A gorgeous combination of cream, yellow, orange, copper and red flowers on trailing, clambering stems

I first saw these vine nasturtiums hanging down from a fourth floor London balcony, like the impressive tresses of a red-haired Rapunzel. On and off over the years I’ve grown the compact bush nasturtiums, in pots, or as annual fillers, but this year since the pond and cascade part of the garden was/is still a work in progress I opted for the trailing variety, which can reach up to 10 feet and cover a multitude of blank spaces!

In early summer, it was necessary to have left a significant amount of the garden unplanted in order to access the pond for plumbing as well as to mortar the gaps in the cascade. Once done, I figured the nasturtium vines would mature enough to trail along and fill that vacuum for the rest of the season. They surpassed all expectation, and more, even reaching down and over the lower pond. The foliage looking very much like lily pads whilst the long stems hid a multitude of pipework.

Planted directly into the garden in early April, I went around like Johnny Appleseed dropping them along and into the wall of the vegetable bed and at the top of the cascade garden. Given that nasturtiums hail from South America, I was surprised that they did as well as they have, since the past summer has been predominantly cooler and wetter. Although they prefer poor, dry, sandy soils, my clay soil evidently did not deter their enthusiasm.

And in the vegetable section of the garden I assumed they would act as sacrificial plants for blackfly and cabbage white caterpillar infestations but this year there is little or no sign of either on any plant. Instead they were a draw for bumblebees, coming to glean what little pollen there is to be had in the fringed hearts of these nectarless blooms.

Flame-flower, Day-torch, Mauna Loa,
I saw a daring bee, today, pause, and soar,
Into your flaming heart;
Lines to a nasturtium ~ Anne Spenser

These nasturtiums may be ubiquitous, easy to grow annuals but I love them them not least for that fabulous flower form and despite the plethora of blooms, would still be stopped in my tracks by one or other of the reds, orange, peach or yellow flowers.

It’s worth picking a few stems for kitchen flower arrangements. They keep fresh and decorous for days and are then on hand to use use both leaf and flower in salads, fish, and rice dishes. Piquantly peppery, they are best used sparingly, unlike Nasturtium officinale, the leafy green watercress which I like to consume in quantity!

Tropaeolum majus is definitely worth growing again next year when the pond is up and running though I shall be more conservative with the amounts since by the end of the summer, I could barely access the runner beans to harvest. Having cut the plants back to more manageable proportions there is still plenty of long flowering stems to enjoy through these early Autumn days before the frosts.