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Ideas please - penstemons and other perennials for rich soil?
I have a new bed of mostly pink roses. My summers are hot, but this bed is mostly east facing with morning sun. The soil is heavy alkaline clay but super-enriched with manure, mulched with ericaceous compost and will remain luscious for the roses. Drainage is not great despite the quantities of grit mixed in.
The roses are bombing away, but I’m struggling to get the underplanting of purple and white perennials (mostly salvias and hardy geraniums) to grow without getting lush and floppy, with few flowers. Most of my go-to sun-loving, drought-tolerant plants just aren’t working here.
So what likes it rich? Would penstemons work? hebes/parahebes? hermorocalis?
Any other suggestions please for shortish purple/white perennials or dwarf shrubby things that will stand to attention and flower well in these rich conditions? They must be able to take a bit of heat but they won’t lack for water!
The roses are bombing away, but I’m struggling to get the underplanting of purple and white perennials (mostly salvias and hardy geraniums) to grow without getting lush and floppy, with few flowers. Most of my go-to sun-loving, drought-tolerant plants just aren’t working here.
So what likes it rich? Would penstemons work? hebes/parahebes? hermorocalis?
Any other suggestions please for shortish purple/white perennials or dwarf shrubby things that will stand to attention and flower well in these rich conditions? They must be able to take a bit of heat but they won’t lack for water!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
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The short purple flowering stems (about 1ft) really pop with colour.
I mulch the area every spring but that's about it.
They spread via roots just under the soil surface and I often dig bits up by mistake when weeding, but they are slowly covering the area.
I also have several varieties of penstemon in the same area.
'Garnet' flowers reliably and prolifically from June (with a pause of about 3 weeks after the 1st flush) to the first frosts if deadheaded.
P. Raven and Hidcote Pink also give a long display but not as floriferous as Garnet
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Thanks also @SydRoy, astrantia is an excellent idea, likes ‘humus-rich soil’ apparently so that sounds promising.
I put the roses in about 10 years ago and manured the area well with well-rotted farmyard manure before they went in.
Every couple of years I get 40 x 70L bags of rotted manure of some sort which I use on the borders and raised beds.
In spring I give each bush a small handful of Toprose and a mulch with my compost.
So the soil is good. Slightly acid Essex clay but dries to concrete in the summer.
I have astrantia Shaggy growing nearby and that does well too, but such a brief flowering period. I recently bought astrantia Roma just because it doesn't set seed, so flowers throughout the season
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
So Penstemon, Astrantia and V. Rigida are three good contenders. Good stuff.
Anyone know whether small hebes/parahebes would also thrive in rich soil? A few small shrubby things wouldn’t go amiss...
@Omori, that’s interesting to hear Echinacea do well for you in that location. Fortuitously, I do have some Echinacea White Swan I was wanting to relocate, so I will definitely try them there.
Thanks both.