Help me chose some plants for my garden (online)

[Lovemusic33]

Looking to order some plants online, at the moment my garden isn’t very colourful, most of my plants are shrubs and most of my flowers flower mid summer so I’m looking for things to add colour, something that flowers in the spring and/or something that flowers spring and summer.

Also where’s the best place to buy online?

Shrubs or perennials?

The shrubs I have which are in flower now are rhododendron, cotoneaster, weigela, lilac, choisya, a few viburnum and azalea.

Camellia just finishing. Spiraea too. Expecting the early flowering hydrangea, abelia and cistus soon.

Or was it perennials you were after, to fill gaps?

Ceanothus and Passion flower and a few clematis in full flower too, and clematis Montana coming to an end.

Secret gardening club is great for inexpensive but small perennials.

Crocus is still delivering.

Late spring bulbs of the Allium family are lovely, but for planting another time perhaps.
Drifts of forget me nots, are lovely for gaps at this time and the perennial one is a Bunnera with beautiful leaves.

Erysimum (perennial wallflower) is in flower and lasts virtually all year. I’d go for the pinky orange variety, more interesting than the purple one.

I bought some sweet peas and thunbergia seedlings from Sarah Raven. I’d never bought plants online before and was very impressed with the quality when they arrived - very sturdy little plants that are romping away now I’ve planted them out.

I have a allium about to flower (next few weeks)

Never had much luck with Clementis .

Have a hydrangea but it’s not looking very healthy, only bought it last year so it’s still small. Looking for something tall with big flowers like lupins or fox gloves, most things I have have smaller flowers. I bought a few shrubs last year but I’m still waiting for them to grow, same with climbers (honeysuckle, Jasmine).

My garden quite a good size so maybe I need to go with bigger plants?

Just placed a order with the secret gardening club, couldn’t get lupins (sold out) but managed to get some other perennials.

Bigger plants sounds like a good way to go, or may be a combination of bigger and smaller plants?

You can get foxgloves and other cottage garden style flowers from Sarah Raven. They’re a bit pricey, but the plants I got from there have always been really good quality.

Do you have any roses? My roses have just started flowering and they create a real impact!

I get mine from the David Austen website. Olivia Rose Austin is always the first rose to flower in my garden, has huge flowers and is pretty low maintenance.

Some viburnums are spring flowering too. I’m growing one called Kilimanjaro, which is flowering now and will continue to flower all through May. No idea where you’d get something like that at the moment though. May be Crocus?

I have one climbing rose but it’s been ruined by bindweed coming through from next door , love roses and peony’s.

Also for impact maybe some hanging baskets, you can get preplanted ones from jparkers

If you’re looking for bushy, something that will give a lot of impact is salvia amistad. It’s a bushy perennial and will flower from July to October. Loves sun. I brought one in a 9cm pot from Sarah raven last year and it was superb. Salvia hot lips is the same.

Salvias are a good bet actually if you want colour. Cerise petosi did well for me last year too.

You could also plant nerines (bulbs) now, for late summer colour. Unless you’re after specific varieties, it can be cheaper to buy a mixed pack. They’re different shades of pink but you can get white too.

Some great ideas, I don’t have anywhere to hang hanging baskets, I do have bedding plants growing to go in my pots. I like the hot lips. I have been looking for some cat mint as I saw some in a garden we looked around last summer and the bees were going crazy for it, sadly it seems to be out of stock everywhere. We have a lot of bees in the garden so would like to chose some bee friendly plants, they love the lavender we have at the bottom of the garden.

My garden is long, I grow vegetables one side of the garden and the other side I have planted a few shrubs and climbers along the fence so I’m mainly looking for things to fill the gaps and to add colour. I have a shady area at the bottom where we have a pond and a rockery area which I planted up last year, that’s coming along well, I have a couple small trees planted there and some ferns as they seem to be the only thing that grows in the most shady part.

I will be planting more bulbs for sure as would love some early spring flowers, maybe some tulips.

Sedum is a good gap filler. Cranesbill geranium too.

If you like the hot lips, there are other salvias in the ‘lips’ collection, I think grape lips was one, and cherry lips. No idea how easy these are to get hold of though, I think an online nursery would be your best bet.