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Urban Flowers

Urban Flowers by Carolyn Dunster

In the book garden designer Carolyn Dunster demonstrates hundreds of ways to make your outdoor space bloom and bring that success into your home. By using her colour-themed planting recipes, her charming projects, and a palette of reliable urban plants, you can turn the least promising corner into a thriving habitat for plants and wildlife which you can then use to decorate your home.

Doesn’t that sound fabulous?

 

 

urban flowers

 

To coincide with the book launch Carolyn has very kindly written us a fabulous guest post sharing us her top 5 tips on Urban Gardening. Over to Carolyn…

 

Urban flowers –  KEEP IT SIMPLE

If you only have a tiny space keep it as streamlined and uncluttered as possible.  Stick to a single material for your boundaries and paint any fencing or trellis in the same colour. If in doubt a muted green always works well as a backdrop that blends in with all types of planting.

Use the same hard landscaping material throughout and spend as much as you can afford.  A seamless finish looks chic and will tie the space together. Have paving slabs or bricks laid professionally.  The detail is incredibly important in a small space. The landscaping will be permanent and expensive to change and bad workmanship always sticks out like a sore thumb. Pea shingle or gravel bought from a builders’ yard is the most practical and least expensive solution if you want to do it yourself and will disguise a multitude of sins.

 

Urban flowers in pots

If you are gardening in pots use several matching statement planters or even a single planter for high impact rather than lots of  mall ones. Repetition helps to create a well-thought out space that is easy on the eye. If you want to change things around do so with your planting and embrace the seasons.

 

 

Love orchids in pots – so exotic!  Here’s a full list of the best flowers for pots.   I do love sunflowers in pots too. If you love sunflowers check out these fab sunflower quotes

Annual flowers – Urban Flowers

Sowing your own annual flowers and half-hardy perennials is the way to garden on a small scale at low cost that results in high yield in terms of flower productivity. When planning your planting restrict the colour palette to complementary tones and hues rather than those that contrast. For example for a selection of summer flowering plants that will give you plenty to pick in colours ranging from pinks through to dark burgundies include a variety of geraniums, astrantia such as Ruby Wedding and Ruby Cloud, cornflowers such as Black Ball , pink and black opium poppies, pink scabious and cosmos and dark claret coloured sanguisorba.

Add a rose and a peony if you have space. All these varieties will provide you with enough flower heads for gorgeous hand-tied posies that you can pick for your home or give to friends. Just include a selection of evergreens such as euphorbias, bupleurum and some ferns to provide year-round foliage.

 

Embrace the maintenance of urban flowers

A little regular titivating that includes weeding and dead heading will keep your space neat and tidy at all times. Set aside the few same hours every week or ten mimutes at the end of each day to potter around your space. It is great therapy and hugely rewarding to grow your own flowers.  Remember too to simply sit and look at your accomplishments  – get to know your flowers and watch them bud and bloom they are nothing short of miraculous.

 

You can find Carolyn’s website at www.urban-flowers.co.uk

Do take a look at my post on the benefits of flowers

and also at my post on floristry courses

You might also like my post on simple Spring flowers

 

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45 Comments

  1. April 19, 2017 / 4:51 pm

    I lov tulips they are just really cheerful and bright

  2. Alison Riley
    April 19, 2017 / 2:30 pm

    My favourite flowers are tulips!

  3. Natalie Crossan
    April 19, 2017 / 1:46 pm

    Daisies are mine xxx

  4. Maria Jane Knight
    April 19, 2017 / 8:54 am

    I love Stocks, Bluebells and Sunflowers

  5. Karen Painter
    April 19, 2017 / 4:25 am

    Roses and Scented Lilies

  6. denise s
    April 19, 2017 / 3:52 am

    peonys and echinaceas

  7. James Holyland
    April 18, 2017 / 11:36 pm

    Large white roses

  8. Jessica Hutton
    April 18, 2017 / 9:37 pm

    Lilly’s and daffodils. They are beautiful xx

  9. Emma Davison
    April 18, 2017 / 8:49 pm

    Lilies

  10. Diana
    April 18, 2017 / 8:21 pm

    Sunflowers 🙂

  11. Katy Malkin
    April 18, 2017 / 6:27 pm

    Lilies are my favourite. I also love wildflowers in the garden.

  12. Sue Dorking
    April 18, 2017 / 4:41 pm

    That’s difficult but I love sunflowers, they’re just so happy!

  13. Karen R
    April 18, 2017 / 7:29 am

    I love snowdrops 🙂

  14. Jane H Shaw
    April 18, 2017 / 6:48 am

    I love iris and bluebells, beautiful thanks

  15. Andrew Hindley
    April 18, 2017 / 6:09 am

    My favorite flower is the Pink Carnation

  16. Katie W
    April 17, 2017 / 4:24 pm

    bluebells

  17. Maxine G
    April 16, 2017 / 4:06 pm

    Sweetpeas for their fragrance and sunflowers for their sheer exuberance!

  18. Lesley Bradley
    April 16, 2017 / 3:05 pm

    That’s a hard question to answer! I love freesias, they smell divine!

  19. Rich Tyler
    April 15, 2017 / 9:29 pm

    Sunflowers, big, bright, beautiful

  20. Suzanne Jackson
    April 15, 2017 / 3:18 pm

    I love sunflowers

  21. Lindsay Lumsden
    April 14, 2017 / 3:21 pm

    I love violas in pastel shades ?

  22. April Alder
    April 12, 2017 / 11:52 am

    Snowdrops

  23. Jo Carroll
    April 11, 2017 / 10:08 am

    I’ve always loved roses as they come in so many different varieties…shapes, sizes, colours, scents and textures from the single soft smooth stemmed to the thorned, bushy garden rose. x

  24. Solange
    April 10, 2017 / 2:11 am

    Roses

  25. Sofie
    April 9, 2017 / 10:04 pm

    My fave flower is fuchsias

  26. Shannon O'Donnell
    April 9, 2017 / 1:21 pm

    I love lavender and tulips

  27. CJ Macmanus
    April 8, 2017 / 10:32 pm

    Gladioli 😀

  28. leanne weir
    April 8, 2017 / 9:44 pm

    Has to be roses

  29. Kerry Taylor
    April 8, 2017 / 8:28 pm

    Tulips, I just love them. I have lots of different varieties growing in my garden!

  30. Helen W
    April 8, 2017 / 5:52 pm

    I love dahlias. I like the shape because they remind me of pom poms, and they come in so many beautiful colours.

  31. Lisa Parker
    April 8, 2017 / 4:53 pm

    I love seeing wild Poppies in my garden. Not just the red ones as I have some lovely orange poppies that bloom every year.x

  32. Alexandra oliver
    April 8, 2017 / 12:14 pm

    I love the faces on pansies 😀

  33. Mark Palmer
    April 8, 2017 / 8:28 am

    orchids

  34. Claire Nutman
    April 8, 2017 / 8:21 am

    Lilies are so beautiful i love them x thanks

  35. Heather Simpson
    April 8, 2017 / 7:57 am

    Tulips, they just remind me sp[ring is on the way

  36. Fiona King
    April 8, 2017 / 7:56 am

    Yellow roses are my favourites

  37. stuart hargreaves
    April 8, 2017 / 7:39 am

    I love marigolds start of the better weather to come

  38. Jo Hutchinson
    April 8, 2017 / 1:13 am

    I love bluebells, violets and big daisies.

  39. Sarah Ann
    April 7, 2017 / 9:56 pm

    I love tulips – they always make me smile!

  40. kim jackson
    April 7, 2017 / 8:38 pm

    i love carnations 😀 simple but pretty

  41. Hayley F
    April 7, 2017 / 7:54 pm

    love daffodils as they make me smile x

  42. Amanda tanner
    April 7, 2017 / 6:22 pm

    Lilly’s are my favourites

  43. Tracey Peach
    April 6, 2017 / 5:48 pm

    So many lovely flowers it’s hard to just some out above the others. I love rose bushes heather’s & lupins for a random mix 🙂 x

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