The best bedding plants to add colour to your garden

Brighten up your outdoor space with a selection of beautiful blooms.

Best Bedding Plants

by Rosie Floyd |
Updated on

The best bedding plants will transform your outdoor space. They're a very versatile outdoor plant and can be used in borders, hanging baskets, pots and so much more.

If you're looking to spruce up your garden ahead of a summer of garden parties, BBQs and alfresco dining, these plants are ideal. Most bedding plants are annual, which means they only flower for one year and won't grow back afterwards. This will allow you more freedom to create different displays each year, depending on what type of flower or colour scheme you want. You can also get biennials or perennials which will last two or three years before you need to remove them.

Best bedding plants at a glance:

• Best orange blooms: Begonia x tuberhybrida 'Apricot Shades Improved' F1 Hybrid
• Best mixed bedding plants: Petunia 'Easy Wave Ultimate Mixed'
• Best purple bedding plants: Verbena 'Showboat Midnight'
• Best mixed Begonia bedding plants: Begonia 'Nonstop Mixed'
• Best daisy-like bedding plant: Osteospermum Serenity Pink Eyed Beauty

We've covered the best time to plan bedding plants and how best to care for them in our FAQs section. However, if you plant them at the start of the warm weather, you'll be able to enjoy them all throughout the summer season, with some still in bloom in early autumn, too. You can start caring for them as seeds or you can buy them as fully-fledged plants to enjoy in hanging baskets and window pots as soon as the hot weather hits.

Some of the most popular bedding plants are Begonias, Busy Lizzies and Perunias, but there are plenty more to choose from. That's why we've listed some of the best bedding plants you can buy online to be delivered to your door.

Best bedding plants for your garden

Best orange blooms

How gorgeous do these Begonia x tuberhybrida 'Apricot Shades Improved' F1 Hybrids look? These large, cascading double blooms will make your hanging baskets and window boxes really stand out with their varying shades of apricot and orange. They will offer an impressive display that will brighten up your outdoor space throughout the summer season.

Customer review: "These plants, are one of my favourites for putting in my hanging baskets, they always look beautiful"

Pros

  • Beautiful colours
  • Comes with two hanging baskets

Cons

  • Need to be planted in a sunny or semi-shaded position that is protected from strong winds

Best mixed bedding plants

Ready for despatch by the end of June, these Petunia 'Easy Wave Ultimate Mixed' are available in a pack of 15 or 30 so they're perfect for filling beds, containers, baskets and window boxes. If you're looking to add more colour to your garden, these are the bedding plants to do it as this mix contains eighteen different shades, ranging from solids to stripes and picotees.

Customer review: "Beautiful plants! Excellent quick delivery with well packed & no damage! Best service I’ve ever had"

Pros

  • Vibrant mix
  • Rapid growth

Cons

  • Need to be planted in full sun

Best purple bedding plants

Add a splash of purple to your pots, containers and hanging baskets with the Verbena 'Showboat Midnight'. Once mature, these jumbo seedlings have a mounding, arching habit with large flower heads, with velvety-deep purple petals flowering amongst mid-green foliage. They're ideal for growing in a greenhouse until they're ready for planting outside in a frost-free environment.

Pros

  • Delivered in plastic-free packaging
  • Good for bees

Cons

  • Need to be protected from hard frosts

Best mixed Begonia bedding plants

You can plant these Begonias in containers, hanging baskets or even in the ground, if you plant them in partial shade. They're weather-resistant blooms so they will withstand rain and shine, and they'll flower into autumn so you can enjoy them well beyond the height of the summer growing season.

Customer review: "Begonias gorgeous. Well packed and healthy plants."

Pros

  • Fully double flowers
  • Weather-resistant

Cons

  • Be careful not to over-water as this will cause new flower buds to drop

If you like the look of Begonia, we have a whole article dedicated to everything you need to know about buying and caring for Begonia bedding plants.

Best daisy-like bedding plant

The Osteospermum Serenity Pink Eyed Beauty are an African daisy-like flower that are compact growers that are perfect for patio pots, front of borders or planted along the edges of paths for lots of colour. It has butterscotch coloured petals that fade to a dusty pink towards the central eye. You'll be able to enjoy these blooms from early summer until the first frost of the year.

Pros

  • Flowers from June to September
  • Adds colour to your garden

Cons

  • Can be harmful to pets if eaten

Best Gazania bedding plant multipack

The incredible contrasting stripes of these Yougarden Gazania Tiger Stripes Plants and the fiery shades of orange and red of the blooms are sure to catch your eye as you admire your garden. These large, daisy-like flowers are supplied as 20 garden-ready plants so you can get to work putting them out as soon as they arrive at your door.

Pros

  • Eye catching colours and patterns
  • Arrive ready to plant

Cons

  • No customer reviews yet

Best blue and white flower bedding plant mix

Add a mix this mix of blue and white Brachyscome multifida to your garden to add a soft and pretty contrast to the surrounding greenery. Available from Sarah Raven, you can buy them as a pack of seeds to sow yourself or you can get them as seedlings or jumbo seedlings so they're ready to enjoy and plant when they arrive.

Pros

  • A more dainty-looking flower
  • In bloom from June to October

Cons

  • Need to be planted in a sheltered spot or under cover in a frost-free environment

FAQs

How do you care for bedding plants?

With the help of Thompson Morgan, we've got all the care tips you need for keeping your bedding plants in tip-top condition.

Newly planted bedding plants should be watered regularly. However, once established, they should only need deadheading from time to time and watering in prolonged periods of dry weather.

Plants grown in the ground won't require any extra feeding. Summer bedding plants in containers will normally have enough nutrients for six weeks of growth. After this time, they will benefit from a weekly feed with a balanced fertiliser.

What month is best to plant bedding plants?

The best time to plant bedding plants outside is around late May to early June so you can enjoy them in full bloom over the height of summer.

You should avoid planting bedding plants while there is any risk of frost as the low temperatures are extremely damaging. Freezing temperatures can affect the roots and cause them to die. If you are planting any biennials or perennials, you'll want to make sure you keep them covered over winter so they come back for the following year.

If you're growing your plants from seeds, you can start doing this from January to early April inside a greenhouse where the temperature and conditions are warm enough for the plants to thrive.

What to read next:

Our pick of the best plants for window boxes

Best large outdoor plant pots to give your plants space to thrive

The best plants for bees and birds in your garden

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Rosie Floyd is a Homes and Garden Product Writer for Modern Gardens, specialising in outdoor living. Before joining the team at Bauer, Rosie spent almost three years writing content for a garden buildings company so knows her stuff about garden sheds, rooms and offices and how to make the most of your outdoor space.

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