Hello to you all.
I've just had my front garden paved. I've left a quarter-circle corner with a 12' radius to break it up.
The corner of this 'corner' is facing SW, and bounded by 4' walls which give shade half the day.
I would like to plant a large bush in the corner, with progressively smaller bushes towards the front.
Any advice on ones that keep their foliage all year around?
Also, I'd like to grow ivy on the house.
I know it grows into the mortar, but I'd still like the green covering all year around.
Thanks in advance.

JackD wrote:
[...]
Also, I'd like to grow ivy on the house.
I know it grows into the mortar, but I'd still like the green
covering
all year around.

Jack, I really wouldn't. As I boringly often say here, ivy's a menace
on a house. It shouldn't generally hurt sound mortar, but once it's
established you have to prune it twice a year to keep it out of the
woodwork and away from the roof, either of which it will damage. And,
of course, the more you prune it, the more it grows.

Ivies are very attractive -- I think I had a dozen varieties in my
last garden -- but the place for them is well away from buildings.
Had you considered hydrangea petiolaris?

--
Mike.

Thanks Mike. I've not considered it because I've never heard of it!
Does it stay in leaf all year?
I'll look it up.
Thanks again.

In article , Janet Baraclough
writes

The message
from JackD contains these words:


Hello to you all. I've just had my front garden paved. I've left a
quarter-circle corner with a 12' radius to break it up. The corner
of this 'corner' is facing SW, and bounded by 4' walls which give
shade half the day. I would like to plant a large bush in the corner,
with progressively smaller bushes towards the front. Any advice on
ones that keep their foliage all year around?

In the back corner, I'd have fatsia japonica (dinnerplate/handshape
sized shiny green leaves). In front of it or slightly to one side a
phormium ( huge spiky leaves). In what space is left at the front,
several small bushes of any evergreen hebe, all the same kind. (Most of
them have a good season of flowering and respond well to tight clipping;
eventually they will become one seamless mound). Mulch the soil with
bark chips. This will give you a handsome group of very tough evergreen
contrasts with minimal maintenance.


Speaking of evergreen Hebes... Anyone else had significant problems this
year with black spot and defoliation? I've mostly used Hebes in pots, so
far, to pleasing effect - but this year most of them look desperate.

Apparently they're not keen on being watered from above, but when hand
watering I've kept this to an absolute minimum. My local garden centre
suggests it might be down to our mild but wet winters, and they're
planning to not stock them after spring/early summer next year, as
clearly no one is going to buy anything that looks like...well, what I
have out there now, sadly.

It's a shame, as I really fell for Hebes in quite a big way when
beginning gardening a few years ago.

--
Flower Bobdew
South Facing Garden
South West: UK

In article , Flower Bobdew
writes

Speaking of evergreen Hebes... Anyone else had significant problems this
year with black spot and defoliation? I've mostly used Hebes in pots, so
far, to pleasing effect - but this year most of them look desperate.

Apparently they're not keen on being watered from above, but when hand
watering I've kept this to an absolute minimum. My local garden centre
suggests it might be down to our mild but wet winters, and they're
planning to not stock them after spring/early summer next year, as
clearly no one is going to buy anything that looks like...well, what I
have out there now, sadly.

No trouble at all. They're all looking pretty good. But they're all in
the ground, not in pots, and I don't water them.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

Janet Baraclough writes

The message
from Flower Bobdew contains these words:


Speaking of evergreen Hebes... Anyone else had significant problems this
year with black spot and defoliation? I've mostly used Hebes in pots, so
far, to pleasing effect - but this year most of them look desperate.

Apparently they're not keen on being watered from above, but when hand
watering I've kept this to an absolute minimum. My local garden centre
suggests it might be down to our mild but wet winters,

Well winters are traditionally mild and wet here on Arran

Beautiful. Envy envy.

I find the black-spot and leaf-dropping thing only affects certain
kinds; especially the highly desirable ones with large glossy oval
green leaves and very large flowers. The narrow-leafed and
smaller-leafed varieties (like Red Edge and Great Orme) don't seem
affected at all.

Topiaria and pinguifolia Sutherlandii have both survived well - even
though they're both quite small plants at the moment *and* they're in
relatively close contact with the worst affected...

Last year black spot and leaf loss was so bad I thought I would lose my
worst affected, favourite bush completely.

I already gave up on Caledonia this year. It virtually lost all its
leaves, and those that remained were affected...the plant looked
horribly spindly/leggy too.

This year, I picked off and removed affected leaves regularly, which
seems to have limited the problem considerably and improved health.
Even last year's worst victim is back to sturdy growth and great
flowering. I also clean away any dropped leaves from the ground under
the bush.

Interesting to hear. I suppose, in my gardening naivety, I think of
evergreen being exactly that, and defoliation being virtually the death
knell. I also have Lavender Spray and Wiri Dawn sharing a pot and
sharing about 75% defoliation and 90% black spot on the remaining
leaves, but the former has already sent out new shoots [as it flowers
early in the season], so I'm going to try and pick up/remove as many of
the affected leaves as I see them appear. Watch this space!

--
Flower Bobdew
South Facing Garden
South West: UK

On Sat, 1 Oct 2005 19:01:58 +0100, Flower Bobdew
wrote:

Speaking of evergreen Hebes... Anyone else had significant problems this
year with black spot and defoliation? I've mostly used Hebes in pots, so
far, to pleasing effect - but this year most of them look desperate.

Apparently they're not keen on being watered from above, but when hand
watering I've kept this to an absolute minimum. My local garden centre
suggests it might be down to our mild but wet winters, and they're
planning to not stock them after spring/early summer next year, as
clearly no one is going to buy anything that looks like...well, what I
have out there now, sadly.

It's a shame, as I really fell for Hebes in quite a big way when
beginning gardening a few years ago.

I've had significant problems this year with some form of mildew or
blight on my hebes, although in my case I wouldn't describe it as
black spot. This spring I planted a bed of them, so no experience
from earlier years. The bed was heavily composted and them mulched
with composted hedge shreddings, but wasn't watered at all after
planting. They're very exposed to the SW winds we get here in west
Cornwall, so stagnant air is not the cause!

They're mostly the large-leaved large-flowered hybrids mentioned by
JB, but with one probable species (? H. salicifolia). Grown from
cuttings 'aquired from various sources' ;-). All suffered to some
extent from a fungal infection, manifesting itself as a dirty
yellowish coating on the under sides of the leaves, which themselves
went yellowish, then curled and eventually dropped. All four plants of
one type (purple leaves, small racemes of deep purple flowers, ?'Amy')
were nearly completely defoliated. Dithane 945 (Mancozeb) killed the
fungus, and new shoots are now emerging, so all is not lost.

I suspect fungus from the mulch. It wasn't my own but bought in from a
tree surgeon, as I had none available at the time.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

Thank you so much!
I'm off to the garden centre!
JackD

In article , Janet Baraclough
writes

The message
from Flower Bobdew contains these words:


I already gave up on Caledonia this year. It virtually lost all its
leaves, and those that remained were affected...the plant looked
horribly spindly/leggy too.

Ah. Caledonia was available for sale here a year or so back, but I
don't see it any more, either in GC's or gardens.

That's because they're all dead!

This year, I picked off and removed affected leaves regularly, which
seems to have limited the problem considerably and improved health.
Even last year's worst victim is back to sturdy growth and great
flowering. I also clean away any dropped leaves from the ground under
the bush.

Interesting to hear. I suppose, in my gardening naivety, I think of
evergreen being exactly that, and defoliation being virtually the death
knell. I also have Lavender Spray and Wiri Dawn sharing a pot and
sharing about 75% defoliation and 90% black spot on the remaining
leaves, but the former has already sent out new shoots [as it flowers
early in the season], so I'm going to try and pick up/remove as many of
the affected leaves as I see them appear. Watch this space!

I've found all the Wiri's I've tried, very temperamental and
disappointing. My only surviving one keeps dying whole branches almost
overnight.

My love for Hebes is definitely fading rapidly. Next spring I could be
filing for aesthetic divorce, citing irreconcilable appearances.

--
Flower Bobdew
South Facing Garden
South West: UK