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Plants with balls

TinglyTingly Posts: 140

i could do with some balls to punctuate a path as it were

i am looking for somehing around 30cm - a bit like those buxus balls but it would be nice to have something that flowers to give a bit of colour- and hardy too if poss

 

i like buxus but like colour too- rather like those crusanth balls that come out around septmber in b n q

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  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,138

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • I find sedum Autumn Joy useful for this. Not quite a ball, but rounded, keeps its shape all year through grey-green foliage, pink flowers to rusty seed heads. There are other sedum varieties with dark purple foliage. 

    Or some of the dwarf Michaelmas daisies (Asters) could work for most of the year: dark green foliage and a choice of flower colour, some flower a bit earlier than others too. For punctuation of a slightly different sort there are grasses like the blue fescue, which at least change how they look through the seasons.

    Or you could try the annual burning bush (Kochia trichophylla) which is like a little, soft green, fluffy conifer to look at until the autumn, when it turns brilliant crimson. Then it dies though, so no help for winter! But most hardy perennials wil be the same. You will need small conifers or other shrubs (lavender?) to work in the winter.

     

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117

    Hebes  image

    here are mine along my path : 

    http://i1331.photobucket.com/albums/w595/fairygirl55/PB300006_zps58877330.jpg

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • How about a dwarf lavender, such as 'Hidcote' or Imperial Gem'?

    They offer colour & scent in the summer, and can be dead-headed/ trimmed back to your desired shape once the flowers are over.

  • TinglyTingly Posts: 140

    I love you lot- you really are brill- am going ti start looking up som of these on rhs as havent heard of quite a few of them- will update you thanks

    x

     

     

  • TinglyTingly Posts: 140

    ps dove from above- theyre the ones- i love em!

     

  • TinglyTingly Posts: 140

    farygirl- love your set up there

    just looked at dwarf asters n hebe--- there both great

  • TinglyTingly Posts: 140

    have just looked at burning bush n pittosporum- verdun i am after evergreen

     

    my runners up so far are burning bush, hebe, pittosporum and aster

     

    being as burning bush drops its leaves i spose should rule it out!

     

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