Perfect Planting Conditions for Hardy Perennials

This rain has been wonderful for our gardens, with the plants drinking it up and putting on lots of growth after a hot dry spell.

Now we have perfect planting conditions, it’s a good time to fill your garden with gorgeous hardy perennials.  We have lots of new plants this week to choose from including a beautiful selection from award-winning Howard Nurseries that have just arrived.

Here are some of my favourites – there are plenty more!
Actaea Chocoholic – this used to be called Cimicifuga and is a lovely tall dark leaved perennial with delicate looking flowers
Brunnera Dawson’s White – this is a really good variegated form, with blue flowers
Calamagrostis Karl Foerster & Overdam – two really nice varieties of grass, perfect for prairie planting schemes
Eryngium Jos Eijking – this is probably the best of the blue Sea Hollies, and is the one we grow here in our garden at Woodside and is much admired. Lovely to look at and irresistible to bees
Eupatorium Baby Joe – a compact form of Joe Pye Weed, with attractive purple flowers in late summer/autumn that are good for the butterflies
Geum Pink Petticoats & Totally Tangerine – two of the very best Geums, that have good strong colour, and flower for weeks throughout the summer.
Heleniums – fantastic late flowering perennials with daisy-like flowers, to give later interest in the garden. We have 4 varieties – Red Jewel, Wesergold, Moerheim Beauty and Short and Sassy
Persicaria – really good ground cover perennials that are easy to grow and have quite showy flowers too. We have four varieties of these – affinis Donald Lowndes, amplexicaulis Annes Choice, amplexicaulis Blackfield, and bistorta Superba
Sedum Herbstfreude – sometimes known as “Autumn Joy, this is probably the best of all the border Sedums, flowering quite late in the summer and persisting into autumn, providing a late food source for pollinating insects.

Other highlights

Look out too for packs of Lewisia and flowers for rockeries and alpine troughs, Rhodohypoxis in a variety of colours, Ophiopogon nigrescens (known as the “black grass” but not a grass at all – it’s actually a member of the lily family, and they’re just coming into flower now), Nemesias in three different colours and much, much more.

As you can tell, I’m very excited about our current range of plants and I very much recommend a visit to Woodside to fully appreciate the choice that we have. All our plants are container grown and can be planted all year round, and, as mentioned, planting conditions are now absolutely perfect with the warm weather and lovely rainfall.

Slugs

Remember that slugs like the rain too, so don’t forget to protect plants with slug pellets! We have a good range of eco-friendly slug pellets in the plant centre.

As usual, if you’d like anything reserved, to book a table in the tearoom, or have any questions, please call on 01835 830315. Emails and social media messages may go unanswered as none of us like computers – we much prefer plants!