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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

underplanting a weeping cherry with summer flowers

6 replies

teta · 17/02/2012 19:50

I have 2 small weeping cherrys in a courtyard area in slightly raised beds.I heavily underplanted the area with lots of spring /early summer bulbs in layers but I have just realised that i havn't left sufficient room for summer flowers.What is the best option?.Planting with seeds that i can sprinkle over?.i have packets of poundlands blue flower mixture or just cornflower seeds.Or is it best to remove some of the bulbs?If i do this i will have room to plant delphiniums or something similar.Has anyone got any advice and can help me with any recommendations?

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HeteronormativeBuckethead · 17/02/2012 20:00

It's lovely to plant spring bulbs under a tree but this is the only time when you will get enough light to get a big floral display. The rest of the year the leaf cover will prevent flowering plants from doing their best.

Delphiniums need a lot of light and so do most summer mixtures, but you could try things like geraniums which can cope and will die back in the winter, giving your spring bulbs the chance to shine.

Geranium 'Ann Folkard' is a lovely cerise and Geranium 'Johnson's Blue' would look good with it.

Also, small grasses which would flourish and give you summer long colour would be Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens' (Black lily turf) and Festuca glauca 'Elijah blue' - a lovely steel blue tufty grass about 30cm high.

Plant in groups of three of the same plant and your space will look v professional.

teta · 17/02/2012 20:37

Thats a really good point Hetero....I completely forgot about the lack of light!.Yes i had geraniums there,before the rejig but they definitely didn't flower the whole summer-maybe because of the lack of light.I have just had a look on the crocus website and like the look of the small deep red-flowered geranium that will grow in shade and form drifts.Would that work?.I like really romantic cottage garden-type flowers that are in keeping with our old house.I'm not very keen on architectural planting,apart from some grasses in pots for winter.

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HeteronormativeBuckethead · 17/02/2012 23:45

Yes, I'd go for the red geranium. Crocus is a really good site for inspiration but expensive to buy from imho.
The grasses I mentioned are dumpy and keep their shape and colour all year, that's why I use them a lot.

Otherwise heuchera and tiarella are good for foliage - they do have flowers but it's the foliage that's the eye grabber with these ones really - from acid yellow to deep bronzed purple.

I like to use this site, which is blooming marvellous for ideas if you need to brighten up a shady spot.
www.plantsforshade.co.uk/

If you have another place with more sun I'd dedicate that for your cottage garden classics. The right plant in the wrong place will always look poorly.

teta · 18/02/2012 10:16

Thank you,thats a brilliant website and i absolutely want all of the plants.Yes, the Crocus website is really informative and very expensive and i think a bit fashion-led but i guess has its place.I think i'll go for one of the geraniums that will flower all summer.I think i have bulbs flowering from feb-may/june [i can't really remember what i've planted which is a lesson to make notes for next year].The muscari can be lifted and moved i guess to give space for the geraniums.But i have a large number of shady patches and this gives me lots of ideas for future planting.

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OneHandFlapping · 18/02/2012 10:18

Not only will the space under the cherries be shadey, but it will also be very dry, as the tree will take all the moisture from the soil. So look for plants that do well in DRY shade.

teta · 18/02/2012 12:09

Yes,will do one hand....geraniums look as though they will do well in dry shade.Brookside-a bright blue one is recommended for areas like these.

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