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Focal plant

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  • gjautosgjautos Posts: 429
    I have a feeling I may get shouted down for this, but what about a Kilmarnock willow? They remain small, easy to look after and tough as old boots.
  • harkinmaharkinma Posts: 9
    This is a very useful forum. I’ve only used it twice but both times the advice has been game changing. The advice from Plantminded has made me totally rethink. I hadn’t even considered a hydrangea but now I am sure a shrub of that size is the way to go. One question: In my acid soil I have blue hydrangeas not pink. Does the hydrangea paniculata Limelight maintain its colour?
  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
    Yes @harkinma, it is one unaffected by soil acidity.
    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
    Mine, last year in spring, to help you decide!


    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


  • owd potterowd potter Posts: 979
    Don't be too hasty.
    Might be worth removing the dead crown growth, cutting the trunks to a lower level, and giving it a month or 2 to see if it may regenerate.
    Unless you want rid of it now, of course.
    Just another day at the plant...
  • M33R4M33R4 Posts: 291
    A Gunnera would look good there too but will die off in winter.
    I wish I could garden all year round!
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    The white hydrangeas aren't affected by soil pH @harkinma, in the way that the pinks and blues are, so any colour changes are down to the variety itself ,and the flowers aging and fading during late summer/early autumn. Some get a blue tinge, some get a pink one, and some are  greenish. I grow the oak leaf ones, which stay pretty much white, but it's the foliage colour that they're really grown for.   :)

    The problem with Kilmarnock willows is that they get top heavy and keel over. You hardly ever see them looking good, because by the time people realise they haven't staked them well enough, it's too late . 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • didywdidyw Posts: 3,573
    My red leaved cordyline in a bed in my back garden looks very similar.  It has happened to that before so I will be doing what I did then and just chopping it right down and letting it sprout again from the crown.  I don't think I can face digging it out as the roots are very well established.
    Gardening in East Suffolk on dry sandy soil.
  • harkinmaharkinma Posts: 9
    Sadly on close inspection the rot was right down to the roots so it has now gone. 
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    I don't think a Gunnera would be suitable, they need lots of moisture, growing best next to ponds.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
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