Big greenhouse what to grow..?

[chopper_j]

Hello everyone

I am mid way through my greenhouse project which will mainly be for vegetable growing in spring/summer..

However I can see some more use out of it by growing flowers and plants for the garden. We recently moved house and even though the garden is well looked after much of the plants in the herbaceous border are past their sales by date. Its around 15m * 2m deep so plenty of space

We would like to recreate something like this



I am useless with plant names but recognise some of them, can you tell me what the most are? Purple are iris, tall ones im not sure of..? Maybe some tulips in there..?

I read iris are bulbs, so that's easier but more expensive.. Any recommendations on what annuals or what we can grow from seed and to get this look Understand that may be too late for some bulbs but any that we can still plant for summer flowering would be great

Many thanks
James

[Kristen]

The fluffy shaped flowers at the front, with sword shaped leaves, are irises. The spiky flowers (mostly pink) are Lupins. The tall spiky yellow flowers might be Foxtail lily (eremurus), or they might be Delphinium just starting to come into flower.

Delphiniums are a worthwhile from-seed project. I suggest you get decent F1 seeds to get varieties that have good height, rather than just a me-too seed packet. From memory Nicky's Nursery sell a decent range of Delphiniums. They need some cold to germinate, so need sowing soon and experiencing cold during winter to encourage germination. You might get a lot out of them in their first year, they are a 2nd-year onwards project. if you want some mouth watering photos then Blackmore and Langdon would be the place to look ... best have your wallet locked up at the time though!

Problem with the photo you have shown is that most of those flowers are over early in the Summer, so you would also need to plan some other things with longer flowering periods, or some early and some late.

[WendyC]

Could the tall spires be verbascum? I would agree with Kirsten that, whilst the display is stunning, it will have limited flowering season. Under planted with other bulbs such as daffodils is one suggestion.