Good Garden Plants

So i have been working with plants for nearly 10 years now and im constantly getting messages back from customers about those plants that they value the most the types of plant that just keep giving and giving. With the winters we are getting now it has become really important to gardeners to know what plants they can rely on, so if you have any great plants that dont let you down then please let me know.

Re: Good Garden Plants

Reply from Gary Newell

I will start us off with what i believe to be a great garden plant, that is the Catalpa purpurea. i just cut it back every autumn and year after year it gives my garden real impact, with its dark, bold, heart shaped foliage....oh and it flowers too! superb.

Re: Re: Good Garden Plants

Reply from Jo

Gary, when you say you cut it back every year, what are you doing with it? I've only seen it grown as a full size tree; are you saying it can be cut back to the ground and turned into a shrub, like an elder or a cornus?

Re: Re: Re: Good Garden Plants

Reply from Gary Newell

Thats right, i dont cut mine back to ground level because i want to keep a frame work there for the spring / summer growth, but i do pollard it to around 3ft high with 3 outward facing branches left to support next seasons growth. This then encourages bigger foliage and prevents the plant from ever growing to large, mine max's out to 8ft a year.

Re: Good Garden Plants

Reply from Ashleigh McMinn

Clematis 'Niobe' easy, beautiful and long blooming, Verbena bonariensis, Linaria 'Canon Went' also Erysium 'Bowles Mauve' I've had it flowering into December, it gets woody after a couple of years but it's so easy to root from cuttings. I have a small garden so I'm always looking for hardy long flowering perennials. Which do you recommend?

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