VIDEO: Top 9 plants for heavy soils
Garden Centre Retail has rounded up the best plants for that spot with heavy, clay-based soils in your customer?s garden.
Hydrangea macrophylla?’Rotschwanz’ (Teller Series) (L)
hydrangea ‘Rotschwanz’
Hydrangea?can be deciduous or evergreen shrubs, or self-clinging climbers, with flowers in clusters usually comprising both small fertile and showier sterile flowers; often good autumn colour.
‘Rotschwanz’ is a rounded deciduous shrub with glossy dark green leaves that colour wine-red in autumn. Flattened lacecap flowerheads with large deep red, cross-shaped sterile flowers and fertile flowers of pink and white are produced in mid and late summer.
BEST USE: Flower borders and beds; Cut Flowers; City & Courtyard Gardens; Cottage & Informal Garden; Patio
& Container Plants.
Sanguisorba officinalis?’Arnhem’
great burnet ‘Arnhem’
Sanguisorba?are rhizomatous herbaceous perennials with attractive, pinnate leaves and branched stems bearing terminal spikes of small fluffy flowers with conspicuous stamens.
‘Arnhem’ is a tall, herbaceous perennial that can reach 2m. The leaves have oval leaflets with jagged edges and the wiry, branched flower stalks carry deep rose pink, drumstick flowers in summer.
BEST USE: Flower borders and beds; Prairie Planting; Wildflower meadow.
Calamagrostis brachytricha
Korean feather reed grass
Calamagrostis?are robust rhizomatous perennial grasses, forming tufts of linear leaves, with erect stems bearing dense branching flowering panicles in summer.
C. brachytricha?forms a clump of glossy green, linear leaves turning yellow in autumn, with narrow, fluffy, purple-tinged plume-like sprays of flower opening in late summer and early autumn and persisting into the winter.
BEST USE: Banks and Slopes; Flower borders and beds; Architectural; Cottage & Informal Garden; Patio & Container Plants.
Nicotiana mutabilis
Tobacco plant
Nicotiana?can be annuals, biennials, perennials or shrubs, with simple, alternate leaves and tubular or salver-shaped, often fragrant flowers borne in racemes or panicles in summer or autumn.
N. mutabilis?is an upright annual to 1.5m tall with a basal rosette of large, oval leaves. In summer, airy clouds of trumpet-shaped flowers are borne on branching stems changing colour as they age from white through shades of pink.
BEST USE: Cut Flowers; Flower borders and beds; Cottage & Informal Garden.
Hosta sieboldii
Hosta?are clump-forming herbaceous perennials with simple, ovate or lance-shaped leaves, often attractively coloured or variegated, and erect racemes of nodding, funnel or bell-shaped flowers in early summer.
H. sieboldii?is a small, compact, clump-forming perennial. Leaves are narrow, lanceolate, to 15cm in length with mid-green centres and narrowly-edged with white. Funnel-shaped, lavender-coloured flowers, on stems to 60cm, appear in mid to late summer.
BEST USE: Flower borders and beds; Cut Flowers; Ground Cover; Underplanting of Roses and Shrubs; Cottage & Informal Garden; City & Courtyard Gardens; Patio & Container Plants.
Malus domestica?’Merton Charm’ (D)
apple ‘Merton Charm’
Malus?are small to medium-sized deciduous trees with showy flowers in spring and ornamental or edible fruit in autumn; some have good autumn foliage colour.
‘Merton Charm’ is a dessert cultivar in pollination group 2. It has a semi-weeping habit and bears heavy crops that can be small unless thinned. The apple skin is yellowish-green becoming yellow and flushed red. Season of use is from late September to October.
BEST USE: Cottage & Informal Garden; Wildlife Gardens.
Zantedeschia aethiopica?’Crowborough’
arum lily ‘Crowborough’
Zantedeschia?can be deciduous or semi-evergreen, tuberous perennials with lance-shaped or arrow-shaped leaves and tiny yellow flowers forming a dense spike-like spadix, with a showy, hood-like spathe, sometimes followed by orange berry-like fruits.
‘Crowborough’ is a deciduous perennial (evergreen in mild areas) to 1m in height, with rich green, arrow-shaped leaves and funnel-shaped white spathes to 15cm in length, with a prominent yellow spadix.
BEST USE: Flower borders and beds; Wall-side Borders; Cottage & Informal Garden.
Hibiscus syriacus?’Woodbridge’
rose of Sharon ‘Woodbridge’
Hibiscus?can be deciduous or evergreen shrubs, trees, annuals or perennials, with simple or palmately lobed leaves and large, funnel-shaped flowers over a long flowering season.
‘Woodbridge’ is a medium-sized, upright deciduous shrub with dark, lobed leaves. Flowers to 10cm in width, single, deep pink, with dark red centres.
BEST USE: Wall-side Borders; City & Courtyard Gardens.
Cornus?’Norman Hadden’
dogwood ‘Norman Hadden’
Cornus?can be deciduous shrubs or trees, or creeping, woody-based perennials, some with brightly coloured young stems. Tiny flowers are borne in dense clusters, sometimes with showy bracts. Many have fine autumn colour.
‘Norman Hadden’ is a large deciduous shrub, spreading in habit, with elliptic leaves turning reddish in autumn. flowerheads to 8cm in width, with four ovate white bracts which turn pink with age. Fruit strawberry-like.
BEST USE: Flower borders and beds; Low Maintenance; Cottage & Informal Garden.
