Stephen Howard wrote in message . ..
On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 17:19:27 +0100, Kay Easton
wrote:

In article , Mike Lyle
writes


snowdrops, and lungwort on the north side, ramsons if it's
moist; bluebells, of course.

I'd be surprised if it was moist enough under a hawthorn hedge.

Good point!
I often clear the ivy out of the bottom my hedges, and I reckon it
must be one of the driest spots in the garden.

It depends on location: most of my primroses and all my ramsons are on
the north side of an old hedge, but below it, as the hedge is at the
top of a stream-bank. Hawthorn will tolerate places too damp for it to
dry out fully. Round here we have bluebells doing well in the wild on
dry banks: I imagine our 30+ inches of rain helps!

I do also have some primroses doing very well among ivy on a
five-foot-high south-facing lump of subsoil which dries to rock in
summer, but gets lightly shaded over by blackthorn. I haul out some of
the ivy every so often, but have never watered.

Curiously, our best local display of wild primroses cascades down the
very well-drained steps up the embankment beside a railway bridge.
(North-facing, though.)

Cowslips, by the way, look stunning for me with aubrieta on a horrid
rubbly bed at the front of the house. I only put them in as a stop-gap
while ericas got established.

Mike.