50 All Saints Street

Garden Design

Design Brief

Develop borders at top of garden to create a framework of shrubs around which perennials can grow.

Notes on Existing Planting

Create a ladder across from honeysuckle to roof of shed so it can climb over. Train over to the right against the fence also - make more visible by pruning the Ceonothus.
Take Cistus out. Leave Daphne in.
Leave Lilac in but grow a Clematis up it.
Put the largest Agapanthus in a pot on gravel garden.
Prune/shape Ceonothus. Lift crown and bring sides in
Neutralise the right bed by adding sulphur. Add chicken pellets instead of manure (beds can’t take much more topping up).
Hot bed (top). Cool bed. (Lower) (Colour scheme)
Prune/shape Euonymous, crown-lift to create an understory.
Cut back Tamerisk from neighbour’s garden

Upper Bed

Structure

Daphne (existing)

Retained for greenery and form.

Sarcococca hookeriana humilis

Plant 3 dwarf sarcoccocca through the bed, two in the front left corner and one at the back to the left of the Daphne.

These dwarf variety will only grow to 45cm by 45cm once they reach full maturity.

Interplant your perennials around them, being careful to retain or add plants that compliment this scale.

Supplier: Crocus

Cost: £24.99 for 2L pot

Retain daphne.
Centralised placement of taller perennials such as Verbena
Keep the height of the majority of the supporting perennial planting 45cm or less, with only some “spires” of flower spikes poking above this level
Take out fatsia, pot up and place in a shady spot, it will grow too big for this bed.

perennial planting ideas

Dahlia ‘Verrone’s Obsidion’

Sultry, sophisticated and beautiful, with petals cut from silk velvet. In a class of its own.

Supplier: Sarah Raven

Cost: £14.95 for 3L pot

Alchemilla mollis

“No garden should be without this beautiful and useful perennial. It has scalloped, bright green leaves which catch droplets of water that look like quicksilver and from June to September, it produces a frothy haze of tiny, chartreuse yellow flowers. It’s ideal planted en-masse for groundcover or edging paths, it tolerates a range of adverse conditions including heavy clay and, once established, is drought tolerant. Alchemilla mollis takes its name from the Arabic, meaning little magical one, as in the Middle Ages the water collected from its leaves after a morning dew was said to have healing properties.”

Supplier: Crocus

Cost: £19.99 for 6 9cm pots

Ranunculus 'Picotee Café'

If you fancy something new, and a little unusual or ‘off-beat’, then look no further. The ruffled petals of these beautiful brown Persian buttercups have neatly frilled edges, and the large, double blooms come in gorgeous shades of orange, gold, bronze, terracotta, coffee and chocolate. Ranunculus 'Picotee Café's stems are around 30cm high, so are ideal for planting at the front of the border, or in containers. There are many forms of garden ranunculus, but these were originally bred for the cut-flower trade, meaning that the blooms are larger than normal – some 12.5cm across!

Supplier: Farmer Gracy

Cost: £13.50 for 30

Coreopsis ‘Mango Punch’ (existing)

Achillea millefolium ‘Terracotta’

“The fantastic thing about yarrows is that they flower for many months at a stretch. These open the colour of terracotta, fading like a lovely antique tapestry as they age.”

Supplier: Crocus

Cost: £12.00 for 3 x 9cm pots

Digitalis ‘Spice Island’

A charming perennial foxglove, developed by British amateur breeder Heather Wilson, Digitalis Spice Island is robustly evergreen, with a rosette of pointed glossy dark green leaves to keep you entertained throughout the year. Tall spires clothed in tubular peachy yellow flowers with cinammon dusting to the interiors appear over a long season from midsummer onwards. Nicely spicy.

Supplier: Paddock Plants

Cost: £5.50 for 1L pot

Kniphofia ‘Bees Lemon’

“A sensation in the late summer garden, this showy perennial attracts bees and butterflies, but is rarely affected by deer or rabbits, so is perfect for both city and country gardens. Emerging from lime green buds, the bright yellow flowers open upwards from the base of the spike over several weeks, so the display is relatively long-lived. Plant this with hot colours like orange and red, as well as contrasting purples.”

Supplier: Ballyrobert Gardens

Cost: £7.99 for 0.5L pot

Cool Bed

Structure

Rosa glauca (existing)

Keep in the centre and tie in to metal or hazel support to create height and a fans of roses.

Cotoneaster horizontalis 'Variegatus'

Yes, it is a “marmite plant” but it is also when gardened right an adaptable, evergreen, beautiful white flowering dependable friend.

Reaching a height of 45cm it can be pruned to any shape required, moulding and spilling over a border’s edge adding solidity and form to any planting.

Supplier: Burncoose Nursery

Cost: £13.00 for 2L pot

Raise height of Rosa glauca and add supports to give architectural form to this show-stopper.
Keep the height of the majority of the supporting perennial planting 45cm or less, with only some “spires” of flower spikes poking above this level
Plant 1 cotoneaster in the back left corner of the bed, diagonal to the convolvulus cneorum

Convolvulus cneorum (existing)

perennial planting ideas

Alilums (existing)

Nigella damascena 'Miss Jekyll'

“This one is a lovely semi-double sky blue. A classic.

Nigellas are the classic cottage garden annual and make fabulous cut flowers and filler foliage for any vase. They dry brilliantly too.”

Supplier: Sarah Raven

Cost: £1.95 for 400 seeds

Scabiosa 'Butterfly Blue'

“Lovely, lavender blue, pincushion like flowers from July to September held on delicate stems above clumps of lance shaped, grey green leaves. This long flowering blue scabious is ideal for a sunny, well drained rock garden or container planting. As its name suggests, the charming pincushion like flowers are highly attractive to butterflies and they make very pretty additions to fresh and dried flower arrangements.”

Supplier: Crocus

Cost: £15 for 3 x 9cm pots

Aquilegia Vulgaris 'Hensol Harebell'

Tall and elegant rich purple aquilegia, all over the Chelsea Flower Show last year.

Supplier: Sarah Raven

Cost: £1.58 for 100 seeds

Lychnis coronaria 'Alba'

“Handsome clumps of downy grey leaves send up wide branching stems bearing pure white flowers, mid-summer.”

Supplier: Beth Chatto

Cost: £7.50 for 1L pot

Dahlia ‘Cameo’

Waterlily type dahlia. Cameo has soft lemon yellow to cream flowers in great profusion on strong stems from midsummer right through to the first frosts and is an excellent variety for cutting. Height and spread to around 1.2m x 80cm. Dead head regularly to encourage repeat flowers and mulch heavily before winter or lift and store tubers. We leave ours in the garden every winter with a thick layer of mulch and they are stronger and better plants the next year.

Supplier: Langhorns Plantery

Cost: £16.90 per plant

Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’

Erysimum 'Bowles's Mauve' is a well know and much-loved cottage garden favourite, with blue-green evergreen foliage, perfect for a modern style of planting. Known for an incredible long flowering period, a mass of dark buds emerge in early spring lasting until the autumn. You will see in late spring, copious clusters of mauve and purple blooms have opened covering the pretty evergreen foliage, which itself looks stunning all winter.

Much loved by florists, Erysimum are excellent as cut flowers for your home, and lasting up to 10 days in a vase. Erysimum Bowles's Mauve is loved by bees, easy to grow, rabbit resistant and grows to an approximate height of 75cm and spread of 60cm, preferring well-drained soil in sun or part shade.

Supplier: Hayloft

Cost: £14 for 3 plants

Aquilegia vulgaris 'Lime Sorbet'

“This beautiful, pale limey-white aquilegia, or Granny's bonnet, is ideal for drifting through a calm-coloured bed and makes one of the best upper storey flowers you can grow, its delicate, pretty flowers standing out above the rest of the bunch. I love it.

Aquilegias are invaluable for flowering in May and early June when there is very little colour in the garden. They will thrive in sun or partial shade.”

Supplier: Sarah Raven

Cost: £1.95 for 25 seeds

Rose Bed and Opposite Wall with Bench

Saxifraga stolonifera

Attractive, rounded, fleshy leaves, with strong veining on the top side and pink-purple colouration on the undersides. Spreading by red coloured stolons. Flowering late spring to mid summer, white uneven sized petals, with the uppermost petals marked with pink spots. Growing on shady cliffs and similar in the wild, so would prefer a damp, shady position, with shelter. Will survive in a garden setting, if not frozen. Placement under an evergreen shrub, in a woodland setting would be best, or grow in a pot amongst a shrub.

Supplier: Beth Chatto

Cost: £6.00 for 9cm pot

Pachyphragma macrophyllum

To see under trees and shrubs an established carpet of these large round green leaves overlapping to make weed-free cover is very pleasant all summer. Veins and stems become purple tinted in winter. As snowdrops fade showy heads of white cress-like flowers appear early in March before new leaves emerge.

Supplier: Beth Chatto

Cost: £7.50 for 1L pot

To add more balance and rhythm to the planting I would suggest adding a repeating pattern of evergreen perennials to the feet of both the rose and the jasmine borders. These will add interest all year, compliment the “show stopper” plants by flowering demurely in spring and summer and give the garden key autumn / winter interest.