Top Perennial Plants for Early Colour This Spring

Lamprocapnos Spectablis, Dicentra Spectablis or good old Bleeding Heart. What ever you now call this perennial it is just lovely.

Vinca, Primula elata, pulsatila, pulminaria, geraniums, bergena, bruneria, polemoniumn, (Solmon's Seal) Polygonatum and tiarella are just some of the gorgeous perennials performing at the moment.

What Bees Enjoy Most In Late Summer

Circium rivulare

The bees are enjoying the current revival of our traditional cottage garden plants. It’s extremely beneficial and couldn’t come at a better time for their survival.

Prairie Planting Looks Spectacular in Late Summer

When we hit August the buzz word on the gardening front was Prairie Planting, technically now called new perennial planting. This is because so many of the late summer perennials and textural grasses emulate the natural planting on vast wild Prairies. These look wonderful right through until autumn.

Choosing Perennials That Bring Colour From Late Summer Into Autumn

Gardens Do Not Finish at the end of summer

Late summer and you may think your gardens are past there sell by date, but you would be so wrong. Perennials that have finished flowering may just require a chop back to stop them going to seed. You may well then get a second flood of blooms.

Step Into The Wild

 Mix the wild with choice perennials to achieve this beautiful wild themed garden.

Plant Thugs Make Useful Ground Cover

Comfrey

We all have problem areas in our garden. Rather than grow weeds we do sometimes need a few strong plants to cover the ground and beat the weeds. These are some of my recommended thugs that can do the job!

Supporting The Bees In Spring

Euphorbia

Here are a few ideas of what we can plant to keep our gardens interesting in early spring and support our beautiful bumble bees.

Late Summer Colour

It's a riot of colour on the nursery with late summer perennials. There are so many herbaceous perennials that you could be adding to your borders to keep that explosion of colour going.

Perovskia Blue Spire

 

Perovskia 'Blue Spire'

I absolutely love these spires of blue echoing through a border. If you can give it a well drained sunny position you are on to a winner.

Perfect Pink Perennials for Summer Gardens

 

Some of the perfect pinks in the displays up our walkway are:
Lychinis flos cuculli ‘Petite Jenny’ the wild looking Ragged Robin, Abelia floribunda,Veronica spicata ‘Moody Blue Pink’, persicaria and nepeta

Symphyotrichum, It’s Just A New Name We Can Not Pronounce

Aster nova belgii Fellowship

The former Aster nova belgii or New York Aster should now be found under S! No long allowed in genus Aster but still a daisy!

Chelsea Inspired Perennial Borders

 

I hope everyone is watching the Chelsea coverage and getting new ideas, inspired by different gardens. There is such a lot of garden colour to be had now.

There Are Even More New Heuchera Varieties

 

Heuchera's almost started a foliage class of their own. Having such colourful evergreen foliage their potential to lift both a summer or winter basket or container is huge. Many also make good clump forming ground cover.

Persicaria On The Nursery Beds

 Looking splendid in the sun on the perennial nursery beds Persicaria amplex in white.

Simply Gorgeous Foliage Heucherella Yellowstone Falls

 

These trail in autumn, winter containers. I am really shouting the praises of heucherella Yellowstone Falls. I love this foliage in a hardy pot and I equally love Redstone Falls.

Penstemon Blackbird

 

Penstemon Blackbird

Penstemons are a late summer into autumn flowering perennial. The flowers are on tubular shaped bells on stems. These are not as tall as delphiniums or foxgloves. The plant itself forms more of a clump.  They are available in almost every shade of pink, through purple to blue and in white with lots of shades and tones in between.

A Recent Orange Introduction

 Can you guess what this is? What an amazing colour! Its Salvia stolonifera.Tall spires adorned with strong orange flowers. It is a recent herbaceous introduction.

Veronicastrum A Tall Late Summer Perennial

 

Veronicastrum

A tall elegant late summer perennial. Long spires of the palest pink almost white cotton like flower spikes. Soft and feathery for the mid to back of the border.

Nepeta govaniana a Yellow Nepeta

 

Nepeta govaniana is easy to grow but not often seen this is yellow nepeta. It looks remarkably like a greggii salvia but perhaps that is not so odd as it is in the mint family. Flowering throughout the summer.

Dephiniums

 

These are the Fountain series of Delphiniums. They are the ultimate cottage garden perennial.