Experienced gardener and thoroughly good egg, Louise Sims shares some of her favourite plants as they come into their own through the year
bluebeard Ours is the most commonly seen caryopteris – a rounded shrub to about 1.5 metres with aromatic, greyish-green leaves and dense clusters of soft blue flowers which appear in late summer and autumn.Nonetheless it never fails to pull its weight at this time of the year. Caryopteris are native to eastern Asia but there are several named cultivars which are […]
white potato vine We’ve had a few deaths in our garden recently, and they’re not all due to drought; and while I’m on that subject, please don’t fall into the trap of pronouncing plants dead just because their leaves and stems have turned brown – actually, we should all wait until next spring before we […]
Sedum fabaria There’s so much to love about hylotelephium and we grow at least a dozen different ones in our garden because first and foremost, like their pollinators, I simply cannot resist their September flower power. They are also dependable, robust and low maintenance and after a summer like the one we’ve just had, their […]
hardy ice plant This is a summer like no other, and desiccated is the only word to describe our garden; I was going to add, it’s like a desert, when I realised that by happy coincidence my chosen plant today is indeed a desert dancer so no wonder it’s looking so happy! Being new to […]
Chilean Myrtle If a shrub can keep its leaves when all about it the others are losing theirs and blaming it on the heat, then it’s time for all of us to plant Luma apiculata. Like so many others, our garden is parched and dessicated looking while our Chilean myrtle remains as fresh as a daisy. […]
or Corn cockle ‘Ocean Pearl’ Corn cockle, as its name suggests, was once commonly found in cereal fields; now it is rarely seen in the wild because it’s poisonous and therefore an unsuitable plant to be found growing where it may contaminate crops. However, the purple form of corn cockle has been gaining in popularity […]
or Durand’s clematis Unlike its well known climbing cousins, this gorgeous perennial is one of a small percentage of the many species/cultivars of clematis that are non-twining: rather, they are scramblers. With a little ‘help’ they may reach two metres but they do have a mind of their own and I prefer to see them […]
heart-leaved ox eye Everything about this plant is big and bold and when middle Growbag Laura offered me one several years ago, I took it on with some reservation – it’s not really me I thought. However, I’d like to say thank you today, I have no regrets; far from it, it’s made its mark […]
or golden hakonechloa; Japanese forest grass There is no doubt that the very warm weather we’ve been having followed by torrential rain and buffeting winds has left our garden looking a bit bedraggled in places, yet my choice today remains unruffled, it also has very special significance for me being a division of my late […]
Set off by the lush coppery-mahogany coloured foliage and stems, the deep apricot-yellow flowers of this gorgeous climbing Tea rose are, in bud, elegantly arranged like a scroll; they have a rich fragrance and a long flowering season. There is no doubt that Lady Hillingdon favours the more temperate parts of the UK and best […]
or wedding cake plant; Japanese snowball ‘Mariesii’ I can think of no other plant that might better mark an anniversary than this beautiful Viburnum which is often referred to as the wedding cake plant. Okay, no nuptials in the pipeline here but being a small part of The3Growbags blog for 10 years is a cause […]
Camassia leichtlinii Caerulea Group Camassia have so much going for them. These stately, tall (to approx 90 cm), clump forming, bulbous perennials are also hardy, long-lived and reliable; they have a lengthy flowering season and they are low maintenance. Although they are generally described as sun lovers, they also thrive in dappled or part shade […]
or snowy mespilus, juneberry Its moment in the spotlight won’t last for long, but it really packs a punch when in full flower and happily there are other seasons of interest to follow. Amelanchier lamarckii is generally grown as a multi-stemmed small tree (or large shrub), it has an open, relaxed habit and at this time […]
or false spirea The genus Sorbaria belongs to the Rose family (Rosaceae), and also in that clan are the Sorbus or mountain ash whose leaves are similar to Sorbaria. Ballyroberts website tells us that ‘The genus Sorbaria was first recognised as one of the species of the genus Spiraea by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, but was moved into a genus of […]
or wild tulip Almost all tulips bring me pleasure, and they make such a valuable contribution to the spring garden, but I am coming to love the species tulips more and more: once planted, they come back year after year and they ask for very little in return. They also have a natural grace and […]
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with violets – once they get a foothold in a flower bed they can produce impenetrable quantities of leaf and almost no flower, and are actually quite troublesome to remove, others fare better in less fertile conditions where they produce more flowers. Viola Alice, as I call […]
or stinking hellebore; bear’s foot While snowdrops are getting all the attention at this time of the year, for me, hellebores are the hallmark of February, and I look forward to, and love, all species in the genus. The stinking hellebore: not an attractive name is it, and I can’t imagine why it came about, […]
black jewel orchid I have grown this beautiful and distinctive orchid for many years, but being an outdoorsy sort of plant person, I have sometimes overlooked the needs of my houseplants. So it took me a while to realise my Ludisia lacked the sparkle of its namesake. This is a terrestrial orchid whose natural habitat is on […]
miner’s lettuce, winter purslane Here is a New Year message to anyone who has any sort of an outside patch, be it balcony or container, garden or allotment: forget about buying unsustainable supermarket salad leaves in bags and buy instead a packet of miner’s lettuce seed – Bob Flowerdew is a big fan so it […]
I’m not quite sure if it’s me or if other gardeners have had problems with certain of the smaller to medium sized euphorbia cultivars? I’ve tried quite a number, amongst which were ‘Humpty Dumpty’, ‘Blackbird’, ‘Redwing’, and ‘Silver Swan’, but over a relatively short period they failed. E ‘Portuguese Velvet’ was just one of these […]
or Indian valerian I’m sure that most of our gardens have been subjected to a few sharp frosts over the last couple of weeks and very welcome they were too – as long as you remembered to get all the half-hardies under cover in time. Once again, the plant I always steer towards when temperatures […]
scarlet sage For several years now in our village, I’ve done the rounds with my box of poppies, collecting for the Royal British Legion. As I wander from door to door, I am afforded a fascinating opportunity to peer into my neighbours’ front gardens and to notice how plants are doing. One of these is […]
Chinese lantern I regard the Chinese lantern as one of my inheritance plants; my parents grew it in their garden in Kent and as a child I would immerse myself in its magical world of enchantment and spells. In the years that followed I rarely came across another, which is a puzzle to me because […]
or autumn ox-eye daisy We may be half way through October, yet there are still so many plants looking picture perfect at the moment and the autumn ox-eye daisy is most definitely a main player. The fresh-as-a-daisy, pristine white flowers are such a cheery sight, up to 8cm across with yellowish green centres, they are […]
Thunberg’s bushclover Sometimes I become fixated on a certain named cultivar of a plant, even if it means driving six hours to collect it! Well, I’ll admit we were already going in that direction and I had long wanted to visit Larch Cottage Nurseries in Cumbria, but this was the opportunity I needed and I […]
or Arizona beggar’s ticks ‘Hannay’s Lemon Drop’ This is a perfect late-season pick-me-up plant; it’s fresh and uncomplicated and able to hold its own amongst its neighbours. As always when one trawls the internet, there are accurate descriptions that have clearly been written by people with first hand knowledge of their subject, but sadly there […]
or potato bean Many years ago I went to a talk given by Bob Brown (founder of Cotswold Garden Flowers) at one of our local Hardy Plant Society meetings. I remembered to grab my garden notebook as I left home, because what Bob recommends will always be worth growing and he introduced me to my […]
or Green bristle grass, or Green foxtail I first noticed this pretty little grass growing in our garden several years ago. It arrived as a hitch-hiker in a pot of some perennial or other that I had been given and which is long forgotten, but I’ve enjoyed the presence of the Setaria ever since because […]
By no stretch of the imagination do I regard myself as a clematis expert, but I have found ‘Sugar Candy’ to be trouble free and robust despite the rather less than gentle handling it sometimes receives. I made the number one mistake of planting it through a climbing rose* because I thought they’d look so […]
or shrubby hare’s ear Let’s start with the family to which Bupleurum fruticosum belongs: formerly known as Umbelliferae (indicating slightly domed flower shape with spokes like an umbrella), it is now called Apiaceae. Apis is the Latin name for ‘bee’ and these are among the myriad of insects that are attracted to the many members of this group. It […]
broad-leaved everlasting pea Thirty five years ago when we moved to our present house, it was our wish and our ambition to make and to grow a garden from scratch. We were lucky enough to inherit a blank canvas with very few existing features and even fewer garden-worthy plants, but the one that was there, […]
Silene armeria Sweet William Catchfly bunch pink Annuals come and go don’t they, but this little gem has stuck with us and I am so glad because it makes a big contribution to the garden scene and especially to our containers where it seems particularly happy to grow. I bought my original plant several years […]
red-leaved rose AKA Rosa rubrifolia Seldom do you grow a rose primarily for its foliage but today’s pick of the week is precisely one of those. Anyone who is familiar with this charming species will agree that its beauty lies in the overall picture: purple-tinged, glaucous (from the Latin glaucus meaning bluish-grey) leaves, reddish-blue new shoots and stems, […]
plantain lily ‘Devon Green’ The very first hosta I bought, many years ago, was the blue leafed ‘Halcyon’, so I was interested to discover that ‘Devon Green’ was a sport (a naturally occurring mutation) of this favourite of mine. Like its parent, it is very resistant to slugs. It was introduced by Roger and Ann […]
Japanese wisteria (syn. Wisteria floribunda ‘Macrobotrys’) May is an extraordinary month. Each time I set foot in the garden I notice something new that has just come out, so it’s hard to pick out a favourite at this time of the year; they are all special, but my choice today is hard to beat for drama and impact. It you don’t have a suitable house wall, or if you just fancy a small specimen tree, this method […]
fringe cups This lovely hardy perennial is a tried and tested old favourite, yet as spring gets into its stride, I am once again reminded of the contribution it makes to our garden at this time of the year. Always a welcome sight, the upright spires of creamy white flowers, bell-shaped and tinged with pink, […]