Your own rhapsody in blue: Delphiniums are loved by the king - here's how to share his great passion

Affectionately now known as 'Delphinium Dad', Colin Parton planted a garden full of delphiniums as a tribute to his late wife Julie.

Sadly, she had passed away in 2014 and he set about creating that garden in her memory.

Colin started collecting Delphinium elatum and now has a collection of more than 100 cultivars.

His Delph Cottage Garden, near Leeds, has been awarded the distinction of National Plant Collection status by the preservation charity Plant Heritage.

The garden boasts spires of delphs in purple, blue, pink, and white, including some rare cultivars such as 'Bambi', 'Boudicca' and 'Taj Mahal'.

Famously, delphiniums are the favourite bloom of King Charles , and grace the back of the borders of the Kitchen Garden at Highgrove.

'For me, the gloriously apparelled delphinium with its impeccable bearing and massed in platoons, holds pride of place in my botanical affections,' the King has said via the Royal Family X account.

These stately flowers are at their best in June and July when they are a cottage garden favourite, but now is the time to start planning for next year's display by preparing the ground.

If they have finished blooming you should now cut down the flowering spikes to the ground. You can also mulch around the plant which will die back over winter to reemerge next spring.

'If I'm planting a bed of delphiniums, I will dig that in the autumn, including loads of organic matter,' says Colin.

Even if you are adding individual plants to an existing border, it is still a good idea to dig a hole, fill it with 'plenty of muck' and leave it over the winter before planting in the spring.

When the new growth comes up, you need to be vigilant for slugs, he warns. Most nights he is out in his garden with a bucket handpicking slugs and relocating them.

It is the growing tip of the plant you need to watch out for. Support is crucial for these tall plants. Once a plant is in, Colin places three canes around them in a triangle and continues tying it up as it grows.

It is also important to thin them out. Some of the older varieties might send up 20 or 30 shoots in the spring and these need to be reduced to around five to avoid ending up with weedy looking spikes.

Colin feeds his delphiniums throughout the growing season, starting off with a high nitrogen mix and moving on to a potash feed.

They don't like to get wet so if you are on clay or heavier soil, incorporate grit at the bottom of the planting hole and make sure to elevate pots off the ground over winter. 'They'll stand the cold, but not the wet,' he advises.

He keeps his 'old boys' going by propagating every year. He does this in spring, taking cuttings from the base of the plant where it is attached to the crown, so the stem is solid and not hollow.

He roots them in plastic cups filled with a bit of sharp sand in the bottom topped up with water in his greenhouse.

If there is a frost, he covers the cuttings with horticultural fleece. 'I've tried all sorts, but this is dead easy, you could root them in your conservatory or a windowsill.'

You can also grow them from seed. It is best to remove the main flower spike before it sets seed to conserve energy to put back into the plant for next year, but you can take seed from flowering side shoots.

If you sow them in spring, they will flower in early autumn in their first year before reverting to the normal flowering time.