We usually associate summer with vibrant warm tones such as yellow, orange and red. But there are a lot of cool toned flowers that emerge during the hot season that can help give the garden a ‘cooling effect’. Jacaranda mimosifolia trees are in full bloom during the summer months and they have beautiful purple tubular blooms that appear in clusters atop of their fern-like foliage. Their soft delicate foliage and textured trunks make them a great feature and shade tree.
Another summer flowering plant is the Duranta repens, also known as the Geisha Girl shrub. Their flowers begin to bloom in late spring and continue to bloom until early autumn. Their star shaped flowers emerge on long Wisteria-like stands that reach up to 20-30cm.
A few other plants that give colour throughout the summer months are ground-covers Calibrachoa and Bacopa, pictured above. Cistus ‘Rockrose‘, pictured below, is an extremely tough and fast and low growing shrub that continuously flowers from spring through to late summer.
Until next time happy gardening!
By Bonnie-Marie Hibbs
©BMHPhotographyTheGardener’sNotebook2017
Purple blooms to make your garden cooler in summer
