@Obelixx I have also found that you get a brown scorch on Ophiopogon if conditions are too dry. I do have it growing happily in shade, so all trial and error.
I also grow P Red Dragon. I admitted to Andrew Ward a friend who was on GW last friday that I cut the flowers off not sure he was impressed but definately amused.
Some Persicarias do have lovely flowers.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
I have Persicaria Red Dragon as well (I like dark foliage!). It gets to about 3 feet high and then arches over and sprawls so I assumed it was too big (maybe even bigger in moister conditions). And it's more dark red than black so maybe not enough contrast with the red grass.
Panicums aren't hardy here - fine for a summer then didn't return.
I've never had any scorch marks on black ophiopogon so that's interesting to be aware of.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I have an oph.. I don't like it but my husband does. Much as I neglect it, it refuses to do the decent thing. It lives perfectly happily in a pot that's too small on a NNE facing patio with minimal sun and water. Pretty blue flowers, though. Next door has a great big one in a black cauldron😐
@JennyJ I planted Ophiopogon in a clients garden. South facing and free draining. It suffered, something I didn't expect. Instead of lovely black leaves the ends were brown which I think was scorch. There is just one area of my garden where I grow Panicums south facing warm and sheltered, elsewhere in the garden they don't flower.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
I bought my first ophiopogon from Blooms of Bressingham in the late 80s. Cost me £6.50 for a 10cm pot! I'd just dug up part of our lawn to make a pond and had made a scree bed round 2 sides. We were on clay soil in Harrow and the addition of grit and then a gravel mulch made my brand new ophiopogon planescarpus nigrescens very happy and it spread fast - so much so i felt the price was a con given how easily it made new babies, like a spider plant sending out new stems and plantlets.
Never managed to get it to grow with such gay abandon in my Belgian garden and it's proving tricky here but I'll keep trying as I love the colour and the flowers and the name.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Gay abandon is exactly how it grows here. Most of mine gets shade for at least some portion of the day but I'll keep an eye on the clump that's in a sunny spot. If it goes brown there are plenty of other things that could go there.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
@Obelixx Not everyone is fond of Ophiopogon but it is a plant that I have loved and grown for thirty years. My soil is clay and it is happy in all aspects other than where the soil is very dry in summer. In the 80's Bressingham was the place to buy something different. I would spend hours looking at their catalogues dreaming of a garden full of the plants for sale. Happy memories.
@JennyJ As long as there is some moisture available you should be fine. The conditions in the garden where the plants scorched were very dry and hot in summer.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
Thanks for all the suggestions and advice. I think I have been persuaded to stick with Ophiopogon, probably buy a few more of them so I can plant them in bunches so they will surround the blood grass and/or Festuca. I am still wading through the others to see if I can use them elsewhere in the garden
Ophiopogon planiscapus nigrescens A marmite plant. I like it but have always found it very slow to get going. First 2 pics taken at Edinburgh Botanic gardens...with Galanthus Colossus. Pic 3 and 4 at Cambo gardens near St Andrews. Scotland. I love the pink Crocus with it.
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I also grow P Red Dragon. I admitted to Andrew Ward a friend who was on GW last friday that I cut the flowers off not sure he was impressed but definately amused.
Some Persicarias do have lovely flowers.
There is just one area of my garden where I grow Panicums south facing warm and sheltered, elsewhere in the garden they don't flower.
Never managed to get it to grow with such gay abandon in my Belgian garden and it's proving tricky here but I'll keep trying as I love the colour and the flowers and the name.
@JennyJ As long as there is some moisture available you should be fine. The conditions in the garden where the plants scorched were very dry and hot in summer.
A marmite plant.
I like it but have always found it very slow to get going.
First 2 pics taken at Edinburgh Botanic gardens...with Galanthus Colossus.
Pic 3 and 4 at Cambo gardens near St Andrews. Scotland.
I love the pink Crocus with it.