Help with choosing planting scheme for a spectacular border

philstowe · January 2019

Hi

We are holding a wedding ceremony in our garden in late June and I wanted to get some help in choosing a planting scheme to fill the garden with colour.

The garden has a straight border down each side (about 20m by 1.5m) with wooden fencing behind and a lawn in the middle. The border has some established shrubs & plants but I would like to have lots of colour for the event, maybe smaller plants next to the lawn and taller planting behind? We would like bold colours (my partner likes purple) with reliable flowering plants that won't die just before the big day. I am happy to grow from seed or buy small plants to grow on.

Any advice on plants, combinations, quantity, etc, would be much appreciated.

TIA

Posy · January 2019

Hi Phil. I'm getting the feeling that you are not looking for the obscure or difficult, just the colourful and easy? Why not go to your local garden centres in Spring and choose lots of bedding plants? You will find tall and short, many flower forms and every colour in the plant world and all will be flowering so you can line them up side by side to work out what you like best. They are easy to plant and care for and will flower all summer. Height and planting distances will be on the labels.

JennyJ · January 2019

Non-hardy bedding (petunias etc) shouldn't be planted until after the last frost, but if you have a greenhouse you can order them as plug plants now and grow them on yourself, Probably there'll be more choice in plugs, but also more risk if you don't have a lot of experience.

Regarding colour, purple on its own can look a little bit heavy - maybe think about mixing it with some white/pale pink for a soft scheme, or yellow/orange for a bright contrasting scheme. Also think about whether any of your existing plants/shrubs will be in flower then, and what colour(s) they will give you.

Lyn · January 2019

Can you get licence to perform weddings in your own gardens now?

JennyJ · January 2019

I didn't think you could in the UK, but you can in some other countries. Or it could be a blessing ceremony rather than the legal bit.

Lizzie27 · January 2019

Roses should give you masses of colour in late June but go for the smaller bushes if you've only got 1.5 metres of width in your beds. You could be really creative and choose colours that match (or contrast) with the bride's colour scheme. Underneath you could plant smaller perennials or bedding plants as already advised. Bare root roses will be cheaper and are probably still available to plant now (but not if it's frozen ground).

philstowe · January 2019

Thanks for the replies.

Yes Posy, colourful & easy suits me, however I think buying them in a garden centre will be a bit expensive. My rough figures (I'm happy to be proved wrong) are about 3 plants at the front per yard & 2 plants per yard at the back, which makes around 200 plants for the borders! I will probably need to grow them from plug plants to keep the cost down.

JennyJ you are right that there could be too much with purple all over. I was looking through a catalogue and saw Marigolds in white (called vanilla) which suits the occasion, begonias seem to work in this soil but I'm not sure they come in mixed purples? For the height I wondered about delphiniums? I have a cold greenhouse so I hope that I can grow everything on.

Hi Lyn, no you can't perform a wedding ceremony in the open air here yet, this is our own ceremony, the legal bit is at a registry office.

Phil

Mary370 · January 2019

Hi Phil, late June should be a good time for flowers for your ceremony. If you planted sweet pea seeds now, for the back of the beds, they should be flowering by then. Personally I would be looking at annuals, as they grow, flower and die in 1 season, great fillers and give great colour at very little expense and effort. Delphiniums are perennial plants, as such I am not certain that they can be sown and flower in the first year.....
Other seeds/flowering annuals you could check out are Calundula as they come in several pale colours these days, cornflowers are very colourful, and also come in single colours also.
Check out some of the seed companies.........I'm sure you'll find what you want.
Good luck!!

Perki · January 2019

You've left it a bit to late for some plants especially perennials, its a shame really cause plants like delphinium have the wow factor. Could of planted a load of allium bulbs last year , they may still some being sold off but the reliability of them will be way down. You would have to buy mature plants if you wanted perennials, delphinium plug plant will be ready to flower next year 2020 and even a 3 litre plant is unlikely to get anyway near full size but will still look nice cost about £4-6 depending on where you live for a 3 litre plant. Could ask family / friends if they have any unwanted plants or planted what need dividing like geraniums etc.

I wouldn't like to risk Marigolds planted in flower beds , they soon disappear here once the slugs notice them.

I can recommend some bought plants in 9cm + pots - Erysimum bowles mauve very reliable and flowers none stop, Heuchera purple palace are another relatively cheap perennial - geraniums - Nepeta walkers low - Lupin 3litre plant should put on a good show - Penstemon - Saliva carradonna / mainchet .

Seeds - Cosmos - bedding lobelia - begonia plugs ( don't bother with seed ) -Heliotropium Marine - Ammi majus / vesnaga and others - orlaya - Antirrhinum - Busy lizzie plugs or seed - Alysumm and other bedding, All of these plants are purple or white which I think would look nice together. Ammi or mid border plants / space fillers, you will have to be quick with some seeds they is no guarantee they will flower on time.

JennyJ · January 2019

philstowe said:

JennyJ you are right that there could be too much with purple all over. I was looking through a catalogue and saw Marigolds in white (called vanilla) which suits the occasion, begonias seem to work in this soil but I'm not sure they come in mixed purples? For the height I wondered about delphiniums? I have a cold greenhouse so I hope that I can grow everything on.

Phil

I think the vanilla marigold is more of a creamy colour rather than true white (but I could be wrong there).

As far as I know, bedding begonias come in red, pink or white with either green or bronze foliage, but have a look on the websites of the companies that sell bedding plants.

I don't know whether delphiniums would flower by late June from new young plants (I don't grow them - it's too windy here and they also get slugged) but someone else might know.

Verbena bonariensis might be good as a filler plant behind the "front row" - it's tall but airy, with light purple flowers. Which reminds me, the short bedding verbenas might work too.

The best thing would probably be to brows the websites/catalogues of companies that sell bedding plugs and see what you like the look of.

I'm also wondering if hardy annuals sown direct in the ground in March might flower in time - things like love-in-the-mist, cornflowers, annual scabious, the big double poppies.

Skandi · January 2019

For my wedding we also went purple and it was held in my Parents in Laws garden (allowed over here) our main flowers were Dahlias, but I doubt they would be ready by late June (we were September)

I would go (front to back) with blue and white lobelias, purple and possibly white Petunias, Maybe some stocks? and if you can find some in flower at the right time in the GC some nice tall foxgloves.

Help with choosing planting scheme for a spectacular border

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