New blooms

With the weather warming up we start to spend more time outdoors admiring the greenery - so it's time to get stuck into a bit of fresh new planting.

There are some fabulous plants that will hit the nurseries now that will explode colour into your garden.

If you need some jazzy groundcovers there's a new selection of Colourwave Tapien verbenas out that are more disease-resistant and flower outrageously freely. You will not see the foliage for the flowers, which cover the plant from now until autumn.

My favourites are Verbena Purple Passion and Verbena Violet Passion side by side - it's a colour extravaganza.

In our humid Perth summers verbenas were highly susceptible to powdery mildew that usually knocked them off their perch. However, these smaller-leaved hybrids are tough, love full sun and will creep through the garden, softening the edges of walls and pathways with bold colours. They also look great in baskets or balcony pots.

If native plants are your passion the new Philotheca (previously known as eriostemon) Ruby Cascade is a great native for pots.

Gardening Australia's Angus Stewart has helped develop this new variety of philotheca, along with Merricks Nursery and Phillip Vaughan.

It's a bushing semi-weeping variety with red buds that open to pink and white flowers.

This is a more compact philotheca, growing to only 60cm high and about 1m wide, and will grow better in Perth with some afternoon shade or dappled light during the day.