BallColgrave, one of the UK's main suppliers of bedding plant seed and plants the nursery industry introduced this new petunia at the Four Oaks Trade Show last week.
Petunia Black Velvet is the nearest to a true black that you are liable to find in petunias and will be great contrasted against lighter coloured bedding. Look out for it in your local garden centre next spring.
The bad weather in August really ruined my Petunia sophistica Lime Bicolour in the hanging cones. They don't like rain very much as it damages the flowers and also causes weak growth that breaks. I bit the bullet and cut them right back. Now less than a month later they back flowering and looking good.
The Grapes in Limehouse, East London is a famous old pub. Charles Dickens stayed there and wrote some of his famous works. Today it's just a great riverside pub but it also tends some amazing hanging baskets in modern crazy colours. Just great.
Blog posted here.
With all the plants we can now choose for summer bedding it is easy to forget that sometimes simple works better. These red geraniums planted in mass show real style. Yardz photographed them at Canary Wharf in London. All the beds around the main buildings and in the small garden areas are massed with geraniums - great style and so easy to do.
Blog posted here.
Great style. Great Colours. Made from lightweight aluminium, these stackable Ice Chairs designed by Kasper Salto are perfect to use both inside and out. They are available in nine funky colours and are guaranteed to put colour on your patio even if the sun doesn't shine!
Just love this Finnish Kiikku Planter. It's on the same lines as the Allotment Ladder that yardz. posted about last autumn. The Kiikku though has a lot more style.
The ladder is about 4'/120cm long and about 6"/15cm wide. It tilts gainst any wall and supports four black or white vitrous porcelain pots. In Finnish Kiikku means 'swing' and the pots do indeed swing upright no matter what angle you lean your ladder.
Expanding on the popular Overscale Candles he designed for B&B Italia, Jean-Marie Massaud has designed his Overscale Flames. Taller and more sculptural, the Flames are designed to create ambience on the ground, not on the table. Use these ceramic, oblong forms to bring a flicker of light and a cool, modern serenity to your yard.
'This large vertical oil candle is made from painted fiberglass with an anodized aluminum nozzle. The outer is formed by several layers of fiberglass impregnated with epoxy resin.
The product is stove enameled with special non-scratch paints. Jean-Marie Massauds is well known for his collection of candles supported by a metal cage. The body is handmade with the help of a mould, there is a tank fixed inside the body for the fuel with a maximum capacity of 500ml.'
Inspired by a 'wheelie-bin', 'The Buzz' is the new way to heat your patio/deck. Designed by Dutch designer Kees Marcells, who wanted the focal point to be the flames.
The fire comes with ceramic logs and generates radiant and convected heat at an output of 9kw running on propane gas bottles.
American Landscape architect Raymond Jungle designed this rooftop garden for a client in Miami.
The divider made from natural ipe wood slats is stunning. Making a feature of dividers within a small space is often better than trying to disguise any division with plants and climbers.
Why not put a bit of exoticism in your yard this autumn. Fascicularia bicolor is a terrestial bromeliad that comes from the coastal forests of Chile. It is hardy though in most southern areas of Britain.
They have spiky dark green foliage but their main feature is their stunning flowers formed by some of the leaves turning bright crimson around the central flower. They flower from late summer through autumn so would make excellent container bedding especially if combined with the bright colours of Miracle cyclamen.
