Description
Delphiniums provide a soft and delicate show of livid colour to all mixed herbaceous borders and garden beds in late spring to early autumn. Best suited to temperate and cool to cold climates.
Butterfly Series: A shorter, tufted perennial Delphinium which grows to only a height and width of 45cm by 30cm. It is a fully frost hardy individual that flowers over a long period in summer and is ideal for rockeries, borders and pots.
Pacific Hybrids are stately and colourful perennials growing to height of 1.5 metres or more with star-like single, semi-double or double flowers of pink, blue, lilac and white clustered on erect rigid spikes.
Cultivation
Delphiniums are very frost hardy and prefer a winter that is cool to cold. They should be grown in full sun but with good shelter from hot dry winds in summer. Delphiniums should be planted in a well drained, limed and fertile soil that is rich with organic matter. Prepare the growing site by digging over the soil and adding a good handful of blood and bone or rich compost prior to planting out. Water in well at planting time and ensure that the soil is kept moist at all times there after. Plants will respond well to regular applications of liquid fertiliser and watering throughout the growing season. Immediately after flowering, feed the plants and cut the flowering stems right back to the ground to encourage them to send up another round of flowering stems. Protect them from snails and slugs.