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Gardening

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Original poster

Tell me your fantasy plants...

32 replies

thirteenbooks · 07/03/2021 09:22

... you know you have them! Those plants that you can't have (too big, wrong soil, wrong light, etc).

I love Gunnera manticata, but at full size it would take up about a quarter of my garden!

Same for Viburnum opulus (guelder rose). It would be perfect for this one spot in my front border... if it wasn't so big!

What would you have in your garden if there were no barriers to growing?

OP posts:
BewareTheBeardedDragon · 07/03/2021 19:16

I'd love some of the more fussy fruit trees - nectarine/peach/apricot but I can't be doing with trees that need the rain kept off them not to succumb to disease and haven't a glasshouse.

I'd love some of the berries that want acid soil but I have lime.

I'd love a bougainvillea but live in the uk without a suitable indoor retreat for it in winter.

So sad. There's loads more I can't think of just now.

MrsBertBibby · 07/03/2021 19:26

Acers! We're on chalk, so a lot of Japanese stuff wouldn't be happy here. I really do want to try a little one in a pot, though. Any suggestions?

MrsBertBibby · 07/03/2021 19:28

I bloody wish I could get California poppies to grow. They just won't, no way, nohow.

MilduraS · 07/03/2021 20:07

The magnolia figo! When I worked at a garden centre in New Zealand I used to always take a detour to sniff them. They smelled like chocolate to me but to everyone else it's like a banana split.

@MrsBertBibby I've had an acer in a pot for about four years. The one I bought was about two feet tall at the time. It's now probably 3ft-3 1/2 ft. They're very slow growing so it's nowhere near outgrowing the pot.

Labobo · 07/03/2021 21:02

Lobelia. Loads of them with some magic ingredient that stops the slugs from noshing them to the bone before they've taken.

And lavender - a huge bank of it. We are north facing, heavy clay so no chance.

AlanThePig · 07/03/2021 23:04

I’d bloody love a gunnera, and I have a perfect spot for one too. I’m just not sure if I’m brave enough to take one on.

Ive coveted a monkey puzzle tree for many years and MIL offered me £100 to buy one. Sadly when I researched where I could put it I realised with having the pond and very moist ground it would absolutely hate it. Still drive DH mad when we’re out pointing them out though.

I also love pampas grass, but it’s connotations (stupidly) stop me buying it.

WellTidy · 08/03/2021 11:48

I'd like Magnolia Susan, a purple small-ish variety. Nothing stopping me having one, but I'd like an established one, and they're more pricey. And I have other priorities right now!

AlanThePig · 08/03/2021 15:46

Right, I'm biting the bullet and asking my local friendly garden centre to order me a Gunnera manticata......

GuyFawkesDay · 08/03/2021 15:50

Trees. My garden is titchy and the few places we could have one we found old stumps of trees buried and we just couldn't get them out.

Lavender. Too clay based. It has to go in pots

MuddyWalks · 08/03/2021 15:50

Walnut tree.

heathergem · 08/03/2021 20:03

Angels trumpet, I'ld love one of these.

Lovemusic33 · 08/03/2021 20:20

My mum has a huge gunnera in her garden, she did offer me one of the seed things last year but I just don’t have the space, my garden is not small but it’s long and thin. My soil is awful so most of my plants are in raised beds. I would love a plum of greengage tree, would love more lavender for the bees and more lupins. Would also like a nice rose Bush (one that smells amazing).

OchreBlue · 08/03/2021 20:36

I love briar roses and other single flowered wild roses like rosa moyseii 'geranium' but I rent and can't fit a wild rosebush in a container! I'd love a meadow edge and woodland style garden too with lots of trees and big swathes of wildflowers. I'd just be told to clear the 'weeds' by the landlord if I tried it though. I love Camassias too and although I do grow a few in pots I always read how well they spread and naturalize and dream of a garden full of them under paper birch trees.

BewareTheBeardedDragon · 09/03/2021 12:03

I'd love all the tropical type plants that you can only have in the uk if you are willing to dig them up in autumn and replant them each year, or wrap them up carefully in fleece. I'm far too lazy for that. Sigh.

AlanThePig · 09/03/2021 12:12

Spoke to my local garden centre, she can get me a 10 litre pot gunnera for £20. Guess where I'm off to later this week 😂

applesandpears33 · 09/03/2021 13:21

I want a small palm tree but we don't think it'd survive here. I think I'm going to try it though and just take the risk. I'll wrap it up in the winter and keep my fingers crossed the cold winds and snow don't kill it off.

MaryIsA · 09/03/2021 13:28

Trees - I spend a lot of time researching trees for small gardens. I've planted a cornus contraversa variegata, a viburnum, a mountain ash and a deep pink flowering cherry. All of these are really too big for my front garden and all together when fully grown will make it difficult to get to the front door.

I take heart from a chance remark I heard on Gardeners' World. Most stuff can be kept in check with a good prune. So the cotinus I've also planted and the cornus - I'm just going to keep hacking back.

And once it's grown too big - get it dug up and replace it. Most of mine will take 20 years to grow too big - and I'll just have a tree surgeon fund!

I'm making plans for a hot trocical look in the south facing sheltered garden when I can finally start on that - and am eyeing up gunneras. Again - they can be hacked back!

Whitney168 · 09/03/2021 13:38

@MrsBertBibby

Acers! We're on chalk, so a lot of Japanese stuff wouldn't be happy here. I really do want to try a little one in a pot, though. Any suggestions?
Acers do really well in pots, @MrsBertBibby - go for it, they are wonderful. I've had them in pots for years on end. I 'top dress' them most years - remove as much compost from the top as comes away easily, throw in some slow release feeding granules, then top up with fresh compost. They all seem very happy.

The choice is endless, so depends what colour and leaf structure you like best. I'll make a recommendation of A. Palmatum Dissectum Garnet though, my big potted one looks like Sully from Monsters Inc. LOL.

If you're patient, you can buy cheap and small and they'll come on fine. Expensive if you want to buy a bit bigger.

This is a good site for showing you exactly what you're buying and what the 'form' of the tree is too.

Whitney168 · 09/03/2021 13:40

My fantasy plants would be a nice big tree fern and a standard wisteria. I can't face the pressure of paying that much money for a plant though, in case I kill them!

GCAcademic · 09/03/2021 13:44

Strelizia Reginae

And Himalayan blue poppies

@applesandpears33 - there are hardy palm trees like the Trachycarpus Fortunei or Wagnerianus. Mine has survived this winter without any wrapping. Assuming you're in the UK.

applesandpears33 · 09/03/2021 13:58

@GCAcademic - Yes, I'm in the UK. I'm on the east coast of Scotland though and although palms live quite happily on the west coast where they get the gulf stream I think they struggle a bit more here. I've kept an eye on some gardens near me and people seem to have a 50/50 success rate with them.

@mrsBertBibby - I have several acers in pots. If you have a cold, exposed garden I wouldn't recommend Going Green. I have had two of them and neither of them survived last winter. I also have a garnet coloured one and two with lacey leaves and they seemed OK even though their pots were next to the two that died.

BrideofBideford · 09/03/2021 14:20

A fig tree!

WellTidy · 09/03/2021 14:49

Someone on my road has a fig tree, in their front garden, no less. It is massive. Always huge amounts of figs, but they don’t ripen. Such a shame as I love figs and would happily eat one on my walks!

MaryIsA · 09/03/2021 15:15

I've had a fig tree in a pot for years - it's very happy - but only had edible figs twice. I'm in the north west though.

Acers - I've had ones in pots for years too - the really frilly ones I found harder to keep. My 2 favourite ones were rescues for a £1 each from Tesco. Had them years and they are doing really well.

I've got a Acer Katsura in a pot - I'll never be able to put it in the ground as it grows 4m x 4 m - but I reckon should get 10 or so years in a pot OK....

Lovemusic33 · 09/03/2021 15:51

My healthiest acer is one I got for £3 from Morrison’s.

I would love a monkey puzzle tree.