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Plants with balls
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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Are you thinking of Cushion Chrysanthemums? http://www.vanmeuwen.com/flowers/flower-plants/herbaceous-border-plants/chrysanthemum-cushions/V17671VM
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.
Hebes
here are mine along my path :
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.
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
ps dove from above- theyre the ones- i love em!
farygirl- love your set up there
just looked at dwarf asters n hebe--- there both great
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!