it covered rather than on the surface, because the seed needs darkness. Freeze the packet for a week first to break dormancy, and sow where it is to grow, since the taproot resents moving. All parts are toxic if eaten, so wash your hands after handling.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44266235330747,"sku":"LRK-LIM","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/larkspur-limelight-mix-6592357.jpg?v=1760750541"},{"product_id":"mesembryanthemum-harlequin-seeds","title":"Mesembryanthemum Harlequin","description":"\u003cp\u003eA low carpet of fleshy leaves covered in tiny transparent water cells that catch the light and genuinely sparkle, topped in sun by neon daisies in shocking pink, electric orange, apricot, yellow, magenta and cream, many with contrasting rings.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a South African coastal desert plant and it solves a specific problem: the baking gravel edge, the top of a sunny wall, the hanging basket that cooks. Nothing else flowers like this in ground that dry.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe flowers only open in sun.\u003c\/strong\u003e They track it across the sky and shut in the evening and on dull days, so a wet grey British week gives you a mat of sparkling foliage and no colour at all. If your garden is shaded or your summer is cloudy, this is not the plant. \u003cstrong\u003eThe other rule is not to water it.\u003c\/strong\u003e The leaves store their own supply and soggy roots will rot it faster than anything else. Plant it into poor, gritty, free-draining ground in full sun, water it in once, then leave it alone. It is frost-tender, so it cannot go out until late May or June.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44266240737467,"sku":"MES-HRL","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/20488005a6bdf0278d21f2f_upscale.jpg?v=1758899217"},{"product_id":"statice-mixed-seeds","title":"Statice Hipster Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe workhorse of the dried flower world, in deep violet, rose, apricot, yellow, blue and white on sturdy winged stems at 60 to 75cm. The stems have flat wings running down their edges, which is where the extra rigidity comes from.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe coloured part is not petal at all. It is papery calyx, which is why the flower feels crisp and dry while it is still growing in the ground, and why it holds its colour for years after cutting rather than for a season. Nothing else in the drying garden is as reliable.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePick when the buds are half open.\u003c\/strong\u003e They carry on opening as they dry, and stems picked fully open tend to turn inside out or brown. Strip the leaves, which do not dry, bundle loosely so air moves through, and hang somewhere warm, dark and dry. \u003cstrong\u003eThe darkness is not optional; ultraviolet light fades dried statice faster than anything else.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is half-hardy and cannot go out until late May or June. It germinates fast, in a week or two, and then wants full sun, lean soil and sharp drainage. Feeding it produces leaf at the expense of stems.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44282643579067,"sku":"STA-TIC","price":2.25,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/Gemini_Generated_Image_7whccy7whccy7whc.png?v=1773951185"},{"product_id":"larkspur-giant-hyacinth-mixed-seeds","title":"Larkspur Giant Hyacinth Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne massive dense spire per plant rather than a branching bunch of thinner ones. At 90cm the column is packed with flowers along its whole length like a giant hyacinth, in violet, lilac, pink, rose and white, and it is rigid enough to stand largely unaided.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat single-column habit is the trade-off. You get less total cut from a plant than from a branching variety like 'Giant Imperial', but what you get is architectural in a way the branching sorts are not, both in a border and in a tall arrangement. It is also the best larkspur for drying whole: the tight structure holds together through the process where an open branching spike drops petals. Cut when the lowest flowers are open and the top is still in bud, and hang in small bunches somewhere warm and dark.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSow it covered, in darkness, rather than on the surface, and give the seed a week in the freezer first if it has been stored warm.\u003c\/strong\u003e September sowing gives the tallest columns.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAll parts are toxic if eaten. Wash your hands after handling and keep it away from children and pets.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44333404160187,"sku":"LRK-GHM","price":2.35,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/larkspur-giant-hyacinth-mixed-flower-seeds-petal-shrub-933.jpg?v=1758899260"},{"product_id":"forget-me-not-victoria-mixed-seeds","title":"Forget-me-not Victoria Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe mixed form: clear blue, rose-pink and pure white on the same compact plants, flowering together from April to June at 15 to 20cm. Slightly tidier and bushier than the plain species, which is why it suits a container better.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhether you want the mix rather than the blue is a real question. Forget-me-not blue does something specific in a spring planting. It is a cold clear colour that makes tulips and wallflowers above it read more vividly. Break that up with pink and white and you get something prettier at close range and considerably less effective as a background. Use the mix where it will be looked at, in a window box or beside a path, and use the plain blue where it has a job to do under bulbs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a biennial, so sow May to July for flowers the following spring, and it self-seeds reliably with the colour mix mostly holding. Expect the same unlovely finish as any forget-me-not: mildewed grey plants by late June that want pulling out rather than admiring.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44346505265339,"sku":"FMN-MIX","price":2.1,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/IMG-0251.jpg?v=1776762150"},{"product_id":"wallflower-fair-lady-seeds","title":"Wallflower Fair Lady","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe pastel mix, and the most versatile wallflower in the range. Cream, lemon, gold, dusky pink, salmon, apricot and soft lilac, with bicolours where two shades run across a single flower, on uniform compact plants at 30 to 40cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhere 'Cloth of Gold' and 'Fire King' are single strong colours that dictate a scheme, this blends. It sits under pastel tulips and beside soft spring perennials without taking anything over, which is why it suits a considered planting better than the bold solid varieties. It carries the full clove wallflower scent regardless of colour, which is not always true of pastel selections. It is also the same plant that used to be sold as 'Persian Carpet'; the selection has not changed, only the name.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt is a biennial. Sow it in summer, grow the rosette through winter, and flower it the following March to May.\u003c\/strong\u003e Nothing happens in the first year.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAll parts are poisonous if eaten. Wear gloves to handle it.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44629026209979,"sku":"WAL-FRL","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/wallflower-fair-lady-4166905.jpg?v=1760750546"},{"product_id":"malva-mystic-merlin-seeds","title":"Malva Mystic Merlin","description":"\u003cp\u003eTall sturdy spikes at 1.2 to 1.5m, loaded with silky saucers in deep violet-purple veined with darker maroon. The colour shifts about depending on temperature and soil, running between indigo-purple and richer magenta, so the plant looks slightly different from week to week.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is the sensible alternative to a hollyhock. You get the same height, the same architectural spike against a wall, and none of the rust that makes hollyhocks a two-year battle. It is a short-lived perennial, three or four years, gaining size each season.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe dark colour needs company. On its own at the back of a border it reads as a shadow; put it against gold or orange, rudbeckia or a warm calendula, and the complementary contrast is about as strong as cottage planting gets. Flowers and young leaves are edible. The midsummer chop applies here too: cut it back by half when the first flush tires, or the plant goes woody and unproductive for the rest of the season. It self-seeds prolifically, and the seedlings will not all come back this dark.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44699694661819,"sku":"MAL-MST","price":3.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/FullSizeRender_0d47066e-7c21-4c5b-9ed3-caa8dbc5fdd0.jpg?v=1758899313"},{"product_id":"erigeron-karvinskianus-profusion-seeds","title":"Erigeron karvinskianus Profusion","description":"\u003cp\u003eThousands of tiny daisies, barely a centimetre and a half across, on a low tumbling mound of fine stems. They open white, age through soft pink to wine-purple, and because every flower is at a different stage the plant carries the whole progression at once and reads as a watercolour wash.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIts trick is making a garden look old. Scatter the seed into the cracks between paving, press it into the mortar joints of a wall, sow it into a gravel path, and within a couple of seasons you have curtains of daisies coming out of the stonework as though they had been there for decades. Nothing else does that job as well. It flowers from May until November, and in a mild year into December, which is one of the longest seasons of bee food in the garden.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe self-seeding that gives you the effect will also put it where you did not ask for it. Young seedlings are shallow-rooted and pull out with a finger, so it stays manageable if you keep on top of it and becomes a problem only if you leave it for a couple of years. It wants sun and sharp drainage, and a hard winter can cut it back in cold inland gardens.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44812553945275,"sku":"ERG-PRO","price":2.85,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/erigeron-karvinskianus-profusion-3848764.jpg?v=1760750557"},{"product_id":"dahlia-bishops-children-seeds","title":"Dahlia Bishops Children Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eGrown from the seed of the famous 'Bishop of Llandaff' and inheriting most of what makes it good: near-black bronze foliage, and open single or semi-double daisies in scarlet, tangerine, apricot and deep pink that look lit up against it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe economics are the argument. A named dahlia tuber costs the better part of ten pounds and gives you one plant. A packet of 'Bishop's Children' gives you a bed of them for less than that, at around a metre tall, flowering from midsummer to the frosts. At the end of the season you can lift the tubers, store them dry and frost-free, and replant bigger plants next spring, so the packet is a one-off cost.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeing seedlings, they vary. Most come with the dark foliage, but a proportion will be greener, and the flower colours are a lottery within the warm range. If you want uniformity, buy a tuber. What you get here instead is a bed of individuals. The open centres are worth noting too: bees and butterflies can actually use these, which is more than can be said for the densely packed show dahlias.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44841839689915,"sku":"DAH-BSH","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/B18A8F24-693F-42E0-9B72-B30124BF61B4.jpg?v=1761232046"},{"product_id":"foxglove-excelsior-mix-seeds","title":"Foxglove Excelsior Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe difference from a wild foxglove is where the bells sit. A wild plant hangs its flowers down one side of the stem. 'Excelsior' carries them all the way round, held out horizontally, so the spire is a dense even cylinder rather than a one-sided flag.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat gives you noticeably more flower per stem and a symmetrical, deliberate look at 1.2 to 1.5m, in cream, soft pink, deep rose and purple. It is the foxglove for a planting that is designed rather than allowed to happen, and for cutting, where a spire that looks the same from every side is worth having.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe flip side is that it loses some of the wild charm. If what you want is the plant that leans out of a hedge bank in June, the ordinary species does it better. The improved habit also softens over generations; self-sown offspring hold the colours reasonably well but drift back towards the one-sided wild arrangement.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEvery part of a foxglove is highly toxic and eating any of it can be fatal. Wear gloves to handle the plants and keep the seed away from small children.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45961913663675,"sku":"FOX-EXC","price":2.15,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/Gemini_Generated_Image_4579634579634579.png?v=1776107418"},{"product_id":"clary-sage-crown-bouquet-mixed-seeds","title":"Clary Sage Crown Bouquet Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe colour on a clary sage is not flower at all. Those vivid pink, indigo and white tops are coloured leaves, bracts sitting above the tiny true flowers, which are hidden inside and barely worth looking at.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat botanical quirk is why it is so useful. Leaf pigment does not behave like petal pigment. It does not bleach in sun, it is not knocked about by rain, and it holds for a fortnight or more in a vase and for years dried. A stem cut in July still has its colour at Christmas. Very little else in the hardy annual range gives you that.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo things to be clear about. This is Salvia viridis, the annual, not the biennial herbal clary Salvia sclarea, which is a different plant with a different smell and no colour in its first year. And being a mix, you get all three colours whether you want them or not; if you are planting a single-colour scheme, wait until the seedlings show their bract colour and sort them then. At 60 to 75cm the stems are strong and upright, and it flowers from June to October off one sowing. Bees work the hidden flowers hard.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46213836800187,"sku":"CLR-MIX","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/Clary_Sage_Crown_Bouquet.jpg?v=1789381215"},{"product_id":"candytuft-crown-mixed-seeds","title":"Candytuft Crown Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eDense domed clusters of tiny four-petalled flowers in white, soft pink, lavender, ruby-red and violet, on compact mounds of 25 to 30cm. When it is going, the flowers cover the plant so completely that you can barely see a leaf.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is the hardy annual that actually does what the packet promises. It germinates readily, tolerates poor dry ground and a bit of shade, and it is close to impossible to fail with, which makes it the one to give a child or anyone who has been put off by a row of nothing. There is a honey scent on a warm afternoon, and the flat clusters bring in butterflies, bees and hoverflies in numbers out of all proportion to the size of the plant.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe honest limitation is that each sowing flowers hard and then stops. Six or seven weeks of heavy bloom, then it sets seed and gives up, which is why a single spring sowing leaves a gap in August. Sow a short row every three or four weeks from March to June and you will have it through to September. It self-seeds gently, and the volunteers tend towards white and pale mauve rather than the reds.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46251871371451,"sku":"CND-CRW","price":2.4,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/Candytuft_Crown_Mixed.jpg?v=1789381509"},{"product_id":"nicotiana-sensation-mixed-seeds","title":"Nicotiana Sensation Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eTrumpet flowers in soft pink, deep rose, crimson, white and near-maroon on elegant stems at 80 to 100cm. During the day it is a pleasant enough border plant. At sunset it becomes something else, releasing a sweet jasmine-like scent that builds through the evening as the air cools.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe flower shape is built for hawk moths, which is why it opens as the light goes and closes again in bright morning sun. Plant it by a patio, a bench or an open window and the scent will come indoors.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUnlike most cottage annuals, this one is hungry. Cosmos and nasturtiums want lean ground; nicotiana wants rich, moist, well-fed soil with compost dug in, and it will be half the plant without it. The seed is dust-fine and needs light, so surface-sow it and do not cover, and be patient with the tiny seedlings. It is half-hardy and cannot go out until late May or June.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAll parts of the plant are toxic if eaten. Wear gloves to handle it and keep the seed away from children and pets.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53483015897465,"sku":"NIC-SNS","price":1.8,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/Gemini_Generated_Image_n0nlv5n0nlv5n0nl.png?v=1764259969"},{"product_id":"penstemon-cambridge-mix-seeds","title":"Penstemon Cambridge Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eSlender spikes of tubular foxglove-like bells in crimson, deep purple, bright pink and cool blue, most with a contrasting white throat, at 60 to 80cm. It starts in June and, deadheaded consistently, will often still be going in November and sometimes December.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat season is the whole argument for it. Lupins are over in June, delphiniums in July, and most perennials are winding down by August. Penstemon is only getting going, and the flowers in October are the same size and quality as the ones in June. It flowers in its first year from seed, which is unusual for a perennial. Deadheading is not optional: cut a spent spike back to the next healthy lateral bud and a new one replaces it in a fortnight, but stop and the plant turns to seed and the season closes early.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTwo things kill penstemon over winter, and neither is cold. The first is wet ground, so give it sharp drainage and add grit on clay. The second is autumn tidying. Do not cut it back in autumn; the old dry stems insulate the crown, and a plant cut hard back to bare soil is the one that does not come through. Leave the growth standing until April.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53487780987257,"sku":"PNS-CAM","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/50F2474B-002A-4A3C-9E28-692E1AC81114.jpg?v=1758900035"},{"product_id":"swan-river-daisy-seeds","title":"Swan River Daisies Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eTiny star-shaped daisies of two centimetres or so in mauve, blue, white and pink, above a cloud of fine fern-like grey-green foliage. At peak flowering the daisies cover the leaves completely, so what you get is a low mound of pastel with a misty quality nothing else quite matches.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt comes from Western Australia, and despite looking fragile it is drought-tolerant once established, which makes it far better in a hanging basket than its appearance suggests. There is a subtle sweet scent on a warm day.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo practical points. \u003cstrong\u003eThe seed is extremely fine, so mix it with a pinch of dry silver sand before sowing\u003c\/strong\u003e, or you cannot see where it has gone and it comes up in clumps. And \u003cstrong\u003epinch the growing tip out at 8 or 10cm.\u003c\/strong\u003e That single job is what turns it from a taller thin plant into the bushy mound that fills a container edge to edge. It is half-hardy and cannot go out until late May or June, and slugs go for it in the first fortnight. After that it looks after itself and flowers to October.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53487806775673,"sku":"SWN-RVR","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/3C0AF83F-2305-4901-BF51-0E07CE88E984.jpg?v=1773349923"},{"product_id":"china-aster-giants-of-california-seeds","title":"Aster Giants of California","description":"\u003cp\u003eHeads up to 12cm across, fully double and feathered like an ostrich plume, in deep purple, hot pink and clear violet on stems of 70 to 80cm. Where a standard peony-flowered aster gives you six to eight centimetres, this gives you double that.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt was bred in the flower fields around Santa Maria in California for the commercial cut trade, and everything about it reflects that: stronger stems, longer vase life and bigger flowers than a garden strain. Two weeks in a cool room is normal. It carries the Fleuroselect Quality Mark for garden performance and uniformity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe size is also the catch. A head that big on a stem that tall is top-heavy, and one wet windy night in September will have them on the ground unless they are netted or staked. Give them an open sunny spot with room around them. Like all the China asters they are half-hardy annuals sown fresh each year, and they are susceptible to aster wilt, so keep them moving round the plot rather than growing them in the same ground season after season. Flowering runs August to October.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53487807103353,"sku":"AST-GOC","price":2.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/files\/aster-giants-of-california-3982583.jpg?v=1760750435"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0576\/6004\/7547\/collections\/Linaria_1.jpg?v=1787839492","url":"https:\/\/www.bishybarnabeescottagegarden.com\/collections\/colour_mixed.oembed?page=4","provider":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd","version":"1.0","type":"link"}