Clueless - showy full sun plant ideas please!

[GidgetGirl]

I've got a very small but very sunny south facing front garden in front of my little terraced house, with a c.2ft high wall. It's been paved for many years but I'm planning on taking up some of the slabs over the next few months so I can plant directly in the ground.

I want to plant something lovely that will flower beautifully for a decent length of time in the spring/summer. I've not had much luck with roses before as they always seem to get absolutely ravaged by greenfly round here. My neighbour has a lovely big peony bush in his front garden which blooms like crazy, but obviously only for a very short period.

So, I'm after the following:

Height - something that will pop up over the 2ft garden wall.
Showiness - lovely showy flowers that will make people smile when they walk past.
Blooming period - something that has a relatively long blooming period
Perennial? - would be good not to have to replace it every year, so perennials or shrubs?

Any ideas? I saw a lovely Dahlia Clair de Lune the other day that was still flowering like mad, but I don't like the thought of having to faff about taking up tubers in winter, etc. I'm very new to gardening..

In a sheltered garden you might not have to dig up the dahlia - many people in the UK leave them in and they're fine. I was going to suggest dahlias 😁

A sunny garden will allow you to grow most flowers, to be honest. I would have a look through some books and see what grabs you. Crocus website is good for filtering to your shade/soil type.

A cistus would look nice, there's one in a similar sounding front garden near me and I love walking past it during the summer. Seems to be in flower for ages

I was coming on to say exactly the same as @SnapdragonToadflax ! More and more people are leaving dahlias in the ground as the winters get milder and they're absolutely fine- just give them a good deep mulch in the autumn to protect them from the worst of the winter frosts, and make sure you deploy some slug protection for the young shoots in the spring. I've got peonies and dahlias planted in the same spot- the dahlias take over in summer once the peonies have finished. The dahlias are still going gangbusters right now 😁

I have lupins in a sunny spot and they are stunning. Mine have bloomed consistently from May and are still in flower at the moment.

Hydrangea bushes flower all summer and look lovely in winter with the seed heads too.

Or Salvia Amistad will flower from May to November - mine are still in full swing. But they might die in a hard frost; I mulch some of mine and dig a few up to over winter in a frost free place to be on the safe side.

Thanks so much all! Some really interesting options. Interesting to hear that dahlias may well survive winters in the ground here and I'm sure you're right, I live in a city in the midlands and it's relatively mild. I love lupins too - hadn't thought of those.

After living in flats for my whole adult life so far this will be the first time I've had the opportunity to plant into the ground rather than just in pots, and I want to make the most of it! Not totally sure what the soil type but Soilscapes says the following - Slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soil.

So, not particularly well-draining. Generally speaking, whatever I end up planting, I'm presuming it'll be best to do this in the spring?

A hydrangea would be good for size and big summer flowers. You can get spectacular variants at the moment. If you've got enough space around it, put in some bulbs now for spring colour, and some half hardy annuals once the risk of frost has gone - gazanias are very smile-inducing.

Now, while the soil is still warm, is an ideal time to put in shrubs and herbaceous perennials so there's no need to delay if you're keen to make a start.