New plot

CharleyD

Hi there

It's always a great puzzle to me to know which flowers will share the same bed, providing me with colour all the way through from April to October.

The plot is in 2 sections - each being 3.5 metres long and 30cm wide.

These are the flowers that I would like to use (I can sort out the colour scheme):-

I must have lots of anemones (planting the corms in Autumn)

I also must have lots of ranunculus (planting the corms in Autumn)

The others, plants which I would anticipate planting out next Spring, depend on which will fit in with the above two:-

Pulmonaria, Stoksia, Rudbeckia, Scabiosa.

If I cover the area with anemones, followed by ranunculus, will the others have time to come through and do you think they'll flower with the ranunculus or after them?  I know what I read on various websites, but in practice, I'm finding that it's all very different.

 

 

pansyface

Hello CharleyD. So many factors to think about. The plants in my garden can differ in their flowering time from year to year by up to a month. As you can imagine, my garden doesn't always (ever!) look very well organised.

I think that it is going to be a case of try it and see how it goes.

CharleyD

Hi pansyface.  Yes, that's exactly what I mean.  I read and research for hours and then the plants go and do what they want anyway ha ha   Makes planning difficult though.  I think maybe what I'll do is limit myself to the anemone spread and then put a few ranunculus across the whole plot and plant the other 4 choices between the ranunculus and have a separate big pot of ranunculus somewhere else.  I love mass flowers. 

I bet your garden looks lovely.  I always think the less well organised gardens look so much more natural and interesting compared to my very strict lines and borders.  Thanks for your reply.

 

Scott Edwards

This year is an unusual year with lots of plants (in my garden at least) flowering much earlier than I would normally expect. If you want to ensure that you have a range of plants flowering all the way through from April to October I would suggest you visit your garden centre once a month and see what's in flower at that time. To be honest I think it can be quite difficult to get a border to perform all season unless you have a very big border. I tend to get different borders to come into their own at different times. I have one border that is full of peonies and roses that looks great in early summer and another border that performs in late summer with grasses and aster and Echinacea's etc.

A book I would recommend for trying to get a garden that offers four seasons of beauty from a single patch of ground is 'The Layered Garden by David L Culp. David and his garden 'Brandywine Cottage' are to be found it Pennsylvania so his situation is different from ours. It's still a great read and full of helpful advice.

CharleyD

Thanks folks. 

I think I'm coming at this from a slightly different angle in that I want to use all (or as many as possible) of the flowers that I mentioned in my first post.  It's just a case of do I plant them in sections or mingled. 

I'm thinking anemones on their own and have a good blast of them coming through in spring and then scatter the ranunculus at the front of the beds and back these up with the other 4 flowers, which are all taller than the ranunculus.  

Verdun, I'm not a great fan of geraniums I'm afraid, although I do have them in our garden.  Already got dahlias, echinaceas and heleniums and I definitely want to include some rudbekias in this new plot.  Red ones

Ha ha, I've definitely been guilty of the "child in a sweetshop" syndrome.  I keep seeing new flowers that I haven't seen before and then trying to squeeze them in our garden.