Advice Designing New Border

Alfie_ · June 2022

Hi,

I have a new border which I have started to plant perennials in (picture attached). The following plants are in the border:

3 penstemon
9 hardy geraniums at the front
3 Astrantia
2 rose shrubs
1 trained climbing rose
1 trained honeysuckle

What I need to add now is something that will give me interest all year round - so was thinking evergreen shrubs? I wanted peoples advice on this. I was thinking I may need to remove the circled rose and put it elsewhere otherwise I think there is too little room for shrubs otherwise. Maybe there are too many perennials and I need to remove a few more first?

Evergreen shrubs I was thinking of are:

Caenothus
Photinia
Hebe
Possibly camellia but don’t think I’m patient enough for something so slow growing

Any advice is much appreciated.

robairdmacraignil · June 2022

If I was to add a shrub or two for year round interest to the border in the photo it would be Pittosporum Tom thumb. I think it has nice colour to the leaves that provides something different to the green found on most leaves with the best colour in winter when the purple shade is at its best as there is less new green growth, and it tends not to get very big so would not take over as much as some of the other shrubs you have mentioned might be liable to do. There are also some nice hebes that have interesting leaf colours that could work well but I have found some that I have tried have not lasted.

Happy gardening!

Plantminded · June 2022

I'd put a dome shaped Hebe like Hebe Green Globe on either side of the rose in the centre of your border. It won't overwhelm your other plants and will maintain a neat evergreen dome shape without the need to prune. There's quite a lot of plants in your border at the moment, but perennials can easily be moved in autumn or spring without any problem. I'd let them make progress this year to fill your border and then have a relook in the spring. (I prefer to plant more densely myself to get the ground covered and deter weeds!) Just make sure that the roses are in the positions you want them so that you don't have to disturb their roots in future.

Advice Designing New Border

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