What are your most forgiving plants?

[SalaciousCrumble]

I got carried away this spring and spent hours nurturing and growing larkspur and stocks to find them munched or wilting the second I turned my back. On the other hand I lobbed a couple of packets of poppies and night scented stocks on a bare patch in a corner and left them and now have a stunning display with no effort.

Same for perennials - foxgloves and hollyhocks have come up from seed and reliably bring me joy but I either over- or under-prune salvias each year or they just give up after a couple of year. Delphiniums too - they just get slugged and lose the will to try no matter where I put them!

I'd love to know which forgiving plants work for other people. What have you just bunged in and keeps going despite neglect or bad management??

Another vote for hardy geraniums. Also heucheras - a couple have failed but generally they seem unfussy and do very well.

I have grown nasturtiums from seed for two years. They look beautiful and take very little care. But if you are unlucky they can get black aphids.

Shasta daisies are an easy and reliable perennial and bloom in August. Also echinacea.

At my old home I had a clump of bright pink asters that bloomed beautifully late summer every year.

Many clematis varieties are easy to grow.

Forget me nots go mad every spring. When they are finished pull them up, and shake them to reseed for the next year.

Liky of the Valley is very hard to kill and smells lovely.

Another vote for hardy geraniums.

Many of the ones already mentioned, also in a damp shady border astilbes and purple loosestrife- the latter do need some support but a tall half hoop each does the job.

The only trouble with some of these is that they keep going .... sideways. So they can take work to keep in check.

Wisteria is definitely not slow growing. Mine has grown about two foot in a fortnight!

God wisteria grows so so fast. It’s like a bloody weed. I’m constantly having to prune ours back. It’s one of the fastest, if not the fastest, climbers there is

Please don’t plant wild garlic unless in pots. It will spread and take over your garden. It’s a total thug. I’ve a significant problem with it every spring as my garden borders on ancient woodland.

Please don’t plant wild garlic unless in pots

Good to know. I really wanted to use wild garlic to fill the gaps in a white border I’ve been working on. It’s so pretty.

@PegasusReturns

Please don’t plant wild garlic unless in pots

Good to know. I really wanted to use wild garlic to fill the gaps in a white border I’ve been working on. It’s so pretty.

Maybe you can find a 'domesticated' white allium? The purple ones I've got seem reliable, increasing very slowly rather than being thuggish.

Thanks @ErrolTheDragon

The issue I have with alliums is I need good ground cover as the leaves always look so unsightly. I think they’re great for drama but need to be combined with something low and ground covering.

Wild garlic are alliums - though they do have more/wider leaves than most of the 'tame' ones. But then you get a lot of dying back yellowing leaf so I'm not sure they'd be great ground cover anyway.

I guess most things which are good ground cover do tend to be spreaders!

Yes, my wild garlic is in tubs but it did self-seed into another tub thankfully, so now have two tubs! Tastes lovely though.

If you like pretty perennials, definitely look at Penstemons. They are beautiful, low-maintenance, long-flowering (usually July-early Dec for us) and multiply incredibly!

Lemon balm and borage- both grow spectacularly well in my garden, but I appreciate most people would probably pull much of each out.
Brambles too love my garden

I have a tea rose bush which I do nothing to, which flowers repeatedly year after year- people stop to photograph the blooms, and they smell heavenly. I think a neighbour must prune it occasionally, though I've never caught them as it hasn't grown much further than when we moved in.

And some iris planifolia- absolutely gorgeous blooms, I don't do anything to them, they just come back year after year.

I'm a bit rubbish with everything that needs care...

I have a penstemon rescued from a skip three years ago which is thriving. Beautiful pink flowers.
Marigolds self seed really happily every year. As do forget-me-nots.
I have sage, the one for cooking, which I let flower and the bees love it. Just a good hard prune every year. Same with lavender.
I think my peonies are planted too deep as I have leaves but no flowers. They have only been in a few years, but I think it's the depth thats at fault.
Salvias, the non edible sage family type, tiny flowers but really popular. Again a good prune pretty much down to the ground and a huge display each year.
I have another plant which I bought in Lidl years ago and it's flowered really well every year. Beautiful tiny mid blue flowers. No idea what it's called though. EDIT just looked it up and it's this Caryopteris aka Blue mist shrub.
Winter flowering honeysuckle is thriving too. It was a tiny plant which we dug up when levelling the garden. It's huge now with shiny red berries. It offers a nice scent during the winter.
One plant I've not managed to grow with cuttings is the mock orange plant. I'd love one next to our outdoor dining area. I think I'm just going to have to buy one.

Those with wisterias, mines just finished flowering so when is the best time to prune so I get flowers again next year? I pruned it hard a few years ago and had no flowers, so prob at the wrong time of year.

Musk mallow. And the white ones (with just a hint of pink at the centre) are beautiful.

Welsh poppies.

I’ve no experience of the purple wild garlic, just the white flowering variety and honestly it’s a night mare. It’s a prolific spreader , ans as much as it’s pretty when the leaves and flowers are fresh, they die back to brown unattractive leaves. It proper stinks like strong garlic too. And when I say it spreads, it spreads even in your lawn. I spend an inordinate of time each year strimming the stuff back. I’d really caution anyone against planting it in their soil. It’s a known thug.😞

www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=384

I’ve no experience of the purple wild garlic,

Afaik there's no such thing... the purple alliums I mentioned are 'tame' ones.

[quote Bluntness100]I’ve no experience of the purple wild garlic, just the white flowering variety and honestly it’s a night mare. It’s a prolific spreader , ans as much as it’s pretty when the leaves and flowers are fresh, they die back to brown unattractive leaves. It proper stinks like strong garlic too. And when I say it spreads, it spreads even in your lawn. I spend an inordinate of time each year strimming the stuff back. I’d really caution anyone against planting it in their soil. It’s a known thug.😞

www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=384[/quote]
It’s not a variety, it’s a separate species. Onions are also Allium and I’ve not noticed people complaining that they’re invasive.similarly, the purple Alliums are a separate species

Bergenia
Rudbeckia
Asters
Sisyrhincium
Geranium Rozanne
Roses
Roses
Roses

Most forgiving...roses, astrantias, geums, hardy geraniums, persicaria, astilbe, foxgloves, euphorbia, Solomon's Seal, crocosmia, day lillies, macleaya cordata, trachystemon orientalis, borage, comfrey, lysimachia.

Least forgiving...achillea, erysium bowles mauve, verbena, verbascum, lavender, salvias, erigerons, heuchera - all of which died after one season or less. Think it's just too wet where we are ☹️

Heavenly bamboo (we bought ours from Eng. 18 yrs ago, over to Fr.) it was doing well and is now doing it's best ,it's a slow growing,pretty all year round, bamboo not thug. Honeysuckles are happy.

ALL salvia's ,sages, do very well, I love them, some have just self seeded from neighbours' gardens. Asters are happy. Wisterias hate me. Roses are so so but need mulching and watering to do well. Peonies not brilliant. Forget dahlias. I have Lilies are so so too. I love echinacea but it doesn't return my care very enthusiastically.

Oh lavender is fab. Rosemary is now happy since I stopped feeding them! Also tarragon in a big pot.

Another vote here for Alchemilla Molis (or Lady's Mantle) and Euphorbia.

Here to take notes. We have a holiday let (UK, South) where the garden only gets watered if guests are out when the gardener goes once a week! We need seriously hardy and low-maintenance plants.

Sedums definitely!
Plus a couple of Heuchera that seem to hang on no matter what.