In article ,
Stewart Robert Hinsley writes:
| In message , p.k.
| writes
|
| Winter hebaceous border is really a contradiction in terms:
|
| In warmer parts of the world there are plants which die back in the
| drought of the summer, and grow and flower during the wetter autumn and
| winter seasons.
|
| Finding plants that behave like that in the British climate is
| difficult.
|
| There's the winter-flowering strains of pansies - perhaps also
| polyanthus. There's a few bulbous plants - such as species of Colchicum,
| Crocus and Galanthus. There's Eranthis. There's Iris inguicularis and
| Iris lazica. There's hellebores. If you stretch the boundaries there's
| Nerine bowdenii and some species of cyclamen at one end, and Bellis
| perennnis and assorted early spring bulbs at the other.

In many years, quite a lot of plants do that in Cambridge, including
a lot that you might think don't - such as even many weeds. On a
sandy soil, in Cambridge, the summer is often hot enough and dry
enough to cause that. In a wet year, they carry on through the
summer.

The only plant that RELIABLY dies back in summer and grows in
autumn in my garden is Cyclamen coum.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.