If you want to see lovely bedding displays then come to Bournemouth, their gardens going from the town centre down to the sea front are always so lovely and look so perfect. Ive got bedding plants in the garden but I am trying to get quite a few perennials then its not so much hard work putting all those bedding plants in, though they do look lovely.
My garden is a veritable sea of colour, not just from the roses and self-seeded annuals and the biennials but perennials like hardy geraniums, the Bristol flower and Lysimachia coronaria, Lychnis punctata and nimmularia, Alchemilla mollis,pinks aplenty,helianthemums and parahebes, and the lavenders and rosemary and , of course, the orange blossom philadelphus. Apart from end of April and early May and July, this should be one of the most colourful times in the garden so look forward to it in future, Kate.
I tend to agree: it's been a few years since I resorted to the plug-plant in polysterene to fill garden gaps and I haven't really missed them. I try to raise some annuals from seed (nicotiana is a favourite) and to allow self-seeding plants to have a go at filling gaps but I'd still rather live with a gap than fill it with a gaudy petunia that's been raised in the horticultural equivalent of a battery farm.
Mllie. all the alpines do since they love good drainage. you can have cyclamens in flower all the year round and when they aren't their leaves are beautiful. And lots of bulbs will love it. Just remember to put fritillaries and snowdrops at the bottom as they like dampness in the summer.
I have to confess to using geraniums to fill a few gaps in my border last year as it was newly planted.
My long term goal is to have perennials flowering all through the season but this isn't always possible straight away. Last year and again this year I have set myself a monthly budget of about forty pounds to buy flowering perennials. At my local centre I can but about ten plants with this budget and by buying them in flower I can see how they will look in the border. As the years go by I should hopefully have a better and longer display of colourful perennials in my borders. I have also started to add structure by planting grasses and foliage plants in amongst the flowers. I can't wait to see how this develops as the next couple of years go by and of course with the help of cuttings I can start planning and filling even more borders, to me it's an 'all win' situation!
Millie, alpines love full sun - the more light the better, as they grow above the tree line in the wild and get no shade apart from the odd rock or two. The New Zealand garden in the Bristol Botanic Garden which is designed to have slopes is looking a picture at the moment with the hebes and parahebes in bloom.
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My long term goal is to have perennials flowering all through the season but this isn't always possible straight away. Last year and again this year I have set myself a monthly budget of about forty pounds to buy flowering perennials. At my local centre I can but about ten plants with this budget and by buying them in flower I can see how they will look in the border. As the years go by I should hopefully have a better and longer display of colourful perennials in my borders. I have also started to add structure by planting grasses and foliage plants in amongst the flowers. I can't wait to see how this develops as the next couple of years go by and of course with the help of cuttings I can start planning and filling even more borders, to me it's an 'all win' situation!
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