June Flowers: Stunning Plants for Your Summer Garden

June is the peak month in many gardens, with late spring bloomers overlapping with summer-flowering perennials and shrubs to create a dazzling display that incorporates many of our favourite flowers.

Early summer is when our gardens typically look their best. Most plants are in their prime and while the weather is warm, we haven't hit drought conditions. Many popular cut flowers bloom this month, including roses, delphiniums, sweet peas, peonies and alstroemeria, allowing you to fill your home with bouquets of stunning flowers, many of which you can't buy in the shops.

June is a brilliant time to look around the neighbourhood or visit professional gardens to spot plants you may want to grow at home. It's hard to choose a top five from the vast range of plants that flower in June, but I've picked some of my favourites and their perfect companions below.

Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant' – June Flower of the Month

Nepeta (catmint) is a deservedly popular drought-tolerant perennial with lavender-like flowers. Its long flowering period makes it a reliable backdrop for feature flowers that bloom briefly at different times throughout the summer. As the name suggests, Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant' is one of the largest nepetas, growing to a metre in height. This makes it a useful companion for taller perennials, and its relaxed habit particularly complements structured flowers, such as foxgloves, delphiniums and echinacea. 

Nepeta responds well to the "Chelsea chop": cut it back in late May or early June, give it a good feed and water and it will pop up with a second flush of flowers. It's not essential to prune it like this, but it gives the bush a neater, more compact habit. If you have multiple plants in a bed, you may want to chop some and leave others to flower naturally.

Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant' is our plant of the month for June, and you can get 25% off when you buy it this month.

Plant it with…

Digitalis 'Dalmatian Peach': Peachy foxgloves and lavender-blue nepeta was one of my favourite plant combinations from this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Nepeta adapts better than lavender to the moist soils foxgloves prefer, and this pairing would particularly suit a border that gets some shade at the back but a lot of sun at the front.

Achillea 'Terracotta': The flat, burnt orange flowerheads of this achillea are a beautiful contrast to the vertical flower spikes of the nepeta. Both achillea and nepeta are drought tolerant once established, and this pairing is a great option for a sun-soaked border.

Geum 'Totally Tangerine: I can't not include the classic cottage garden combination of nepeta and geums. Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant' will overwhelm more diminutive geums, but the stately stems of 'Totally Tangerine' match it for size, ensuring the two complement each other.

Rosa 'Arthur Bell'

Roses are June's birth flower and one of the most beautiful sights in the garden this month. Rosa 'Arthur Bell' is a stunning yellow floribunda rose that flowers all through the summer and autumn, up until the first frost in October or November. The fragrant flowers start out golden yellow, fading to lemon yellow and then cream as they age, giving a wonderful varied display. Plant Rosa 'Arthur Bell' in a bed, border or large pot in full sun.

Floribunda roses are easy to grow and prune – for detailed pruning information, consult our guide to pruning roses. Roses thrive when planted with other plants as part of a biodiverse border. Purple and blue flowers offer a striking contrast to the yellow roses. 

Plant it with…

Salvia 'East Friesland': Salvias help prevent blackspot on roses and their thin flower spires contrast nicely with the fuller blooms of roses. This variety, also known as Salvia nemorosa 'Ostfriesland' has violet blue flowers and pink bracts. 

Geranium 'Rozanne': The low, mounding habit of hardy geraniums disguises the base of the rose, but doesn't obscure the flowers. Geranium 'Rozanne' is renowned for being particularly robust with a long flowering period.

Clematis 'Multi Blue': Grow this large-flowered clematis up a trellis behind or next to Rosa 'Arthur Bell' for a dual display of spectacular blooms.

Delphinium 'Highlander Bolero'

Delphinium 'Highlander Bolero' is a versatile, easy-to-grow delphinium with spikes of tightly packed, frilly double flowers in shades of blue and purple. This mid-sized delphinium grows to about a metre, making it ideal for the front or middle section of a border. You can also grow it in pots to add cottage garden charm to courtyard and patio gardens. The dramatic flower spikes have sturdy stems and make a wonderful cut flower.

The Highlander series of delphiniums is bred in Scotland, and is renowned for being robust, hardy, and disease and deer resistant. As they're more compact than other delphiniums, you don't need to worry about staking them. Simply plant Delphinium 'Highlander Bolera' in well-drained soil in sun or partial shade and deadhead spent flower spikes to get a second flush of flowers.

Plant it with…

Alstroemeria 'Moon': This compact Peruvian lily has purple-centered white flowers that beautifully reflect the colours of the taller delphinium. Plant it at the front of a border or in pots alongside Delphinium, 'Highlander Bolero'.

Phlox 'Famous Light Pink': Phlox is an ideal partner for delphiniums. This cultivar has clusters of fragrant pink flowers that bloom throughout the summer, long after the dramatic flower spikes of the delphinium have faded.  

Paeonia 'Alexander Fleming': This magnificent peony flowers in June and July, and its large, pink, ruffled blooms are a wonderful counterpart to the upright purple-blue delphinium flowerheads. 

Lonicera 'Gold Flame'

Honeysuckle is the second birth flower for June, so it would be remiss of me not to include one of these fragrant climbers in my list of June flowers. Lonicera 'Gold Flame' is a particularly stunning cultivar with vivid pink and orange flowers that bloom from June to August. It's the perfect climbing plant to train over a pergola or up a wall or trellis next to a patio, where you can enjoy its highly scented flowers.

Lonicera × heckrottii 'Gold Flame' flowers best in sun or partial shade. In an ideal world, it would have its roots in the shade and its flowers in the sun, but it's pretty adaptable. Make sure you train the stems horizontally to get flowers along the length of the branches and not just at the tips. Unlike other honeysuckles, Lonicera 'Gold Flame' doesn't naturally twine, so you'll need to tie it into its support. 

Plant it with…

Clematis armandii: Like honeysuckle, clematis prefers a sunny spot with a shady base. This evergreen variety is shade tolerant and flowers in March and April, offering interest before Lonicera 'Gold Flame' gets going.

Sambucus 'Black Beauty': The deep purple foliage of this elder shrub beautifully complements the green leaves and bright flowers of the honeysuckle. Sambucus 'Black Beauty' flowers earlier in the season, producing clusters of scented pink flowers.

Coreopsis 'Solar Mellow': This easy-to-grow perennial is a great plant to brighten up the area around the base of a climbing honeysuckle. Coreopsis flowers from June through to October.