Which tall perennials work best in a tight space ?

Gardener_Joan

Need some inspiration as we have a bit of space on the a side of the patio which was carved for laying a few plants.

I had a few plants leftover from other areas in the garden - Achillea moonshine , Geum fire opal and African daisy which I  planted in this spot as I wasn't sure if anything would grown given the space and depth .
They bloomed quite well with the only issue being no horizontal space for them to spread and they had to be supported every few weeks . 

This area gets plenty of sun and the soil condition is very neutral to slightly acidic .
So I am now looking for ideas to put new plants here which may be tall upright perennials without a very thick foliage.
 
Any suggestions are most welcome ..?
 

 

Ruthmshaw

I would have a look at ornamental grasses as I think they could look effective against the modern fence. The number available is overwhelming so I would look first at the Beth Chatto website as they seem to show a manageable selection.

Fire

tall upright perennials without a very thick foliage.

How deep with your bed be in the end? From the red markers, it looks about 50cm deep. Where in the country are you?

I guess you can try thalictrum flavum, eupatorium, fennels, Helianthus gigantica. 

Gardener_Joan

Fire said:

tall upright perennials without a very thick foliage.

How deep with your bed be in the end? From the red markers, it looks about 50cm deep. Where in the country are you?

I guess you can try thalictrum flavum, eupatorium, fennels, Helianthus gigantica. 

Thanks for the suggestions . I had thought about fennels as well and my list had
these or a combination of these ..
Sanguisorba 'Proud Mary'

Lythrum virgatum 'dropmore purple'

Valeriana Officinalis

Echinops bannaticus

There are plenty of verbena and salvias in the other areas so the idea was to try something different this year which adds a punch of colour .The depth and width is around 20 cm so not much space . I found a picture from 2020 on my phone .

We are in woking 

tlchimera

I think purple toadflax could look lovely there, it's nicely upright and to me fits in with the cottage garden aesthetic that you seem to be leaning towards? Self seeds but easy to remove from unwanted places in my experience. 

Fire

Ah, I thought from your first photo that you were planning to take the paving back a bit.  Is there an option for that?

Valerian off. has a fairly short flowering season. Is there soil good under the pebbles and deep? You would have to water a lot. Any of my above suggestions might be ok.

Gardener_Joan

Fire said:

Ah, I thought from your first photo that you were planning to take the paving back a bit.  Is there an option for that?

Valerian off. has a fairly short flowering season. Is there soil good under the pebbles and deep? You would have to water a lot. Any of my above suggestions might be ok.

No , taking the paving off is not possible now . Soil deep and and well drained .

Gardener_Joan

tlchimera said:

I think purple toadflax could look lovely there, it's nicely upright and to me fits in with the cottage garden aesthetic that you seem to be leaning towards? Self seeds but easy to remove from unwanted places in my experience. 

Well we started modern garden aesthetics and ended up with a cottage style modern if there is something like that.

Fire

tlchimera said:

I think purple toadflax could look lovely there.

Lovely but not that tall.

tlchimera

Fire said:

tlchimera said:

I think purple toadflax could look lovely there.

Lovely but not that tall.

Ah okay! It's over two feet in my garden (before flowering), I'm never quite sure what people think of as short/medium/tall. 

Fire

I'd say 1.5 - 2m+ would be tall.  Just my take.