New to English Gardening

[Nix01]

Hi all,

Have been lurking here for a few months gaining advice for my new English garden.

We've recently moved to Hampshire with a smallish north facing garden (gets lots of sun though) and have started pruning back all of the overgrown shrubs, creepers and masses of weeds to discover we have lots of bed space to use.

Ideally, I'd like lots of colour for as much of the year as possible. Can you suggest some plants to me to add to my list below (please also feel free to critique below list):

Aquilegias
English tea roses
Poppies
Camelia
Rhodenondron
Azalea
Gladioli
Delphinium
Heather
Bizzie lizzie
Ranunculus

Thank you

It might be worth popping along to a local gardening club to see what grows well locally. I only live 40 miles from my DM but she has chalky soil and I have heavy clay and we have very different luck with some plants.

Great idea, I'll look that up right away. The soil looks awful at the moment :(

This is nice
www.wildflowers.co.uk/cms/
Gertrude Jekyll, Christopher Lloyd and Beth Chatto's books are worth getting from the library
Also , current English gardens have fruit and vegetables growing!

Also this site
www.rhs.org.uk/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=mv_master&utm_content=brand%20-%20national&utm_term=rhs
and this one to find local gardens to visit
www.ngs.org.uk/

Japanese anemones, hardy geranium especially johnsons blue and psilostemon, cephalaria, Knautia Macedonia, spring bulbs, crocosmia especially hellfire or lucifer, sweet peas. I could go on forever!

Thank you very much. I've just joined the library so will certainly look out for those books. I haven't heard back from the gardening club as yet :(

my favourite bushy plants are heather, hebe, peonies and hydrangeas.

my favourite climbers are winter jasmine and semi evergreen orange/red honeysuckle.

I like heucheras (quite low shrubs) because they come in so many varieties and add year round colour (colour of leaves changes throughout the year)

where in Hampshire ....
have a wander round Hilliers (if in the south) or Wisley (if in the north) and soak up the ideas

Camelias, Rhododendrons, Azaleas and some Heathers won't grow in limey soil, so if you really want these, be prepared to have containers, (unless soil's acidic enough).