This summer's star plant?

Esspee perhaps you need a hedgehog family!

It's been such a wonderful summer for flowers- my garden has never looked so colourful. I think I would nominate the petunias which are just stunning but I have to mention a form of Lobelia- not the blue stuff -which I bought online & is growing tall & in a variety of lovely colours- mauve, purple, pink, red etc. I have a vague feeling that they said it is a perennial too.

My garden is mainly hard landscaping less work involved and for coloured foliage and summer flowering I grow small shrubs less time consuming in their care than plants. My favourite is myrtus comunis which I learn royal brides have had in their bouquet.This year it has excelled itself sorry for the lack of a picture useless at sending photos and if it wasn't for summer could believe was covered in snow.

We are still waiting for our one surviving sunflower to flower and have to keep trimming the tree above it!

I have to say that my least favourite plants in my garden have always performed the best and longest.
Geum Totally Tangerine in my hot colour corner. They've even bloomed in the snow in former years. About mid July I chop them right back and within a week or two they're covered in flowers again. They'll carry on well into winter. Wish the more delicate Mai Tai would do as well but she's pathetic in comparison.
Can't post a photo as haven't found out how to do it.

My lovely Twisted Willow tree that lived for 5 -6 years in bigger & bigger tubs until I moved to my bungalow over 10 years ago. It was a couple of dead looking twigs with a few leaves when we planted it in my front garden. Now it has to have a regular 'haircut' from my gardener as it just does not seem to want to stop growing. Its catkins are beautiful in spring & then the leaves come in & the tree is truly wonderful, now as tall as my bungalow & every year is my pride & joy in my gardens!

My garden is full of slugs and snails so all my plants have to be fairly slug proof.
For impact the Begonias take top prize though having to lift them every year is getting to be a chore. Japanese anemones and Crocosmia lucifer are looking wonderful at the moment and cause no work but for flowering power and insect attraction perennial wallflowers have to get my nomination. With occasional deadheading once every flower on the stem has bloomed they flower from Spring through to the end of the year. Beautiful.

My beautiful cornflower, which is still going strong. It's the most gorgeous blue and the bees love it. The only drawback is that it needs regular dead-heading to keep it blooming.

Also New Guinea Impatiens.

My begonias, without a doubt, also a basket of pansies, bought at Dobbies.

Lovely photos Lisagran and CanadianGran. My favourite colour palate.

I once saw a huge tub full of million bells and it was beautiful, but I've never had much success growing them myself. Contrary to how I like larger Petunias to be planted I do like million bells in a variety of colours. My favourite trailing plant is Bacupa and I have some in a pot that comes back year after year.

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My lilac earlier in the summer, and my clematis now. Both went wild with blooms this year! Both photos are in the back garden.

In my front, I have mixed pots and I have to say the osteospermum have done really well. In the past I have had them bloom from the time I plant them well into fall.

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My clematis have done well this year - and still going strong! Sweet peas were lovely this year too - a lovely scent on warm evenings

Pelargonium Rozanne is still lovely ( recommended by another gransnetter) but it is the roses which have been wonderful, prolific blooms early on and now blooming again.

The lavender flowered very well too, despite the wet weather.

Shysal, absolutely beautiful

My million bells, in wall baskets with balcony pelargoniums, have been disappointing this year. It may be that they are double flowered, whereas last year's were single and more prolific. I used them instead of trailing lobelia which go over too soon.

The ‘million bells’ always do well, but this year the pelargoniums have been really good, ditto pink scabious and orange helianthemums.?

I've learned to love Petunias. But I don't like to see them with all different colours; just a tub of one solid colour. I've been away a lot this year and my Petunias have just looked after themselves. Also, having a new puppy that forages for anything they aren't poisonous like a lot of my favourite plants. I also love Sedums.

Our white and pink cosmos have been very nice this year. We dead head them regularly to keep the flowers going. Some have had to be staked because of all the rain this year and we might try dwarf ones next year.

My Judas Tree (Cercis) always sets seed but they say they won’t germinate in the UK. This year I have at least seven seedlings!

I love petunias, but haven't tried them yet here.
As I've said before, we moved last year from rural SW France to urban NE England, and I'm still discovering some of the differences. I know more about growing veg. than flowers.
The last owners of our house left some interesting plants.The main star up to now is crocosmia. I know it tends to be invasive, but the bright orange colour is cheerful.
We have some beautiful roses too. I cut off the dead blooms and they keep flowering.

Oh asters too, first year of growing, will certainly be repeating

shysal they are beautiful. Our petunias grown from seed have been good as have our dahlias

Funnily enough midgey I don't like Begonias, but when I admired the glorious orange cascading flowers in the hanging baskets at my local, I was amazed to be told that they were Double Begonia's! I have resolved to get some for next year