Any funky ideas for colour and height in Jul/Aug on chalk?

[taffetacat]

We have a garden with many established shrubs and some perennials and bulbs I have put in over the past 4 years. I love growing stuff from seed and have had some success in the past few years.

My problem is that I am hopeless at seasonal colour, I love biennials, so in June the garden is a riot of colour, but come later in the summer it all goes a bit green except for the mountains of Cosmos I sow as fillers in the Spring.

We are totally south facing, very well drained and very chalky. Plants I love and grow here include lavender, verbascum, peonies, foxgloves, hollyhocks, sweet william, honesty, anchusa, linum, iceland poppies and scabious. I love statuesque plants and am trying some eremerus himalaicus this year. Colourwise, I am fond of purple, pink,( esp. pale pink )and white. I don't like orange, red or bright yellow. I think this may be why I struggle for colour July onwards as everything seems to be the hot colours I am not that keen on.

Any ideas welcomed.

Have you tried Acanthus? Lovely and tall/dramatic and flower for a long time, June/July-Sept.

Penstemon also come is many gorgoues colours swuch as pink/rich purple and love a sunny position, the foliage is evergreen too. Mine flower from July - December so they are great value.

Other things you could try for late colour are Asters, Caryopteris, Ceratostigma, Sedum, many Geraniums, Salvia, Buddleia, Hebe, Abelia, Anemone hupehensis, Choc cosmos.

All of these are available in blue/pink/purple/white.

I also dislike hot colours so am always on the lookout for other options.

HTH

Pannacotta - Acanthus is an excellent idea thank you. I had avoided as its a bit spiky (?) when kids v little but now they are a bit bigger sure they could cope.

I have lots of Geraniums and love them, always on the lookout for new varieties. Have never seen Caryopteris before - have googled they look lovely! Thanks for tip.

Have just sown some laurentia, dianthus and consolida regalis - blue and white varieties. I love this time of year!

Like always, I agree with Pannacotta

No, more seriously, I've done some good late-summer / autumn borders with asters and sedums and grasses - specifically, for an autumn bed last year I had asters Little Carlow and Monch, a sedum I propagated but suspect might be Autumn Joy / Herbstfreude, plus calamagrostis acutiflora 'Overdam'. I had it leading into a summer bed via verbena bonariensis, clary sage, delphiniums, cleome, and various other things.

Here's a couple of pics to give you an idea of last year's plantings:

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lh3.ggpht.com/_V4xmNP68jmU/Szy8JmzIcaI/AAAAAAAAAS8/Aj-cWwJ8i90/s720/IMG_2844.JPG

Th is year, I'm planning a border with long lasting colour which is supposed to be in the muted pink / gold / buff / brown end of the spectrum, with dahlias (Glory of Nordwijk, David Howard), achilleas (Inca Gold / Moonshine, Paprika), grasses, poss vebena bonariensis, heuchera Peach Flambe, etc. I want to try out something that's a bit more dodgy colourwise, if you know what I mean - we'll see how well it works!

p.s. should have said that half my garden is clay, half chalk, and that the pics are all from the clay half.

The chalk half grows these:

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GrendelsMum - sounds amazing, don't seem to be able to access your links?

How interesting having half half.

Hmm - try these:

bit.ly/cP8lse

bit.ly/bdwSH8

The half and half was a bit unexpected - the garden's an old farmyard, and apparently the chalk bit is the old pigsties which had chalk put down for the floors (or something like that - former farmer's niece told me, but I can't remember the explanation).

GrendelsMum we are gardening sisters I think!
Love the planting in your links, looks really beautiful...
Did you start from scratch?

taffetacat, Verbena bonanriensis which GM mentions is another good choice, it flowered here from July till Novemberand the butterflie love it.

GrendelsMum - accessed. What a clever lady you are. Gorgeous.

Is the second one the chalk? Are those delphiniums in the background on the far right? And having said I don't like red, I do like that deep red you have with the silver on the right of that pic again. Are they snapdragons?

Thank you, Pannacotta! I just posted on your shed post in Property, by the way. Do you have photos of your garden? I'd love to see it. Have you decided yet which day you're going to Chelsea on? Is it Weds, as that's when I'm planning to go.

Yes, I started pretty much from scratch this year - I've tried to take photos every month to chart the progress of the garden.

BTW, I got a great book this Christmas on Gertrude Jekyll's garden designs - and she has some really interesting use of colour, incorporating 'hot' colours and 'cool' colours together in a way that we seem to have lost more recently. She'll have a bed that's pink and purple, say, and then suddenly zing it up with some orange and yellow, in a way that sounds weird but seems to work. Still something I'm trying to get my head round.

Thanks pannacotta - Yes love verbena bon - have lots of it but you have remeinded me that I need to sow more. I remember seeing Sarah Raven walking through swathes of it and thinking how lovely it looked lining a path.

In fact would like to try some other verbenas - always end up buying ones like sissinghurst pink in the garden centres . Do you know if you can grow these easily from seed? Or any other verbenas you'd recommend? I tried hastata last year but no joy.

I didn't actually see Sarah Raven walking through it. I saw a picture of her.

JApanese abemones but white ones, not the dodgy pink versions along with the verbenas bonariensis.
Also, has anyone mentioned osteospermums. THey are low growing, but you can pick purple/pink white ones. THey will luurve south facing.
Neither will satisfy your seed urges however.
Agapanthus also good blue plants .

I haven't grown Verbena from seed, but I do like hastata, perhaps try it again, also rigida which flowers for ages, also corymbosa and La France, see below
www.woottensplants.co.uk/choices.asp

GM no I havent sorted out day/dates for Chelsea yet, depends a bit on childcare as DS2 is only 2 so need to find someone to look after him. Will see if I can book for Weds too...
I do have pics of the garden but not sure how I would post them on-line, also its very much work in progress so nothing much to see yet.
We inherited a very overgrown, unloved garden, a huge row of 12m high conifers, ground elder everywhere plus really grotty garage, paths, knackered pergola etc etc.
So far most of the money has been spent on clearing and demolishing, not to much planting yet but am hoping to do more this year.
Thanks for the advice re the shed, couldn't access your link though?

What was the Gertrude Jekyll book btw?

I love this book for ideas/inspiration, its fab, would recommend it to anyone who likes gardening
www.stephenlacey.com/real-gardening.htm

I bought some verbena (not bonariensis, but don't know what it was) in early spring and took a lot of cuttings from those, and it worked pretty well. I'm going to try it again last year.

My MiL gave me Sarah Raven's cutting garden seed pack for Christmas, and the snapdragosn you can see were in that (yes, they are snapdragons!). They are quite a cool shade of red, so I think they do work with the blue and pink. I'm going to grow them again, I think - I was quite impressed, and it wasn't something I would have thought of planting at all myself, either the colour or the plant itself.

(Should point out that that is obviously the best photo of the garden - I have other photos which look dreadful.)

Pannacotta: DRAT - none of my links seem to be working today! It was just a picture of a combination shed / greenhouse type thing, that I got by putting 'potting shed' into Google Images. It was the sort of thing I wanted, but that particular one was over the budget you said you had - I just posted it to give you ideas. If we manage Chelsea, then great, and if not, we can continue to agree with each other on here!

I know just what you mean about the neglected garden and how long it takes to get up and running - our previous garden was small but neglected (also had the conifers, the grotty garage, the ground elder, the mouse-infested shed etc etc), but we did batter it into submission before we moved and ultimately it looked lovely. This one belonged to an elderly lady who certainly didn't neglect it, but just didn't do anything with it.

This is the Gertrude Jekyll book, if the link works - if not, it's called The Gardens of Gertrude Jekyll:
www.amazon.co.uk/Gardens-Gertrude-Jekyll-Richard-Bisgrove/dp/0711207461/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8& s=books&qid=1265571013&sr=8-1

Thanks for the recommendation for the Stephen Lacey book - looks like a good one! I'll check our library.

Pannacotta - sounds like you have your hands full there.

Couldn't access woottens plants link but googled the verbenas you suggested they both look lovely - may struggle with la france as it says prefers moist soil, we are very, very dry. Will def look out for v. corymbosa, they look divine. Thanks.

Mmm - that v. corymbosa does look good. I may try that.

I find Verbena excellent in our dry, well drained soil, the Wootens links also mentions well drained soil so you should be ok taffeta, the V bonariensis did really well here, even though they are supposed to like damp soil, and they were planted in a dry, sunny spot, so take it with a pinch of salt, or mulch if needed.

GM will google potting shed thanks for the tip, we could stretch a bit more price wise if needed, it would be good to have a decent shed/potting area, though not sure DH would agree (he isnt into gardening at all)...

Ta for the link too, will check out the book.

One more thought taffeta and that is knautia macedonica
www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/perennials/classid.3113/

Lovely flowers which go on all summer and seem to look great with all sorts of other plants/flowers...

Pannacotta - will def go for those verbenas thanks for advice. For some reason, knautias don't like it here - have managed to kill 3.

I really don't know why, we seem to tick all the boxes for their desired conditions.

One last question: I love, love, love lavender esp hidcote. It grows very well here so I grow lots but am unsure about what if anything to mix it in with. We have just had a major refurb on the house so are starting front garden from scratch as the builders trashed it. Would like some leading down to front door, which is fairly standard but would also like to consolidate some in the back. Rather than having hedges of it, or paths, anyone any suggestions for what it mixes well with in beds?

Hope this isn't too vague a question.

GrendelsMum - which Sarah Raven snapdragon is that do you know please?

I've got a planting I'm really pleased with including lavender 'Hidcote' (again, on clay so may not transfer) - it's been looking good reliably in every season:

Lavender, phlomis russeliana, geranium 'Johnson's Blue', euphorbia myrsinites, stipa tenuissima, underplanted with narcissus.

There's good all year colour and a nice range of shapes, plus all the plants can be propagated easily, so it was cheap.

Lavender is good with shrub roses (covers the bare stems), have a look at the Hybrid Musks which are easier to mix with modern planting.
Also try it with Cistus, which should also like your conditions.

Though I do agree it looks its very best as a hedge or lining a path.

Wow. Thank you so much guys, I really appreciate it. Some excellent suggestions.

TC - I think it must be this one, but I'd have to look at my records to confirm it:
www.sarahraven.com/shop/antirrhinum-f1-liberty-classic-crimson.html