Plants that take care of themselves and put on a good show, without needing too much minding
THE LONGER I garden, the less patience I have with difficult plants. Unless I can eat it, I’m not willing to lavish hours of care on any green thing. Instead, I favour plants that are happy with each other, that are relatively trouble free, and that don’t look too overbred or unnatural. Of course, I admire other people’s horticultural feats, but I don’t have the time or the single-mindedness to grow, say, a perfect show of alpines or auriculas.
My ideal plant is one that needs no coddling, requires no staking or tying up, has a long period of interest, is pest-proof and people-proof, and that comes back year after year – either because it’s perennial, or through self-seeding. If it’s a flowery plant (as opposed to a fern or a grass), it must supply pollen or nectar to bees and hoverflies. This may seem to be a long list of demands, but there are quite a few good-tempered species that answer all of them – and some of them are looking at their best right now, in midsummer.
Top of my list for this time of the year is the common foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), and its white form (D. p. albiflora). Both are biennial, which means that they flower in their second year of life, and then die. But, like many biennials, they produce loads of seed, which germinates around their feet. These can be left to provide next year’s show, or can be transplanted to a more suitable spot (they move easily until they reach hand-size).
I grow more of the white variety than the purple as their pale spires act as brighteners for dim corners. At seedling stage, it is easy to distinguish between the two, as the purples have a dark vein on the underside of the leaf.
Foxgloves are content in sun or shade, but the related mulleins (Verbascum), which have similarly spiky inflorescences, need good light. Almost all verbascums are short-lived, and some of the newer “perennial” ones are anything but (these include an abundance of recently-bred ones in peachy-plummy, expensive silk lingerie colours).
I tend to stick with the less highly-bred old reliables such as the yellow-flowered, woolly V. bombyciferum and V. olympicum, the shorter V. phoeniceum (white or purple flowers), and V. chaixii (yellow or white flowers, with furry purple stamens). All of these self-seed in dry soil. As with foxgloves, their seed spires last into the winter, and provide structure for the design-conscious gardener, and food for wildlife.
The tall spears of the foxgloves and mulleins are complemented by various midsummer buttons and balls. Among the easiest to grow (but not in very damp soil) are the later-flowering ornamental onions (Allium) such as the silver-mauve, football-sized A. cristophii and the little A. sphaerocephalon, with its wiry-stemmed, maroon-coloured bouncy bobbles. Knautia macedonica slips its stems through other plants and pops out surprise crimson pin-cushions all summer. The Melton pastels group has paler flowers, in pink, rose or salmon.
Another pin-cushion, which requires some moisture in the soil, is Astrantia or masterwort. Each cluster of tiny flowers is surrounded by a papery collar of long-lasting, petal-like bracts. Our garden is too dry for this pretty and fashionable plant, otherwise I’d definitely grow the sumptuously red ‘Hadspen Blood’ or ‘Ruby Wedding’, or the icy green ‘Shaggy’.
A note on astrantias: if you have a good variety and want to keep it pure, propagate it only by division, not by seed, as seedlings may not resemble the parent.
Every garden needs low- to medium-height, frilly, flowery stuff to act as groundcover, and to give a layered look to a planting. One of the easiest species that fits this position is lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis), with grey-green, scalloped leaves and lime-toned, frothy flowers. It makes a light and charming filler in flower arrangements. Bees don’t seem to visit the blooms much, but I’ve seen them drinking the raindrops that gather like liquid diamonds on the leaves. Lady’s mantle is dainty looking, but can be terrifically invasive. You can control it by shearing flowers (and tired foliage) to ground level before it sets seed. If you live in an ecologically sensitive area, it’s best not to grow it. Hardy geraniums, of which there are hundreds of varieties, are another easy gap-plugger and front-of-border group of plants. For a dry shady position, try G. macrorrhizum or any of its several varieties. The flowering season is short, but the semi-evergreen foliage is deliciously resin-scented and handsome.
This leaves me room to mention just a few more summer specials: among the easy-going grasses are the upright Calamagrostis x acutiflora, and the more kinetic Stipa clan. Trouble-free ferns include the native hart’s tongue (Asplenium scolopendrium) and male fern (Dryopteris filix-mas). And for annuals that return year after year, with no interference from the gardener, there are opium poppies and nasturtiums. Both will self-seed in all the right places.