Alstroemera - A Top Ten Plants List Contender
Name your TOP TEN GARDEN PLANTS for a 4-seasons garden – (excluding vegetables and herbs)?
Ok. It could be open to misinterpretation depending upon your point of view. You might list for example, your favourite bulb, favourite climber, favourite shrub perhaps but would they really end up being your top ten garden plants? Put it another way, if you could only have ten species of plants in your garden throughout the whole year, which plants would you choose – be they in the ground or pots or both.
It’s a tough one when you think about it. I like agapanthus a great deal and my love for them shows with over thirty varieties in my garden. Unfortunately, in many parts they can take a long time to flower and in a ‘cool year’ may not flower for more than 3 weeks before the onset of cooler nights. And, they must have one of the most uniteresting foliage of any plant – so I had to kick them in to touch. They couldn’t be amongst my top ten garden plants.
Alstroemeria
Alstroemeria would also be included in my list. Somewhat underrated here in the UK, I reckon their exotic look and colour in the border ‘can’t be beat’ – anywhere. Mine came through -10C this winter unscathed so they’re pretty tough too! They do suffer from wind and can come down like dominoes by the morning unless you take proper precautions which are easy to do and highly effective (I’ll explain later in another post). Alstroemeria flower for months on end – once you’ve cultivated a group of them – say a table-top’s worth. Then, they just keep on coming! Only NEVER cut an alstroemeria stem because in time their flowering will gradually reduce. Instead, they must be pulled out, and they give only a little resistance before letting go – when they’re ready.
Clematis - A Top Ten Plants List Contender
Clematis
The plant that must surely be in everybody’s top ten must be clematis. This highly-sought after group contains flowers just half an inch across right up to some real beauties 6-7 inches across (160mm). With judicious use of both plant choice and location it’s possible to have clematis in flower from May through to November in an English garden. Clematis will also give your garden the advantage of greater height.
Sambucus
I couldn’t really choose between the Sambucus and Viburnum. Both offer good stature and dense flowering shrubs in early summer and medium-sized trees. But in this ten-species all-seasons garden plant list I wanted a dark foliage and Sambucus delivers. Sambucus racemosa ‘Plumosa Aurea’ has golden-yellow palmate foliage but the accolades tend to be collected by the flowering S. nigra.
Eleagnus - A Top Ten Plants List Contender
Eleagnus
Many people might scoff at my listing eleagnus amongst my top ten garden plants. But wait! For a tough plant, that can either stand on its own as a single specimen (Eleagnus Frederickerii for example) or become a foil and protection for others – such as Eleagnus greenii – it’s hard to beat. Nor do Eleagnus suffer from dehydration and wind burn like many conifers. With their small leaves clematis grow through them with ease, providing varied colour throughout the whole year.
Fuchsia
The magallenica group provide the majority of hardy outdoor Fuchsia shrubs offering cacades of pink, red and cream through the summer until almost the first frost. But Fuchsias really come to the fore when they’re in containers – in baskets and pots-on-terraces. If you can protect them from long hours of harsh sunlight and provide copious amounts of feed and water, simply pop 3-5 plugs (up to 3xbush plus 2xtrailers) into a container and stand well back! In just one season they will amaze you.
Rose
Everyone loves a rose! They offer a bewidering variety and some strains originating way back with ancient Persians and Greeks have barely changed (Rosa gallica for instance). Wherever it may be, a rose never fails to provide a unique splash of fabulous colour – in the border or running rampant and glorious over a wall or through a trellis and even cascading down a ‘terracotta pot waterfall’. The rose is just so versatile, we can forgive it its ‘black spot’ – literally! Speaking of which, I’ve bought more roses than I own (no surprise there!). But I’m intolerant of keeping a rose, indeed any plant, that doesn’t perform so the roses I do have, I’ve found through experimentation to work well for me. It really pays to experiment with roses – but there worth it!
Geranium
Few border plants can cover ground like a geranium. From almost nothing they seem to sprout wings, cascading over paths or smothering their smaller neighbours like almost nothing else. Then they flower. Seen en masse they offer a memorable display. Cut them back with shears as soon as the first flowers are over and you should have enough time for a second show.
Dahlia - A Top Ten Plants List Contender
Dahlia
Dahlias offer hard-to-beat vivid summer colour, slow to start they may be, but once they get going they keep on going, And, I hasten to add, in many locations dahlia plants will do better planted deeper and left in the ground! Sure, in borderline areas in higher latitudes or at altitude they do need more protection, but I reckon you’ll find them hardier than most gardening texts suggget. My plants came though unscathed at 600ft and as low as -10C this winter. But by June the first flowers were already out and would most definitely last until almost the first frost, at which point they turn black and will be glad to be cut to the ground.
Hydrangea
Hydrangeas a great stalwart for any garden and they don’t need to be ‘over fifty’ like a Rododendron to put on a great early summer show. While the majority are shaded according to the acidity of your plot (red=acid) – unless you use rusty nails – there are varieties like H. ‘Annabel’ offering a definite change. In her case cream-coloured pom-pom flowers. Then there’s one of my favorite shrubs, H. quercifolius – the oak-leaved hydrangea. This shrub begins with bright green emerging foliage of distinctive shape, before gradually turning autumnal-looking from June onwards. And the flowers! Great cream-coloured bridal corsages extending to around 18″ (45cm) inlength.
Hydrangeas are at their happiest under dappled light during the hottest times but are happy enough during cold, damp winters – provided they have retained their dried flower heads until new growth starts.
Erica
Here in the UK most gardeners would reckon on the Scottish highlands as being the natural homeland for heathers, where whole hillsides will turn vivid purple for weeks on end. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Scotland has only four native heathers, while South Africa has around 400 different native varieties! Taxonomy apart, heathers could provide your ten-species garden with masses of matt-forming colour from early winter right through to late spring.
