I, like you am not in favour of bedding plants . They are time consuming,and thirsty and being on a water meter I can't afford to meet the requirements of them. I also think that they are expensive as they don't last. I use perennials and patience instead.
hi there could you give me some ideas i wish to plant up some small perenials [cottage like flowers] for my garden some parts are in shade,i have done a small fernery which i love and its going realy well but the other part of the garden just needs a splash of colour as i have a few spaces to fill.... [happymarion any ideas???]
sarahs pondlife, so happy to hear you love your fernery. Mine too is looking good and I have borrowed an idea from Hanham Court Garden and interspersed the ferns with foxgloves - lots of colour and height too as my ferns are still young. The small perennials that do well for me on shade are hardy geraniums, blue and pink, and erodiums(geranium family)and campanulas scramble anywhere as I love them. Variagated ivy will scramble too but I train it up my woodland walk trees and the white and yellow splotches shine out. Phygelius does not mind a bit of shade but can grow rather tall, like foxgloves. I also find the purple wallflower, "Bowles Mauve" does not object to shade. As for the parts in sun in your garden the choice is yours. Do you like pinks and carnations? Veronicas are lovely too.
Muddy boots – nice to hear from you. Why don’t you place some short sticks or bamboo canes in the compost of the plant pots? They’ll make for an uncomfortable woodpecker seating area, and the plants will soon grow to hide the sticks.
Geoffwakeling – I’m with you there. It’s pigeons that sit on my recently sown seeds. I’ve taken to using an upturned hanging basket frame to protect the area from pigeons, but the seed still hasn’t germinated in the cold spell.
Laetitia – good point, thank you. I grew Nicotiana suaveolans from seed last year, didn’t fare so well in the shade.
Happymarion – ha! Lovely. I did see the Literary Garden at Chelsea. It was very beautiful, but I think gnomes may be more in my writer’s budget! Thanks for the offer of plants if I lived nearer. Not sure about local corporation selling off plants. Probably not, given the giant mound of daffodil bulbs! I’ve also got some biennials on the go – honesty, viper’s bugloss and self-seeded foxgloves.
Dinny – I visited the Yorkshire Dales in the weekend and the roundabouts there are just lovely at the moment. Lots of field poppies, buttercups and long flowing grass. My kind of planting!
Lazygardener – well done! You really must change your name, you’re not at all lazy.
Jen – I like that. I might throw a few spare tomato plants in my border. I have radish and salad leaves growing in my lawn, but not by design…
Kathryn.brock – perennials and patience is a good mantra
Sarahs pondlife – are you looking for now, or year-round colour? For now, buy foxgloves (biennial but will self-seed), cranesbill geraniums, field poppies, Welsh poppies, aquilegias (granny’s bonnets), euphorbias, heucheras, astrantias, campanulas. Hellebores are lovely in spring and Japanese anemones in late-summer/autumn. There are loads more… I wonder what happymarion will add…
Kate, i would like to add one more plea for pelargoniums in this blog - not for carpet bedding but as specimen plants. Years ago I saw some in an orangery in a stately home (Doddington, I think) as big as small trees so asked the gardener about them. They were very old. So much for not worth the money. Of course I had to try and now have Pelargonium "Copstone" which is a scented variety with lovely splotched pink flowers, five feet tall. They flower all year round for me and are brought into the lounge on frosty nights but they are all outside for the summer making a lovely show. There is an extensive collection at the Botanic Garden and in six years I have never seen it without some flowering. It is not the plants that are at fault but how we grow them and, as you say, how environmentally unfriendly we are in producing them.
Happymarion - I actually have a real soft spot for pelargoniums as my granny used to grow them in large pots in the porch where she lived. I have two on the go - no idea of the variety, but they're just about to come into flower. I will be taking them in to overwinter, just like my granny did, as a small reminder of her.
Great, Kate. The last plant my 91 year-old Dad tended before he died was a red geranium. The variety i was extolling was "Copthorne", not Copstone. I think my addled brain was thinking of the Keystone cops! Addled because my soil is now as easy to work as butter after the rain so i have filled all my weed containers, the Green wheelie bin and everything else I can cram weeds and prunings into. So very satisfying.
Oh this blog is making me feel guilty. I know you're right about bedding plants not being sustainable and a waste of money etc, but I just can't stop myself buying a load every spring. Admittedly I don't use them to fill gaps in my borders but I've got a few pots on my deck that just wouldn't be the same without a few colourful bedding plants. I actually blogged about it here: http://www.kevin-smith.co.uk/blog.aspx/2011/5
I use lots of pelargoniums so perhaps I should take cuttings this summer and try to overwinter them. That way I won't have to buy new stock next spring. Great blog, by the way. Really got me thinking.
hi there kate and happymarion,the plants that you have said[happymarion] are what ive actually planted i was hopeful of differant ideas....although the pelargonium well im sorry i dont know what that is what is the common name for it...'sorry' as i dont know all the correct names of plants ..still learning but will get there..
also sorry kate but hope you and other readers were not offended by what my daughter has wrote[muddy-boots] about me having the hump...good idea about twigs though...
happymarion - gosh, you have been working hard! My granny's were red too - and mine are now. Sadly, not the same plants, though I do grow the offspring of her raspberries.
gardenmedia - it wasn't my intention to make you feel guilty. But, why not try overwintering pelargoniums, they're too nice to discard every year. Cuttings are easy, too.
Sarah's pondlife - I suspected you may already have many of those plants growing. Do you grow ornamental grasses? Red and white campion wok well in my shady garden, also hebe. I'll think of some more for you. No offence taken, was nice to see Muddy Boots back
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I also think that they are expensive as they don't last.
I use perennials and patience instead.
[happymarion any ideas???]
Geoffwakeling – I’m with you there. It’s pigeons that sit on my recently sown seeds. I’ve taken to using an upturned hanging basket frame to protect the area from pigeons, but the seed still hasn’t germinated in the cold spell.
Laetitia – good point, thank you. I grew Nicotiana suaveolans from seed last year, didn’t fare so well in the shade.
Happymarion – ha! Lovely. I did see the Literary Garden at Chelsea. It was very beautiful, but I think gnomes may be more in my writer’s budget! Thanks for the offer of plants if I lived nearer. Not sure about local corporation selling off plants. Probably not, given the giant mound of daffodil bulbs! I’ve also got some biennials on the go – honesty, viper’s bugloss and self-seeded foxgloves.
Dinny – I visited the Yorkshire Dales in the weekend and the roundabouts there are just lovely at the moment. Lots of field poppies, buttercups and long flowing grass. My kind of planting!
Lazygardener – well done! You really must change your name, you’re not at all lazy.
Jen – I like that. I might throw a few spare tomato plants in my border. I have radish and salad leaves growing in my lawn, but not by design…
Kathryn.brock – perennials and patience is a good mantra
Sarahs pondlife – are you looking for now, or year-round colour? For now, buy foxgloves (biennial but will self-seed), cranesbill geraniums, field poppies, Welsh poppies, aquilegias (granny’s bonnets), euphorbias, heucheras, astrantias, campanulas. Hellebores are lovely in spring and Japanese anemones in late-summer/autumn. There are loads more… I wonder what happymarion will add…
Kate
I use lots of pelargoniums so perhaps I should take cuttings this summer and try to overwinter them. That way I won't have to buy new stock next spring. Great blog, by the way. Really got me thinking.
also sorry kate but hope you and other readers were not offended by what my daughter has wrote[muddy-boots] about me having the hump...good idea about twigs though...
gardenmedia - it wasn't my intention to make you feel guilty. But, why not try overwintering pelargoniums, they're too nice to discard every year. Cuttings are easy, too.
Sarah's pondlife - I suspected you may already have many of those plants growing. Do you grow ornamental grasses? Red and white campion wok well in my shady garden, also hebe. I'll think of some more for you. No offence taken, was nice to see Muddy Boots back