What are your must have plants?

[Imicola]

Just wondering which plants you'd always choose to have in your garden, and why?

Mine tend to be self seeders like forget me not (which reminds me i need to sow some!), hardy geraniums for the profusion of flowers, japanese anemones because they look dainty and airy in the border, and lots of herbs for cooking. For a bit of evergreen shape and winter scent, sweet box. Oh, and fantastic ground cover from woodruff.

What are yours?

Peonies.
Poppies.
Nepata for bees.

Sedums. Butterflies love them, slugs don't. Fabulous shape and colour in the early autumn at a time when the other perennials are looking a little straggly.

Hydrangeas
Foxgloves
Lupins
Salvias
Geums

Forget me nots (they have self seeded all over my patio in the cracks), hardy geraniums, English lavender, hardy fuchsia, lots of herbs, lots of bulbs, aquilegia, aubrieta, sweet peas. California poppies, calendula, borage.

Box plants for structure
Iris’
Nepeta (cat mint)
Salvias
Roses
Peonies
Geums
Geraniums
Alliums
Poppies
Sedums
Hebes
Hydrangea
Lavender
Rosemary

Then I do yearly planting with things like cosmos, and snapdragons

We not too long ago redesigned our garden and it’s something that I am learning about year on year knowing what our soil likes.

I have recently had huge success with Dame rocket which looks fabulous and gives huge white heads of pretty little flowers. Not unlike phlox. It had enormous spread too.

Camellias, Azaleas, pentunias, jasmine, and non stop begonias. For non flowering I love palms,, my husband loves acers, but they are deciduous, so rather sad in winter, palms balance it out.

For climbers wisteria and clematis.

I love Japanese Anemone too - they are my favourite flowers - so long flowering too.
I’m a bit obsessed with Geums - I have some in my garden (Bell Bank I think) and the colour is dreamy.
Smoke Bushes again I find the colour dreamy!
I love herbs too, especially Rosemary and Bronze Fennel. I’ve haven’t got any at the moment though as making an area for them to go in.
Im always drawn to white Hydrangea and white Lavender too.

Nasturtiums. I am obsessed with nasturtiums.
Also brunnera for ground cover, lovely leaves and bright blue flowers.
Really want to get my forget-me-nots going.
Herbs.
Anything thats grey or silver as I love the contrast with bright green.

I had some Japanese anemone and are still quite small and have not flowered yet. This is their second summer. I wonder why?

I also have it’s odd lemon balm which grows like crazy so I’m digging that all out today and moving some things around.

I have a small patio garden so everything is in pots & it's only in the past 3 years I've really taken an interest in it. Here's my list which are well established -

Hydrangea
Hosta
Rhododendron
Agapanthus
Bay tree

Then I've added these in the past 2 years and are doing well -

Azelea
Pierus
Palms
Acer trees
Lilies
Alliums
Wisteria

And here's what I'm trying out this year -

Clematis - I've not got the right type though (too much sun where they are)
Bamboo for screening
Angels trumpet

I'm going to check out the PPs ones as I like looking into other unusual plants. I enjoy watching carol klein as she brings up plant ideas that look wonderful.

@nimbuscloud oh, i love peonies but my only attempt to grow them ended in disaster... perhaps i should try again!

@Oenanthe i shall add sedum to my list to try... we have plagues of slugs and snails that eat everything, including things thay should be slug proof...pulmonaria, astrantia. We have v damp soil though, so not sure where I'd put them.

Lots of other suggestions that i would agree with! We had a lot more in our previous garden which i loved (jasmine, wisteria, echinacea, erigeron, verbena) but I'm not sure would work here... that garden was hot, sunny and sandy... now we are wet, shady, clay! Geums i am trying for the first time, and so far they are doing really well.

Also a couple i forgot for stature in the shade are fatsia and mahonia.

@Atalune Japanese anemones flower later in the year. My foliage is currently about a foot high, but they should be sprouting quickly now. Hope they come good for you! Lemon balm is lovely but does indeed spread a lot! Maybe i should add some, we had a big clump in our previous garden.

@girlonamission oh, agapanthus is a good one, i have a lovely big pot of that! The clematis i have not had much luck with as something, presumably slugs or snails, always eat the growing tips.

Hydrangea (my favourite)
Rhododendron (my soil type is ideal for them so I can just plant and leave)
Mock orange gives height and screens off the back fence.
Buddleia the same plus the bees and butterflies love it
Ferns as they grow well in shady hard to plant areas.
Sedums as they are great to fill gaps and if you need another plant just break a bit off and stick it in the ground ad job done.
Camellia for early colour in shady spots
Solomon’s seal great for shade under trees
Roses for scent
Fushia as my grandad always grew them
Tree lilies for height and scent
Weigela again for early colour low maintenance and hardy
Sunflowers as they are easy and so cheerful looking.

Things that self seed like mad round my garden:
Hardy geraniums, forget me nots, pulmonaria, foxgloves, campanula, oriental poppies, european bluebells (grrrr, hate them, trying to get rid of them is a nightmare!), lots of herbs.
Things that don't do well:
Japanese Anenome's, Alliums, Echinacea, aquilegia (some years good, some bad)
Things I always have and give structure:
Roses, mock orange, amelanchier, crab apples.

English lavender
Rosemary
Sage
Thyme
Oregano
Hydrangea (white or blue, never pink)
Four-petalled clematis
Roses (pink or white, DD is trying to persuade me to get yellow too)
Armeria - I love their little tufty heads, all varieties
Tulips- white ones are my very favourite flowers
Cerastium (?) -snow in summer
Alpines- all sorts, I love saxifrages, phloxes, saponaria, Veronica, lithodora, scillas, teeny mini dianthuses, aubretia, lobelias etc

So wish I had room for a rockery- a tiny trough garden has to be it for now.

Larger- I love birches in a garden, as they give such gentle, dappled shade, and sound heavenly in a breeze.
I'd like a couple of fruiting apples, pears, plums, apricots too...and an olive tree or two.
Just a dream at present

If you have poor soil, Tunisian (Moroccan??) Irises are really pretty, and need no care whatsoever, come back year after year, flower in spring, then just the leaves (which are long and shaped like daffodil leaves, or a large grass) for the rest of the time, but a pleasant green.

I’m a rubbish gardener but things I’ve managed not to kill include

Acers - mainly because they are DH’s speciality. We have about 20.
English Lavender
Rosemary
Roses
Honeysuckle
Clematis
Chives and alliums at this time of year. I know chives spread but I love them.
We have a couple of apple trees which look gorgeous when the blossom is out.
Aquilegia.
Poppies.

I’m not great with Dahlias or delphiniums both of which I adore.

Wallflower, Euphorbia mellifera, perennial stock Mathiola incana, honeysuckle, sweet peas, later flowering honeysuckle - a succession of perfume from spring to late summer. Viburnum bodnantense to take the scent over the winter.

Wild daffodils, white musk mallow for the profusion and delicacy.

I'm going to stop there, because if I don't I will list pretty well every plant that I have in my garden. Which is the biggest reason I'm not considering downsizing.

Scented rose, paeony, honeysuckle, lavender, rosemary, sage, thyme, mints, marjoram, bay. Clove pinks, sweet Williams, pansies, sweet peas, forget-me-nots, nasturtiums. Lily-of-the-valley (finally, finally, I have got it to survive more than one season!)
Snowdrops and crocuses - the first flowers of spring are soimportant. Hyacinths, daffs and trips, too.
Irises, especially the ones from Mum's garden (iris siberica.)

Heucheras; love the variety of leaf colours.
Sedums; fill bare spaces easily
Hostess; leafy and tropical-looking and can be used in pots to fill spaces
Foxgloves - elegant and great for bees
Thymes - useful in the kitchen as well as a great variety of green colours.

Fruit trees! I love them, the pollinators love them, the fruit is great, the dappled shade is lovely. We have 2 apples, 2 plum, a cherry, a pear, a quince and a medlar.

A good range of clematis to give us flowers from April to autumn.

Daffodils and fritillaries.

A well stocked herb garden near the kitchen door.

Poppies, cosmos, sweet peas, columbine, sweet William, delphiniums and foxgloves on the flower borders.

My must haves are;

Lavender
Foxgloves
Sweet peas (I grow them annually from seed)
Bulbs esp tulips and alliums
Roses
Violas and pansies
Poppies

Roses
Peonies
Clematis
Daphne
Hydrangea
Lavender
Poppies
Allium Purple Sensation
Box
Winter jasmine
Camellias
Acer
Robbia
Amelanchier
Contorted haze
Weeping larch
Wisteria

Honeysuckle
English lavender
Sage/Rosemary/Thyme/mint/parsley
Apple trees
Geraniums (the wild type)
Strawberries and alpine strawberries
Vines
Hop
Roses roses roses roses roses roses roses roses

Violets
Roses
Forgt-me nots
Aquilegia
Rosemary
Chives
Japanese maples
Tomatoes
Calendula
Honeysuckle
Cotoneaster

Any kind of daisies