On 8 Apr, 14:52, Sacha wrote:
On 8/4/08 09:38, in article , "Rhiannon





Miller" wrote:
I have a flower bed at the front of the house, facing the
window, with nothing much in it. It has daffodils at the
moment but once they're over there's nothing more. It's on
the north side of the house so it doesn't get much sun at
all (and I'm in Scotland so the weather is often quite cool
in any event). The soil is quite heavy clay.

I'd like to plant something herbaceous and fairly
low-growing (say up to two feet) with bright colours, to
follow from the daffs (ideally, a plant or sequence of
plants for the whole summer). I'd prefer perennials or
bulbs, but could try annuals if I could grow them from seed.

Any suggestions?

Rhiannon

I strongly recommend Geranium 'Jolly Bee' and the other true Geraniums, too.
They don't mind shade and they flower over a long period. *G. Jolly Bee is a
long flowering plant and even better than G Johnson's Blue, IOO.

--
Sachahttp://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

All the following do well in my garden on heavy clay soil in an area
that gets little or no sun (I'm aware that some of these probably
flower better with more sun but they still do a good job in shade):

Astilbes (as long as the soil doesn't dry out)
Tricyrtis (lots of different varieties, some of them not more than 2
feet)
Digitalis x mertonensis
Anemone x hybrida
Bergenia (also good for winter colour)
Helleborus x hybridus and Helleborus foetidus (there are varieties
with lovely, pewetery foliage)
Various Primula (e.g. P. denticulata, candelabra hybrids)
Cyclamen hederifolium and C. coum (for autumn/winter flowers and
beautifully marked, silvery foliage)
Arum italicum ssp italicum (for foliage marbled with white, and late
summer spikes of orange berries)
Brunnera macrophylla Jack Frost