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A lesser known plant that you think should be more widely grown? 🌱

FireFire Posts: 19,096
in Plants
Do you have a plant that is not widely grown but should be more used?  Maybe it ticks a lot of boxes; or was grown historically but has now lapsed from favour.  Or perhaps there is a new cultivar that makes it now suitable for growing in UK conditions. Thanks for your insights.
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  • chickychicky Posts: 10,410
    I love thalictrums- slug proof and easy to grow.  There are some with gorgeous floaty flowers (Hewitts Double) and some monsters that give really good height at the back of a border (Elin).
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    Amsonia tabernaemontana.

    Beautiful blue flowers and fiery Autumn colour.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Always good to hear about a slug proof plant!
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • chickychicky Posts: 10,410
    punkdoc said:
    Amsonia tabernaemontana.

    Beautiful blue flowers and fiery Autumn colour.
    Oooo yes - I’ve got one after hearing Rosy Hardy sing their praises 💙
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I agree with that @Buttercupdays. They come into leaf early, and they can still be flowering in autumn.
    I only grow the white ones, which are less floriferous,  but next door has a lemon one which is very nice. Only problem is that it's right by my path and I have to keep hacking it back. I might try and persuade the new neighbour to move it down to the corner of her grass where it can spread in all it's glory and be happier  ;)

    I grow the grass Spartina, which is very useful. As it's a seaside grass, it copes with wet/drought, sun mainly, but it's also perfectly happy with some shade, and in heavier soil. Gold/green variegation, and forms a big fountain-like clump, with tall flowering spikes. It does spread, so best kept contained a bit if it's in a border with other desirable plants. Fades gracefully too. 
    This pic is from September, four years ago. I lifted it, split it, and moved a section  to the end of the new pond earlier last year, where it's been very happy. I've kept it in a pot with the bottom removed so that it doesn't get too massive, so I'll see how it does. 


    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    A useful article here for those who want to learn more about amsonias

    https://www.chicagobotanic.org/downloads/planteval_notes/no18_amsonia.pdf
    Rutland, England
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    Thank you @BenCotto for that article.

    When I saw this thread I was going to say Amsonia, then I read on and saw that @punkdoc had chosen it.

    I first saw an Amsonia at Waterperry Gardens a few years ago and have wanted one ever since. I had never seen them for sale in France. Then last year I was stuck in OH's house in Norfolk for a few months, cancelled flight, Covid, so I ordered an Amsonia tabernaemontana from Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants. It's still young so looking forward to seeing it grow. Then this summer in France I went to an Open Garden with a plant sale and they had Amsonia hubrichtii, which will grow in a drier soil, for sale so I bought one for my French garden.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
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