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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Ideas what flowers I can plant on either side please

70 replies

Rosemaryandlavender1 · 27/08/2024 21:03

Good evening all.
I should give a word of warning that I am a beginner gardener. I inherited this rather large rosemary bush/plant when I purchased the house. However I would like to add some colour, something that's easy to maintain and grows easily that will ideally bloom for most of the year. The left side doesn't get as much sunlight but the right side to the rosemary does. Any ideas and tips please?

Ideas what flowers I can plant on either side please
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budnode · 01/09/2024 03:27

Some Japanese anemones can be but I looked up the one you bought and you should be fine, it'll just make a big clump about 50cm wide. Still might be better in a large pot though as it's a dwarf variety, meaning it's quite short so might always look a bit small next to the rosemary. Another, taller variety of anemone would be perfect for between the shed and rosemary as they like a bit of shade.

If you get a salvia, many are tender (meaning they will probably not survive the winter) I think a variety called 'hot lips' would be happy on the other side of the rosemary and in time will reach a good size (not blue though).

CatherinedeBourgh · 01/09/2024 06:33

Tulips will be fine in pots, but I'd usually wait a little longer before planting them, typically you plant tulips in November.

Cyclamen are good on top of bulbs to cheer things up while the bulbs are dormant, a single one is likely to look a little forlorn next to the big rosemary.

sleepy78 · 01/09/2024 07:28

I'm shamelessly marking my place - these ideas sound great for my garden too! I have bought a couple of Veronique plants - they seem very easy too, but I'm not sure what sort of soil they like.

Sewfrickinamazeballs · 01/09/2024 07:29

If the left side is a bit shady, I'd go for hydrangea Annabelle, it will fill that space nicely. Maybe something like a sedum on the right, a few hebes down at the front for some evergreen structure. If you want blue, then some perovskia blue spire (3-5 of them) will give a bit of height, colour and different structure.

MereDintofPandiculation · 01/09/2024 10:06

Cyclamen persicum isn’t hardy through most of the uk, so you may like to move it indoors for the winter.

There are two readily available and easy to grow hardy cyclamen, C. hederifolium (autumn) and C. coum (winter to spring). They’re smaller plants but will multiply in the right spot

Rosemaryandlavender1 · 01/09/2024 10:53

Sewfrickinamazeballs · 01/09/2024 07:29

If the left side is a bit shady, I'd go for hydrangea Annabelle, it will fill that space nicely. Maybe something like a sedum on the right, a few hebes down at the front for some evergreen structure. If you want blue, then some perovskia blue spire (3-5 of them) will give a bit of height, colour and different structure.

Hydrangeas sound like a nice idea. Thank you

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Rosemaryandlavender1 · 01/09/2024 10:56

CatherinedeBourgh · 01/09/2024 06:33

Tulips will be fine in pots, but I'd usually wait a little longer before planting them, typically you plant tulips in November.

Cyclamen are good on top of bulbs to cheer things up while the bulbs are dormant, a single one is likely to look a little forlorn next to the big rosemary.

Thank you I will wait to plant the tulips
The cyclamen does look quite forlorn 😂 I'm going to be taking on the suggestions given by everyone and plant some of the other flowers.

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Rosemaryandlavender1 · 01/09/2024 10:59

Is there anyway to trim down the rosemary plant as it seems to have grown even bigger this year?

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Dinopoppypoops · 01/09/2024 11:18

What about a hardy fuschia? It'll form a bush and it will happily look after itself.

Also, I know I'm a pedant but you're planting plants, not flowers.

Dinopoppypoops · 01/09/2024 11:19

Rosemaryandlavender1 · 01/09/2024 10:59

Is there anyway to trim down the rosemary plant as it seems to have grown even bigger this year?

Just trim the rosemary back, stay in the green though, try not to cut back to the wood.

Rosemaryandlavender1 · 01/09/2024 11:32

Dinopoppypoops · 01/09/2024 11:18

What about a hardy fuschia? It'll form a bush and it will happily look after itself.

Also, I know I'm a pedant but you're planting plants, not flowers.

Noted!
I Would love to see a garden inspiration thread. Especially flower beds

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Dinopoppypoops · 01/09/2024 11:43

Rosemaryandlavender1 · 01/09/2024 11:32

Noted!
I Would love to see a garden inspiration thread. Especially flower beds

That's a lovely idea. I'm on the app so can't post a picture of my garden but I think a help for beginner gardeners thread would be good.
It's so hard to get into but once you know terms like hardy, perennial, annual and a little about heights, growth rates and favourable conditions you're well on your way.

MereDintofPandiculation · 01/09/2024 15:08

Dinopoppypoops · 01/09/2024 11:18

What about a hardy fuschia? It'll form a bush and it will happily look after itself.

Also, I know I'm a pedant but you're planting plants, not flowers.

If you’re a pedant, you might like to know it’s Fuchsia, named after the botanist Leonhart Fuchs Grin

Dinopoppypoops · 01/09/2024 18:24

MereDintofPandiculation · 01/09/2024 15:08

If you’re a pedant, you might like to know it’s Fuchsia, named after the botanist Leonhart Fuchs Grin

You're correct. Apologies.

CatherinedeBourgh · 01/09/2024 18:29

Rosemaries do very well with constant light trimming (which is handy, as it's what you do when you pick it for cooking!

they also grow really well from cuttings, so you can make plenty more for free (nearly, you need some pots and some compost!)

Rosemaryandlavender1 · 03/09/2024 11:14

@CatherinedeBourgh I have given it a go but I'm wondering if I have been too severe with the pruning. Each year it grows bigger and bigger and I don't want it to dwarf the flower plants I intend on planting.
Does this look OK?
Ignore the cyclamen as I'm going to dig it out again

Ideas what flowers I can plant on either side please
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CatherinedeBourgh · 03/09/2024 21:39

It looks fine to me, you can cut it a bit more if you want.

TBH I have cut them really hard back into old wood even though it's not recommended and they've bounced right back, but that was in a climate where they grow wild all over the place, so as favourable to them as it gets.

Rosemaryandlavender1 · 05/09/2024 15:13

I have taken on all your suggestions and I have potted the Japanese anemone alongside a small fantasy jasmine pink anemone on the right side.

Ideas what flowers I can plant on either side please
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Rosemaryandlavender1 · 05/09/2024 15:15

I hope I have done it right it's a large pot approx 35cm across. Is that big enough for both plants?

Ideas what flowers I can plant on either side please
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Rosemaryandlavender1 · 05/09/2024 15:19

I have two more plants arriving tomorrow which I'm thinking to also plant in pots on the right side

• Tiarella sprung symphony
• Agapanthus Ballerina

And for the left side as suggested on this thread or another I can't remember a small limelight hydrangea tree. I haven't ordered it yet as I'm not sure if I need to also order a pot for it or is it better to plant into the ground?

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Koulibiak · 10/09/2024 23:14

@Rosemaryandlavender1 congratulations on getting started with your garden! I found your tiny cyclamen quite moving ☺️.

When I first started gardening, I did exactly what you are doing now: buying plants on a whim, without taking a wider view of how things would look together. But gardening is a lot like painting a landscape: things need to go together (or complement each other) in terms of size, shape, colour, density, etc. You need to put some structure in place (maybe using shrubs which give year round interest), then decide on flowering plants that will come together, or flower successively.

It’s rarely a good idea to have only one plant of a kind. You would be better planting groups of 3 or 5 (or six, to account for the one that will inexplicably die), otherwise your garden will not have unity and will not look serene.

Agapanthus needs full sun or it won’t flower. Tiarella needs full or at least partial shade. They just don’t belong together.

Rosemary grows well in poor, dry soil, with lots of sun, so maybe use that as a guide? You could try googling prairie style planting, with rudbeckia, heleniums, echinacea? Salvia Amistad would also work well, and flowers a long time.

I wouldn’t try to combine rosemary with any shade loving plants.

Any plant that you put in a pot will need a lot more TLC, as pots dry very quickly so you will need to have a habit of watering regularly (even every day in hot weather). Plants that are in the ground have access to a lot more moisture so need less watering.

There are lots of useful videos on YouTube, or you could watch episodes of Gardening World (fast forwarding all the bits that don’t apply to you). And there’s a very supportive group right here.

good luck x

MereDintofPandiculation · 11/09/2024 08:55

Plant the Tiarella on the LHS and the Agapanthus on the right.

Rosemaryandlavender1 · 11/09/2024 09:09

@MereDintofPandiculation thank you. They are in pots but I'm thinking of planting them into the ground.
Also is this normal? My little pink anemone plant had 3 flowers in bloom a few days ago. All the petals have flown away

Ideas what flowers I can plant on either side please
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Rosemaryandlavender1 · 11/09/2024 09:12

@Koulibiak thank you for the advice and words of encouragement. It's just all trial and error right now. A part of me wonders if I should just get a couple of roses and then in spring sprinkle the wildflower meadow seeds around the edges and hope for the best

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Rosemaryandlavender1 · 11/09/2024 09:15

@Mere this was how it was a week ago when I potted it (on the left)

Ideas what flowers I can plant on either side please
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