On 12/04/18 09:03, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Jeff Layman wrote:

This faces south, but gets direct sun only in summer, due to other
buildings. While it is the warmest spot in my garden, the garden
is cold and Erythrina crista-galli grew but flowered poorly (too
late, or not at all) and I have just lost lemon verbena. It's well
drained, though obviously not this winter :-(

I want something interesting, with no permanent foliage more than
2' high or so (it is in front of a window), though flower spikes
etc. could go up to 8'. It needs to be no more than 2-3' wide, too,
and not seriously thorny.

Any ideas?

You don't say what the soil pH is. Are you looking for a shrub only, or
would a perennial or sub-shrub be acceptable?

Roughly neutral, on alkaline side.

I doubt grevilleas will appreciate that sort of pH.

Some ideas:
Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Tom Thumb'
Hedychium densiflorum 'Assam Orange'
Gardenia jasminoides 'Kleim's Hardy' (yes, really!)
Less hardy Salvias
Low-growing Grevilleas, Correas, and maybe other similar southern
hemisphere plants.

Thanks. I will look into those. Pittosporum I had thought of, but
it won't meet with wifely approval :-)

Never ignore The Head Gardener!

Another possibility is a dwarf shrub which in itself may not be too
interesting, but with something special like Tropaeolum polyphyllum or
pentaphyllum rambling through it.

By the way, if you can flower Erythrina crista-galli, you obviously have
a warmer spot than me here in south central Hampshire! And, for what
it's worth, I've just lost lemon verbena too (in a sheltered spot).

That spot probably is. And I got one decent flowering and two VERY
poor ones in c. 10 years - after that, I gave up. I didn't think that
lemon verbena would grow, but the same was true of Feijoa, which we
now know is much tougher than we thought.

Yes, Feijoa/Acca /is/ hardy IMHO. I've never seen frost damage on it. In
our previous garden it flowered every year, and in that hot period in
the early "noughties" (maybe 2003?) I even got a kilo of fruit on it one
year! It made a very interesting chutney.

So far, although it has flowered here, I haven't seen any fruit forming.
Still, the petals are tasty enough.

--

Jeff