Evergreen shrub for a particular border 🌱
dappledshade
Top of the Hill, North London Posts: 707
Hello All,
My garden is west facing, with a slight southerly tilt, but the border I’m talking about is mainly west facing, and in winter gets gets no sun whatsoever (usually none until about April.)
it is, however backed by a fence and is pretty sheltered.
The soil is very much improved London clay (we dug over all the borders when we moved here, 2 years ago and replaced all the spent soil, and added lots of organic matter. I also mulch every year.)
What evergreen shrub would look good at the very back of the border, that would act as a foil for a red salvia in front, plus a black elder right, roses Munstead Wood and Darcey Bussell, artemisia, anemones Honorine Joubert, Ruby Wedding astrantia, red/purple aquilegia, then to the side bronze fennel?
The border is very sunny to the very front - about 9 hours per day in summer (even catching some winter sun), but towards the back it is catching about 5 /6 hours per day now.
Would a camellia work here? Any thoughts much appreciated 🙏🏻
(Apologies for lack of photo, but phone on the blink.)
My garden is west facing, with a slight southerly tilt, but the border I’m talking about is mainly west facing, and in winter gets gets no sun whatsoever (usually none until about April.)
it is, however backed by a fence and is pretty sheltered.
The soil is very much improved London clay (we dug over all the borders when we moved here, 2 years ago and replaced all the spent soil, and added lots of organic matter. I also mulch every year.)
What evergreen shrub would look good at the very back of the border, that would act as a foil for a red salvia in front, plus a black elder right, roses Munstead Wood and Darcey Bussell, artemisia, anemones Honorine Joubert, Ruby Wedding astrantia, red/purple aquilegia, then to the side bronze fennel?
The border is very sunny to the very front - about 9 hours per day in summer (even catching some winter sun), but towards the back it is catching about 5 /6 hours per day now.
Would a camellia work here? Any thoughts much appreciated 🙏🏻
(Apologies for lack of photo, but phone on the blink.)
0
Posts
Something like Pittosporum would be fine, and they can be pruned back, but again - you'd need to be sure you have adequate room. There's a lot of other substantial planting with the elder and the roses.
There is space and I wonder if I could keep a camellia smallish...
Camellia can sulk a bit if they are in to much sunlight best with part shade / full shade.
It never suffered and looked glorious!
Ive seen some whooping camellias around here, which seem to do well in part sun and certainly flower early and more prolifically, than mine in mostly dappled shade, and full shade in winter.
Choisiya is a good one I hadn’t considered for this spot. I’ve a green variety in my front garden, but only ever had the yellow type in an old garden, where it was attached mercilessly by whitefly.
Do they get as huge as the green ones though?Fairygirl said: I wish my mum had kept the tag Fairygirl - no idea how large this cultivar gets, only that it is white flowered variety with yellow stamens.)
The bigger problems though, are that in drier soil, they won't produce so many good buds. They need plenty of moisture late summer, and going into autumn, as that's when they are formed. The emerging buds/flowers are also more likely to get damaged if you have a sharp frost, followed by sun.
Less of an issue if you live in an area that doesn't get much frost though. We get them regularly from October onwards here.
Many of them become huge in the right conditions
Maybe I will go for a choisiya after all!