Apologies for jumping into this thread but having seen all the wonderful images, as a relative newcomer to gardening, I am wondering how one goes about making all the different plants knit together? I’m always wary about overcrowding/plants smothering others but I love for example how geraniums weave through other perennials etc...
@Wildlifelover ..that's ok, ask whatever questions you like, I'm sure other members will advise. We all tend to give different answers I think. What I will say is that we all make mistakes, everybody does, even the Professionals, planting too close together or wrong combinations. I try to imagine what colours work together but I often get it wrong, then it's a question of moving things around.. that's perennial gardening for you.
A little advice about planting, if you can afford to, try to plant perennials in a group of 3, in a kind of triangle formation. They grow together and make it look like one large bushy plant. Unless it's a really big imposing perennial like some on this thread, then you might only need one. Also if you have the room, planting 5 or 7 of the same gives an even better display. Here are a couple of examples I've just taken. These are 3 Veronicas of the same variety, planted initially about 1 foot apart.
Helenium Salud Embers Fuego Rubinzwerg. This has grown huge in its third(?) year. I have divided it into three clumps last week. I will try a Chelsea chop on at least one of them.
I grow row lots of heuchera and heucherellas, though they are not always very happy in my garden. Too much sun and and too many vine weevils. Plum Cascade
@pitter-patter - snap! I've got Marmalade in just such a border and yours has given me an idea - I do like your stone edging. I've got short metal hoops but the birds keep kicking the soil over the paving which annoys me - the stone edging might stop that.
Some really nice pictures I feel like I need to avoid shopping for plants online
G - H plants
Geum Flames of Passion
Geum Mai Tai , I still have these two geums FP and Mai both cocktail series , nice plants but a bit short in the flowering terms and if not divided flowering will stop . I already dug them up and will probably replace them with a modern longer flowering variety .
Geum Totally tangerine
Geum Borsii - flowers much longer than the other 3 .
Geranium Orkney Cherry
Geranium Hocus Pocus not a great plant but interesting and with fantastic name . I grow other geranium - Rozanne and Orion I have a thing for magneta geraniums I have 4 in total Dragon heart - Patrica - Ann thompson - Ann Folkland , Patrica is probably my favourite but Ann folkland will flower longer its a shame it tends to swamp its neighbours .
On to H now starting with Helenium Waltraut
Helenium Moerhium Beauty my personal favourite I love the colour .
Helenium Sahin Early probably the best performer flowers longer than the other two, I do have problems with weather with MB and Sahin they can flop bad with rain I do Chelsea chop them sometimes . I used to have helenium Indian Summer never thought much of it the slugs / snails so it off eventually.
Wonderful photos all round.. Lovely pics of Helianthus 'Miss Mellish', Heuchera and Hellebores earlier... I also liked the Geranium 'Alan Mayes', I think I have one similar.
.. Of the Heleniums I'm liking 'Fuego'.. aptly named .. and 'Waltraut'..
If you want to avoid block planting: 3s, 5s etc, ribbon, or river planting can look good, either running back through a border, or lengthways on a diagonal. A group of large irregular shaped blocks, can be broken up with single statement plants, repeated throughout a border.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
Posts
..that's ok, ask whatever questions you like, I'm sure other members will advise. We all tend to give different answers I think. What I will say is that we all make mistakes, everybody does, even the Professionals, planting too close together or wrong combinations. I try to imagine what colours work together but I often get it wrong, then it's a question of moving things around.. that's perennial gardening for you.
A little advice about planting, if you can afford to, try to plant perennials in a group of 3, in a kind of triangle formation. They grow together and make it look like one large bushy plant. Unless it's a really big imposing perennial like some on this thread, then you might only need one. Also if you have the room, planting 5 or 7 of the same gives an even better display.
Here are a couple of examples I've just taken.
These are 3 Veronicas of the same variety, planted initially about 1 foot apart.
..these are 3 of the same Phlox variety..
...have fun !..
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
Fuego
Rubinzwerg. This has grown huge in its third(?) year. I have divided it into three clumps last week. I will try a Chelsea chop on at least one of them.
I grow row lots of heuchera and heucherellas, though they are not always very happy in my garden. Too much sun and and too many vine weevils.
Plum Cascade
Marmalade
G - H plants
Geum Flames of Passion
Geum Mai Tai , I still have these two geums FP and Mai both cocktail series , nice plants but a bit short in the flowering terms and if not divided flowering will stop . I already dug them up and will probably replace them with a modern longer flowering variety .
Geum Totally tangerine
Geum Borsii - flowers much longer than the other 3 .
Geranium Orkney Cherry
Geranium Hocus Pocus not a great plant but interesting and with fantastic name . I grow other geranium - Rozanne and Orion I have a thing for magneta geraniums I have 4 in total Dragon heart - Patrica - Ann thompson - Ann Folkland , Patrica is probably my favourite but Ann folkland will flower longer its a shame it tends to swamp its neighbours .
On to H now starting with Helenium Waltraut
Helenium Moerhium Beauty my personal favourite I love the colour .
Helenium Sahin Early probably the best performer flowers longer than the other two, I do have problems with weather with MB and Sahin they can flop bad with rain I do Chelsea chop them sometimes . I used to have helenium Indian Summer never thought much of it the slugs / snails so it off eventually.
Helianthus Lemon Queen
.. Of the Heleniums I'm liking 'Fuego'.. aptly named .. and 'Waltraut'..
A group of large irregular shaped blocks, can be broken up with single statement plants, repeated throughout a border.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border