what flowers/plants are the easiest to grow, that come back each year?

[whiteandyellowiris]

so far we have done quite well with strawberries, they have come back, a fushia, dianthus, mini apple tree, and some lillies look like that are coming back, but no buds yet

so looking for a few more ideaas

[EleanorFarjeon]

We have masses of phlox in a deep border - they're great for later colour.

I planted a new bed of hydrangeas last year - they all seem to be doing well.

We have a row of 8 box along a path which are clipped into balls. The clipping is a complete pita, but it's only once per year and they look lovely.

I want more structure in the garden and I have my eye on 2 twisted bay trees in my local garden centre. £100 each though - gulp!

[Dancergirl]

I like standard rose bushes. When can they go in?

[waxlyrical]

I planted a campion in my block of clay garden last year and it has had really pretty bright pink flowers for weeks now. You do see them at the side of the road as weeds though but I don't care as its really eye catching.

[Brillig]

Agree that astrantias are lovely, and there are plenty of pink-flowered ones for you, OP.

I'd also suggest sedums as striking, architectural-looking clump-formers. The leaves are the main attraction but they do flower, and they look lovely in spring when they start to unfurl a littl erosette of green from the ground.

If you're after a fence climber, OP, I can recommend Actinidia kolomikta - I think it's a non-fruiting cousin of the kiwi fruit. It likes a sunny spot but it has the most beautiful green leaves that gradually get flushed with pink and white at the tips. I have one and it's just lovely at the moment.

[EugenesAxe]

Dancer - now would be OK if in containers. Bare root you usually plant around Oct - Dec. I think the idea with them is that they root before very cold weather sets in. They are cheaper than container roses; David Austin online are great for all roses and you could order your bareroot plants there for this winter. Rhododendrons flower Apr-May usually (bit later this year) so you've probably missed them in that respect, but theoretically you could plant anytime? Never had to do it TBH... I just have them in my garden.

These are good perennials:

Penstemon
Phlox
Michaelmas daisies
Perennial geranium
Foxglove
Aquilegia (columbine)
Hypericum (shrub)
Japanese anemones
Heuchera
Clematis Cezanne (for borders)

[whiteandyellowiris]

thanks for all the tips, I will have to take a fair bit of time to go through them all, as I need to look a lot of this stuff up

I do love raspberries, but are they spikey?i can't be doing with anything dd could fall onto and end up covered in prickles!

been to two garden centers today, looking for things you've suggested, i'm going to need a fair few quid, although I suppose I can do it bit, by bit, year by year

[LastTangoInDevonshire]

Poached Egg Plant - self seeds every year and gives a profusion of plants (and the bees love it):

www.rhs.org.uk/Children/For-families/Plants-to-grow-with-kids/Poached-egg-plant

[FryOneFatManic]

The hedge along our front garden is rosemary. Grows nicely and when trimmed I have herbs for the kitchen.

[Openyourheart]

Vinca has beautiful flowers and seems to be hardy. It is shrub though and grows fairly big eventually. Also, I love my camellia.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Eleanor - I did my own twisted bay tree, starting with a young and pliable cutting. It's a slow business, but I got there in the end.

[VerySmallSqueak]

OP if your DD is little it may be a good idea to check which plants are poisonous before you plan your garden.

I would avoid foxglove,lily of the valley, and euphorbia (milky irritant sap),to name a few.

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

Lupins and Hostas!

[Murtette]

When you say that you want plants that come back year after year, do you necessarily mean perennials (i.e. things that completely die back & disappear under the soil in the winter and then re-appear in the spring) as that means that, wherever those plants are, the garden will be bare in the winter. Whilst you may want some of those, I expect you'll probably also want shrubs which, if deciduous, will at least keep their shape in the winter or, if evergreen, will keep their leaves as well. Some of them have variegated or coloured leaves which adds a bit of interest.
If you're looking for climbers, I recommend Clematis Jingle Bells which flowers in December/January and its so nice to see something in bloom then. And forsythia seems impossible to kill and is really bright and cheerful in February when everything is grey and it seems as though it will never be spring.

[rubybambini]

I've got a purple / blue / silvery-white thing going on in a SW-facing border, which gets sun from about 1pm, but never really dries out (I'm in London). I chose these for ease, for colour and for their bee and butterfly friendliness.

For summer month flowering, June - September, I have verbena bonariensis (www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/verbena-bonariensis/classid.3696/) at the back, then dotted in the mid-height, scabiosa Butterfly blue (see it www.gardenersworld.com/plants/scabiosa-butterfly-blue/2374.html), White globe thistles (www.perennials.com/plants/echinops-bannaticus-star-frost.html), some rosemary, cat mint and astrantia, then erigeron daisies at the front (see it www.sarahraven.com/shop/erigeron-karvinskianus.html). This should all come back year after year, frosts permitting.

In the spring, this border is taken over by some bog-standard forget-me-nots, which I just let do their thing. I've planted tonnes of muscari and narcissi too, including 'Hawera', which flowers late and is very strongly perfumed (www.sarahraven.com/shop/narcissi-hawera.html).

Autumn is a bit uninteresting, but a frosty winter looks pretty on the thistle! Otherwise, not much winter interest.

[digerd]

Everything is late in the SE.
You can plant anything now if grown in a pot. Most roses are not and normally are bare rooted to be planted in November. You may get roses in a pot at larger garden centres and at least you can see them blooming and plant now. But probably not standard roses.

My DD inherited a jasmine grown on the fence - BEWARE_ the long stems are growing under the lawn and at the back of the whole length of fence in several layers and rooted into the soil.

I have a yellow leaved climbing jasmine on an arch which must face the sun - south.

[digerd]

My lilies have been skeletonised by those red beatles. I find them in pairs mating and the grubs are disgusting and what devours the leaves.

Only have one type now which they don't seem to like,but they have no perfume My favourites were Stargazer, but all died

[Taffeta]

We have and I love...
Roses - do fine if fed w toprose x 2 pa
Hardy geraniums
Lavender
Rosemary
Peonies
Sweet rocket
Dill
Chives
Cistus
Foxgloves
Dianthus carthusianorum
Verbena bonariensis
Eryngium
Tulips
Scabious

[Taffeta]

Oh and iris. We have sunbaked dry chalky oil.

[stubbornstains]

Ooh ruby!Take away the white globe thistles and add Japanese anemone and some mad bastard magenta opium poppies and that's my front border!
(but my scabious is white). I only discovered those daisy things were called erigeron today, actually- previous to that they were just "those daisy things that grow on everyone's walls round here".

OP- toddlers love raspberries. They will ignore the prickles in order to strip the bushes bare.

[Taffeta]

*Soil.

[NorksAreMessy]

This thread is made for me. Thank you whiteandyellowiris

[agnesf]

Anthemis Sauce Hollandaise - lovely pale yellow daisy flowers with ferny folliage - flowered non stop from June to end of Sept last year.

[agnesf]

Oh also for people with clay soil who want something big and bold - we had a huge clump of Helenium Lemon Queen in our old city garden - 4ft tall bright yellow daisy flowers.

[InMySpareTime]

Digerd, the red beetles are lily beetles. You need to squish them whenever you see them! They are tricky to squish, I use either two stones or a trowel against a stone.

[unlucky83]

Saw someone mention ladies mantle -
Hate the stuff- spreads everywhere...(and I know you should cut the heads off before they seed but never get round to it in time)
Also welsh poppies - they take over and you have to pull out the roots too to get rid of them...again dead head but never there in time ...

I love my herbs -creeping thyme - great low ground cover, and lots of colours of leaves and flowers and un-kill-able! lavender, sage, mint, feverfew (spreads!) and my favourite (but also spreads) marjoram - the bees/butterflies love the flowers and it smells lovely ...even though a bit neglected (neighbours are immaculate!) I have had neighbours complimenting me on my garden because it smells lovely as they walk past...
We had two fantastic rosemary bushes but they both died back -not sure if it was the harsh winter in 2010...but now one of my lavenders (English, cooking) seems to be suffering the same fate - maybe I have some nasty mildew bug in soil ??? -but this is a different border and other lavender (french) seems fine...(other thing it might be -got rid of a couple of large shrubs and some of the roots were left rotting in ground - which I have heard causes nitrogen depletion...)

I love forget-me-nots and bluebells - and they both spread...
Peonies - I have fantastic red ones...
Lilies -yellow ones, beautiful perfume and come up every year...
Hate Iris (have some) they don't surpress weeds and their bulbus roots are a pain to weed round (I usually pull lots up! -would get rid of them all but a neighbour gave them to me and think they might be offended if I got rid of them all together)

After I wrote this I realised the things that spread that I hate are the ones that hard to pull up!