New border, plant suggestions please

[Granny6435]

Plant suggestions please for narrow border in front of wall. Visible from kitchen so all round colour would be good, about knee height plants. Full sun until early afternoon.

How about a lavender border under planted with spring bulbs for early colour.
You could do a mix of several different lavenders. Munster and hidcote would look good together.

That wall is gorgeous, and crying out for an espaliered fruit tree of some description! Choose one carefully and you could have blossom, fruit and autumn leaf colour.

Oh sorry, you were asking about plants for the border.

The hardest season for all round colour is going to be winter, you could try a cornus for a real splash of colour, one decent one would do, it would warm your heart every time you saw it. Underplant with bulbs for spring.

You have a seating area there so I would want something scented, lemon balm perhaps which is a nice colour too. Summer is easy really, good herbaceous plants that look after themselves cranesbill, salvias and penstemon. Maybe some crocosmia, doesn’t come more colourful than a lucifer. I would also like a bit of height and movement so would put a pretty grass in there somewhere.

Some sedums for autumn colour, and bee friendly too.

But, oh, that wall.............

I love Heuchera for year round colour. You can get many varieties in different colours

Wallflowers would give you year round colour - the most popular is Bowles Mauve but there are plenty of others. They're a short lived perennial, so you'd have to replace in time, but with good maintenance they look lovely.

Salvias would be amazing and very low maintenance in that sunny spot - colour from June to November, depending on the variety.

And I agree about the wall!

Astrantia are lovely easily maintained perennials. They do die down in winter, but pop up when the spring bulbs are over.
Alstroemerias are also lovely long flowering perennials.

How deep is the border front to back?

If the wall gets sun most of the day it will look fabulous with some climbers against it. I'd put something like a clematis Armandii which is evergreen and winter flowering in and a summer clematis too. Winter jasmine would be good and prefers something to grow against. You could add some trellis or obelisks to support climbing plants or vine eyes and wires as the wall is attractive in its own right. Jasmine and honeysuckle for perfume when you're sitting out in summer.

We've got a Chinese witch hazel which has purply/brown leaves all year round and bright pink spiky flowers. Put some spring flowering bulbs in this autumn. Daffs, narcissi and hyacinths are reliable.

I'd put two or three lowish growing shrubs in, spaced out with climbers in between - that arch will look lovely with something growing over it. Perennials between the shrubs and in front of the climbers. Creeping phlox provides evergreen ground cover and flowers in summer to cover the soil and suppress weeds.

I like Coronilla, lovely fragrant flowers and evergreen foliage. Mine is growing up a south facing wall and has been flowering since maybe December and still in full bloom now.
www.thompson-morgan.com/p/coronilla-valentina-subsp-glauca-citrina/t71403TM

YY to the PP who suggested the espalier!

Must do.

Underneath - Catmint, Anthemis, Pervoskia and Leucanthemum Becky is a naice simple modern country garden combo.

Btw the above is not all year round colour. Sometimes you need to sacrifice winter for a summer display. I suggest on a bed this small that you do just that.

I am a real fan of evergreens but if you have a bad year you end up having to cut them back for fresh growth every few years anyway. Herbaceous is much more reliable if you want it looking good every spring/summer.

Thanks for all the suggestions (and wall compliments). Some great ideas there.