Dearest gardening whizzes - I need some suggestions for a fab focal back of border plant

[DowagersHump]

I have a teeny border. We moved just over a year ago and I gave up my enormous London garden for a teeny one because we now live within spitting distance of the beach (I know, it's ironic giving up a large city garden for a small one in the country but there you are). I dug up an area of grass in said teeny garden to make a teardrop shaped border around 3m at its widest x 5m.

I planned the planted v carefully but have come horribly unstuck as this chalky soil does not behave at all like the London clay I'm used to. Things self-sow rampantly! And grow enormous rather than struggling feebly.

So my Macleaya cordata which was my wonderful focal point last year is now about 4m tall (I'm not exaggerating, truly), has stems as thick as my wrist and is frankly an evil triffid). Plus it has self-sown everywhere.

What can I plant that has the wow factor, won't grow too big (or at least can be pruned) but is upright rather than bushy? All the shrubs I can think of are likely to consume my precious teeny border.

Or should I forget having something exciting in the back and just go for a load of random things?

I also have VB, ranunculus, eryngiums, astrantia, dahlia and echinacea in the border, along with some lower growing things at the front (heuchera, alchemilla and stipa tenuissima)

I was going to suggest hollyhocks, but maybe that's not quite right either? Eremurus? Crambe cordifolia (which likes the sea air)?

My macleaya died off years ago. Sob.

Although those are all upright, they are possibly too tall.

Ooh the crambe might work! Although if the spread is 1.5m I am going to have to be very judicious with pulling it up.

My VBs are 2m tall. I never thought I'd complain about good soil (I put my sister's well rotted horse manure down too and now I'm really regretting it) :o

I would be v happy to send you some macleayas Maud. I have about 5 self-sown ones (as well as the Evil Triffid Mother Plant)

That's kind of you, Dowager, but my garden is so full now I'd struggle to find a spot for it (and there is the worry that it obviously doesn't like the soil here). Would it be happy in a pot, I wonder?

Oh, and what about thalictrum?

I should sell stuff at the PTA!
Thalictrum might work. I tried to grow that in London and it never did much but who knows how it will fare here and something less dense will cope with the wind better.
I just looked up macleaya on the RHS and it says it grows to a max height of 2.5m in 2-5 years. So I will use that as my guide. I think if I choose something with a max height of 1.5m, it should be okay.

Maud has beaten me to it! I was going to suggest thalictrum. I have one and its got very little horizontal spread with very fine leaves so doesn't shade things beneath/beside it. I think mine's thalictrum delavayi (sp?) although RHS says height to 1.5m mine is at least 2m possibly more, very lovely and not too dominating. Also RHS recommends partial shade but mines in full sun in pretty fertile soil.

How about a ligularia or an aruncus (one of the big ones not the dwarf kneiffii)? Both of these grow well on clay and I should know! Thalictrums are lovely, too, one of my favourites especially delavayi and delavayi album. Gorgeous.

Or you could try a small clematis up a pillar/cone structure to give you the height?

Thanks for those suggestions OWW - will have a look at them. I had thought about growing a clematis up a structure - I bought a new one the other day to fill the gap because I am going to have to chop down the triffids. They look ridiculous and are so tall and sturdy that no amount of staking helps. I feel a bit guilty about killing it though. It did too well :(

I have a philadelphus on the other side of the garden which doesn't really deliver, maybe I should move the macleaya and its offspring over there instead :o

I am a thalictrum convert too now!

You sound like you're looking for a herbaceous/flowering plant, but if it's away from the edge of your tear-drop (god, v jealous, I could never get away with taking up the lawn!) how about a shrub which would provide year-round structure? I love this columnar berberis which I saw at Capel Manor in Herts (clay soil I think) at a couple of metres high and maximum dinner-plate size in cross section. Wish I had a spot for it.

Also, assuming you can get into the border to prune/take flowers etc, what about things which are useful as well as structural - Globe Artichoke, Cardoon, or a minarette fruit tree?

Oh yes. Minaret fruit trees are the bees' knees, especially if you grow a small clematis up them.