I’m a gardening pro…my simple planting trick will make your garden look bigger and brighter – and it costs nothing

IT can be difficult to find imaginative ways of injecting colour into your garden all year round.

Perennials are a great way of bringing back the same planting scheme – you know what’s coming, they’re mostly reliable and nicely predictable.

But if you fancy changing up your colour scheme, or the whole vibe of your outside space from year to year – then annuals and bedding plants are the way forward.

If you buy plug plants or even more established ones that go straight into the ground – there’s no worrying about finding space to sow seeds undercover – and praying for them to sprout.

And if you go to a gardening centre – or even to your local supermarket like Lidl or Tesco’s – it also means you can choose the best and healthiest version of the plant on sale – in the best condition.

Plus they’re often cheap.

You know what the exact colours are going to be in advance – you can see them right in front of you – which will help with any particular scheme you want – from tropical to cottage garden.

And you can make sure they’re placed in a perfect position for your plans.

When picking a colour scheme – designers often suggest that you plant bright reds and yellows closer to the house – which makes the garden feel bigger.

And paler blues and pinks should go towards the end of the garden, to make it feel longer.

At Gardeners World Live! last week – growers and nurseries entered a huge range of plants into the ‘best in show’ competition.

To enter, plants must be new varieties, colour breaks or have characteristics that improve on an existing variety.

And unsurprisingly, the Annuals and Bedding category had the highest amount of entries.

The category winner was HYDRANGEA macrophylla First Editions® Eclipse® – which also took home the Peter Seabrook award for Best New Plant.

It’s actually a perennial, and has dark foliage and contrasting cherry rimmed blooms, centred in lime.

The deep purple – almost black – disease-resistant foliage maintains its colour all season. And it looks as good as it sounds in the flesh.

The panel of plant and nursery experts were so impressed with that particular category, it selected a list of top ten colourful bedding plants to look out for.

These included a new bright red Salvia called Rockin Red Flamingo and two Petunias – including one called Painted Love and one called Yellow Morn.

There was also a Madagascar Periwinkle that goes by the name of ‘Soiree White’, an African Daisy called ‘Tradewinds Yellow’ and a Coleus, that has the Latin name Plectranthus Skeletal – which has amazing fishbone shaped leaves with red centres.

For a full list of winners visit www.bbcgardenersworldlive.com

Although most of these cultivars won’t be in the shops until next year – you can find various versions of them for under £10 at Homebase.

You can currently get a very vibrant Salvia Turbo Red for £4.50 which looks great in the garden.

While Gardening Express has an African Daisy (Osteospernum) called Linda Pink – for £1.99.