I was excited to see the cover of Gardens Illustrated this month, as there was an article that caught my eye - ’30 best plants for looking good all year’. I’m always thinking about plants that look good all year round, because every planting plan I do, I want to include plants that have a stand out moment of real loveliness but then also be a foil to other plants for the rest of the year. In small gardens in particular, every plant has to work hard as it could be on show all year round.
However, I was disappointed with the list. Quite a few of the plants were beautiful but too unreliable for me to use them in planting plans (hello Echinacea!). Or they were just a bit low on value in the months when not in flower. So I thought I would write a list myself. Here’s my list of 15 great plants that have something to offer for at least 11 months of the year….and a few that are so good that they’re worth the down time. I’ll do part 2 next month to get to the full 30!
1. Perovskia ‘Little Spire’
Beautiful blue/purple flowers in Summer and then the stems turn a ghostly silver, looking great all winter. The new foliage looks lovely with spring bulbs.
2. Geranium Bevan’s variety’
An underrated Geranium with lovely soft apple green leaves, pink and white flowers and a really beautiful apple-like scent to the leaves. Evergreen foliage looks pretty all year, given a shear over at the end of the season.
3.Geum ‘Mai Tai’
Evergreen foliage in a plant that doesn’t get too big. Gorgeous little apricot pink flowers last ages if you keep deadheading them.
4. Persicaria bistorta superba
Chunky little pink marshmallows float on dark stems over heart-shaped leaves in June and July. Loves moisture and will retain its leaves all year. Its only vice is that it is a little invasive!
5. Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’
Stunning silvered leaves brighten up shady spots and the lovely starry flowers are held on wiry stems for weeks on end from March - May.
6. Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’
Dramatic deep purple spires throughout May and June give a vertical accent to planting. The leaves at the base are visible for most of the year.
7. Salvia ‘Amethyst Lips’
This is one of the many Salvias with woody stems that flower for months every summer. Amethyst Lips has pretty purple and white flowers that mix very happily with lots of other plants.
8. Iberis sempervirens
Not many planting plans that I do don’t include this little fellow. Just a happy, spreading, well-behaved evergreen with a neat little leaf and then lovely white flowers at the same time as the Spring bulbs are out.
9. Stipa tenuissima
This one is great but it has to be hot and it has to be low-fertility soil. Too wet/shady/rich and this grass will flop and a major pain. But in the right place, it’s a lovely, tactile, swaying buff plant with a gorgeous texture.
10. Anemanthele
Like Stipa, this is a lovely grass, with orange tints. It’s evergreen and very low maintenance.
11. Polystichum setiferum
A lovely soft fern with apple green fronds. Its only small, so will nestle in underneath bigger plants and create some space between them.
12. Dryopteris atrata
I’m a sucker for a dark stem and this beautiful fern has soft green fronds and almost black stems. It’s in leaf for most of the year, just needs a shear back in Feb and it’s looking good again almost straight away.
13. Sedum or Hylotelephium ‘Matrona’
By April this plant has a lovely mound of new growth in a very pretty green-grey colour. It stays like that for months and then by degrees puts up flowers which look wonderful in different stages. Cut down the old flower heads in Feb and it will be off again before you know it. Loved by pollinators, like lots of umbellifers.
14. Wisteria sinensis
Everyone’s favourite. Jaw dropping in May and lovely foliage for the rest of the growing season. Pruned properly it’s winter form is also very striking.
15. Phlomis russeliana
One of my favourites, mostly for the super seed heads that stay after the flowers have faded. The shapes are so strong in the border, and almost black. Pale green evergreen foliage that gleams with moisture on the leaves. Great weed suppressant. Clumps up brilliantly, self-seeds a bit. Delicious pale lemon flowers. Love it!
5 plants so good they're worth the down-time
1 Solanum crispum 'Glasnevin'
This large wall shrub in my garden has been flowering since late April and it's just finishing now. THe lovely lilac flowers have yellow centres and are really pretty. Becuase it's a shrub more than a climber it doesn't need tying in - though it does need pruning. Looks fabulous with roses. Not so pretty out of leaf as the stems are quite thick and bendy and has a slightly strange smell, but still worth it!
2. Deutzia "Mont Rose'
Beautiful long-lasting flowers make this one worth having in a sunny spot
3. Cotinus
They're deservedly very popular, but despite their ubiquity they provide incredible colour and beauty for 6 months of the year. Both 'Royal Purple' and 'Grace' are worth having.
4. Viburnum tomentosum
Medium sized spreading shrub which holds its flowers up on small stems so they float over the leaves. Deciduous but a show-stopper in May.
Rambling roses are starts of the show for 3 weeks and then return to being wild and difficult for the rest of the year. But those 3 weeks could be the happiest of your year while you admire your rose, so worth it!
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