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Can you recommend a flowering spiller for damp pot?

6 replies

Koulibiak · 07/01/2025 21:55

Last summer I picked up a (free) reconstituted stone planter on a pedestal from my neighbour who hates gardening. It looks great, but doesn’t have any drainage hole. I put a half dead junca spiralis in it (from the clearance section at B&Q), it has grown like crazy and looks very happy - which makes sense as it’s a pond plant. I keep it very wet.

I then added creeping jenny as a spiller, which has also done very well and looks happy with its feet in water. But I would like a flowering plant to add a splash of colour. The pot doesn’t have enough room for fillers, so the flowers would have to come from the spiller and must be happy in a wet pot. I’ve done a lot of googling but am drawing a blank. Any suggestions would be welcome. TIA

OP posts:
Koulibiak · 07/01/2025 22:06

It doesn’t need to be something I can plant now - I’m just planning ahead for spring 🌿

OP posts:
MereDintofPandiculation · 08/01/2025 08:32

Isn’t Creeping Jenny a flowering plant? Grin

Ragged Robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi), Primula viallii, Candelabra primulas, Mimulus, worth looking at, but the first three are upright. Possibly Water forget-me-not if it doesn’t dry out in summer. Or try Veronica beccabunga. Ajuga can take it quite damp.
(I’m imagining myself on a Yorkshire Dales marsh and trying to remember the things that manage the transition between dry summers and waterlogged winters)

Koulibiak · 08/01/2025 23:37

@MereDintofPandiculation i wouldn’t grow creeping jenny for the flowers. I think its appeal is in the leaves.

Anyway, thank you for the suggestions. I was hoping for something a bit more exuberant like morning glory. I might try lobelia, mine always seem thirsty.

OP posts:
MereDintofPandiculation · 09/01/2025 08:56

Koulibiak · 08/01/2025 23:37

@MereDintofPandiculation i wouldn’t grow creeping jenny for the flowers. I think its appeal is in the leaves.

Anyway, thank you for the suggestions. I was hoping for something a bit more exuberant like morning glory. I might try lobelia, mine always seem thirsty.

Yes, Lobelia as a genus likes damper soils. There’s a tall red one which likes pond edges but you’d presumably be after the low blue one. Erica tetralix is a plant of bogs and can look showy. What’s going to be difficult is finding something with large flowers.

The easier solution would be to drill a drainage hole, but I imagine you are nervous of splitting the pot

Koulibiak · 09/01/2025 10:44

Thank you. I have lots of pots with drainage, so this one pot is my chance to grow different (boggy) plants. I doubt the juncus would do as well if there was more drainage. I will look up Erica.

OP posts:
MereDintofPandiculation · 09/01/2025 13:50

Koulibiak · 09/01/2025 10:44

Thank you. I have lots of pots with drainage, so this one pot is my chance to grow different (boggy) plants. I doubt the juncus would do as well if there was more drainage. I will look up Erica.

It’s you need, not E. cinerea or E. carnea

Erica tetralix - The Heather Garden

This plant is native to the UK , Northern regions of Spain, France ,Scandinavia and Iceland. It is very hardy and often found in wetter boggy situations, indeed if you know your heathers it is wise to think twice about walking in the heathland areas wh...

https://www.theheathergarden.co.uk/heathers-for-sale/erica-tetralix/

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