Garden Centre Retail has rounded up the best plants for south-facing gardens.
Rosa?Crown Princess Margareta?= ‘Auswinter’?(PBR)(S)
rose [Crown Princess Margareta]
Rosa?can be deciduous or semi-evergreen shrubs or scrambling climbers, with usually thorny stems bearing pinnate leaves and solitary or clustered, 5-petalled flowers followed by showy red or purple fruits.
Crown Princess Margareta?has arching stems that can be left to produce a 1.5m high shrub or trained as a 3.5m high climbing rose. The flowers, produced in summer and autumn, are fragrant, fully-petalled rosettes in apricot-orange.
BEST USE: Flower borders and beds; Wall-side Borders; Cut Flowers; Cottage & Informal Garden.
Tradescantia fluminensis?’Maiden’s Blush’ (v)
spider lily ‘Maiden’s Blush’
Tradescantia?can be trailing or tufted perennials with usually fleshy, evergreen foliage and distinctive, 3-petalled flowers.
‘Maiden’s Blush’ is a trailing perennial with lance-shaped leaves that emerge pink, becoming green; small white flowers open sporadically through the year, but it is not free-flowering.
BEST USE: Patio & Container Plants.
Chamaecyparis obtusa?’Tsatsumi Gold’
Hinoki cypress ‘Tsatsumi Gold’
Chamaecyparis?are evergreen trees, usually of narrowly ovoid or columnar outline, with much-branched sprays of small scale-like leaves, and small, globose cones; tiny red male cones are conspicuous in a few cultivars.
‘Tsatsumi Gold’ is a slow-growing coniferous shrub, to 2m tall, with a rounded habit that gradually becomes broadly-columnar as the plant ages. Its branches and branchlets are twisted and contorted and densely-covered with small scale-like leaves. Young foliage is bright yellow, becoming yellow-green in summer before taking on golden-yellow tones in autumn and winter.
BEST USE: Low Maintenance; Architectural; City & Courtyard Gardens; Rock Garden.
Lathyrus odoratus?’Millennium’
sweet pea ‘Millennium’
Lathyrus?can be annuals or herbaceous or evergreen perennials, mostly climbing, with pinnate leaves ending in a tendril, and showy pea-like flowers, fragrant in some species.
‘Millennium’ grows to 1.8m, with long stems bearing strongly fragrant flowers 6cm across, the standards deep reddish-purple, the wing petals vivid purplish-red.
BEST USE: Flower borders and beds; Cut Flowers; Wall-side Borders; City & Courtyard Gardens; Cottage & Informal Garden.
Abelia?נgrandiflora
glossy abelia
Abelia?can be deciduous or evergreen shrubs or small trees, with paired or whorled leaves and axillary or terminal clusters of funnel-shaped or trumpet-shaped flowers in summer and autumn, sometimes with conspicuous, colourful calyces.
A.?נgrandiflora?is a medium-sized semi-evergreen shrub to 3m, with arching branches, bearing small glossy oval leaves and clusters of pale pink, slightly fragrant flowers over a long period from mid-summer
BEST USE: Low Maintenance; Wall-side Borders; City & Courtyard Gardens.
Aquilegia?’Hensol Harebell’
columbine ‘Hensol Harebell’
Aquilegia?are clump-forming herbaceous perennials with long-stalked, ternately divided basal leaves and erect, leafy stems bearing bell-shaped flowers with spreading, coloured sepals and petals with spurs, on branched stems.
‘Hensol Harebell’ is an erect herbaceous perennial to 90cm, with divided leaves tinted purple in late summer, and nodding, rich violet-blue flowers 5cm wide, with short, hooked spurs.
BEST USE: Flower borders and beds; Low Maintenance; Underplanting of Roses and Shrubs; City & Courtyard Gardens; Cottage & Informal Garden.
Tropaeolum tricolor
three-coloured nasturtium
Tropaeolum?can be annuals or perennials, bushy, trailing or climbing by twining stems, with simple or palmately lobed leaves and showy funnel-shaped flowers with five long-clawed petals and often a spur.
T. tricolor?is a summer-dormant, tuberous, perennial climber to about 1.5m with small, light green, five- or seven-lobed leaves. The small, yellow flowers are surrounded by a showy purple-tipped, orange-red calyx with a long red or purple spur, in all about 3cm long. Flowering takes place from winter to early summer.
BEST USE: Wall-side Borders; Patio & Container Plants.
Kniphofia?’Safranvogel’
red-hot poker ‘Safranvogel’
Kniphofia?may be evergreen or herbaceous perennials, with linear or strap-shaped leaves and erect stems bearing a dense raceme of tubular, usually pendent flowers.
‘Safranvogel’ is a reasonably small cultivar with low, arching foliage; height to 80cm, spread to 90cm. The elliptic to diamond-shaped flower heads are held well above the leaves and have a delicate colouring of soft peach-pink, getting paler from bud to flower as they open.
BEST USE: Flower borders and beds; City & Courtyard Gardens; Cottage & Informal Garden; Mediterranean Climate Plants; Gravel Garden.
Papaver commutatum
Caucasian scarlet poppy
Papaver?can be annuals, biennials or herbaceous perennials with simple or pinnately divided leaves and short-lived, saucer-shaped, 4-petalled flowers which may be solitary or in racemes.
P. commutatum?is an upright annual to 40cm, with downy, pinnatifid leaves to 15cm in length and long-stalked flowers 7cm in width, each with four bright red petals, with a large black blotch at the base.
BEST USE: Flower borders and beds; Cut Flowers; City & Courtyard Gardens; Cottage & Informal Garden; Mediterranean Climate Plants; Patio & Container Plants; Wildflower meadow.
