What about, instead of a bed of white flowers (which I think will be difficult) a bed of mossy rocks and ferns and other interesting foliage plants, (eg silver leaved brunnera and lamiums) which should be much easier to establish in those conditions?
Scatter some white foxglove seeds nearer the edge of the shady area and a picture is being created ...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Good idea @Dovefromabove . There's a white-flowered silver-leaved Brunnera, "Mr Morse". I've planted one recently, so I can't say whether it's as robust as the blue ones but I have high hopes. As the tree is deciduous, other spring-flowerers like pulmonaria and dicentra (both have white forms) and spring bulbs like crocus or maybe snowdrops (snowdrops are supposed to prefer damp but they do OK here so obviously they didn't read the textbook).
PS there's a variegated, white-flowered lamium, "White Nancy". It's better-behaved than the pink or yellow ones (for me anyway).
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Thanks for such good ideas. As it happens, all those are on my list for the bed already. I am absolutely passionate about brunnera and am planning on filling the place with as many as I can get away with. Perhaps 🤔 was misleading about white flowers. This is exactly the kind of look I was going for, if the vinca permits it…
Just be firm with the vinca … after flowering grab hold of a handful and cut it down to about 4” with shears/ secateurs whatever you’ve got … do that to all of it after the main flowering then give it a good soaking 30 mins to an hour with a sprinkler. You’ll get a good flush of new green leaves and the ferns and brunnera etc will love it too.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I can be firm. Old school teacher. We are good at control, which is why the idea of the vinca being out of control is such anathema! You have both read my mind about what I had decided was possible and already have in my notebook/shopping list. Should I wait until autumn/spring to get started or can I flex the credit card now?
You can plant pot-grown plants any time if you can keep them watered, but that's often easier in autumn or spring. My advice is if you see something you like, get it because it might go out of stock before "ideal" planting time, but be prepared to keep up the watering. Ordering time for spring bulbs to plant in autumn is upon us though (I've had catalogues through the door in the last couple of weeks) so if you want those, get shopping!
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Yes, I bought a Sarcococca yesterday because it was on my list but I hadn't seen it on sale before. I've potted it into a larger, more permanent container to give it time to mature a bit for a few months before I send it out into the vinca battlefield. I feel it needs to be a bit bigger and stronger first! I have a couple of other things I'm keeping in reserve, too. I need to commit to a design before bunging things in randomly. I can do it with pencil and paper, but if anyone knows of a website that has blank templates to fill in, I could use the help!
I've set up a reminder on Crocus to be emailed when snowdrops in the green become available. I've had limited success with snowdrops in the past and I do love them. I heard that 'in the green' was more likely to lead to success, so I will try that. We fight a bit of a battle with squirrels when it comes to bulbs and I hope that I'll one day win it sufficiently to have some actually come up out of the ground. What with squirrels and vinca, a bulb needs to be tough to make it that far, although I guess that the vinca mat would have kept the squirrels off the bulbs. Any squirrel tough enough to get through it would have been a welcome recruit in the removal dig.
I have a small geranium. It might be Patricia. It's growing under a tree. Never gets watered and smothered the sweet woodruff. I don't mind because I prefer it.
Don't go to someone like Crocus for snowdrops next spring. They're just an expensive retailer. Use a reliable nursery that specialises in bulbs. Peter Nyssen, Avon, Bloms, GeeTee, Farmer Gracy etc. If the site's dry, they may not establish well in such a dry site, so plant them deep enough and keep them watered until they're settled in.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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Scatter some white foxglove seeds nearer the edge of the shady area and a picture is being created ...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I've set up a reminder on Crocus to be emailed when snowdrops in the green become available. I've had limited success with snowdrops in the past and I do love them. I heard that 'in the green' was more likely to lead to success, so I will try that. We fight a bit of a battle with squirrels when it comes to bulbs and I hope that I'll one day win it sufficiently to have some actually come up out of the ground. What with squirrels and vinca, a bulb needs to be tough to make it that far, although I guess that the vinca mat would have kept the squirrels off the bulbs. Any squirrel tough enough to get through it would have been a welcome recruit in the removal dig.
If the site's dry, they may not establish well in such a dry site, so plant them deep enough and keep them watered until they're settled in.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
https://broadleighbulbs.co.uk/wp/
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.