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Grateful for shrub ideas
We removed some very elderly shrubs and some rather sick large escallonias last autumn from some metre plus wide borders and would be grateful for suggestions as to what to replace them with. Preferably evergreen, flowering or just attractive foliage and shape. The location is south Devon, about 800 metres from the coast, on a relatively exposed hill. Two borders receive full sun for around 2/3 of the day and another for 1/3 of the day. Frosts of any significance are rare (even this winter) but high winds are fairly frequent. We are on the edge of the Devon Redlands and the soil has a fairly high clay content. Existing planting includes various conifers, pieris, mahonia, various broom, eryngium, photinia davidiana, some large phormium, a couple of surviving escallonia gold ellen, various euonymous, fatsia jopinica, skimmia, berberis darwinii. -- rbel |
Grateful for shrub ideas
"rbel" wrote in message
... We removed some very elderly shrubs and some rather sick large escallonias last autumn from some metre plus wide borders and would be grateful for suggestions as to what to replace them with. Preferably evergreen, flowering or just attractive foliage and shape. The location is south Devon, about 800 metres from the coast, on a relatively exposed hill. Two borders receive full sun for around 2/3 of the day and another for 1/3 of the day. Frosts of any significance are rare (even this winter) but high winds are fairly frequent. We are on the edge of the Devon Redlands and the soil has a fairly high clay content. Existing planting includes various conifers, pieris, mahonia, various broom, eryngium, photinia davidiana, some large phormium, a couple of surviving escallonia gold ellen, various euonymous, fatsia jopinica, skimmia, berberis darwinii. -- rbel If you really want to push your luck, find the most sheltered site from the wind and frost, and put in a plant of Gardenia jasminoides "Kleims Hardy". It's only a single flower, and seems to me slightly less scented than the double-flowered houseplant (but that could just be because it's usually cooler!). But it has survived this and last winter in a just frost-free greenhouse (minimum of 1°) without a mark on it. -- Jeff |
Grateful for shrub ideas
On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:29:14 -0000, Charlie Pridham
wrote: In article , says... The message from rbel contains these words: We removed some very elderly shrubs and some rather sick large escallonias last autumn from some metre plus wide borders and would be grateful for suggestions as to what to replace them with. Preferably evergreen, flowering or just attractive foliage and shape. The location is south Devon, about 800 metres from the coast, on a relatively exposed hill. Two borders receive full sun for around 2/3 of the day and another for 1/3 of the day. Frosts of any significance are rare (even this winter) but high winds are fairly frequent. We are on the edge of the Devon Redlands and the soil has a fairly high clay content. Existing planting includes various conifers, pieris, mahonia, various broom, eryngium, photinia davidiana, some large phormium, a couple of surviving escallonia gold ellen, various euonymous, fatsia jopinica, skimmia, berberis darwinii. You could try the larger leaved hebes, which flower heavily for many months. Choisya ternata (handsome evergreen foliage, fragrant white flowers) Lonicera nitida Baggeson's Gold ( very small evergreen gold leaves, a good contrast to other foliage) Cornus alba elegantissima (variegated foliage, not evergreen but attractive red stems in winter) Janet Add to that Hollies and Eleagnus Many thanks for the suggestions to date. When I listed some of the existing plants I forgot that we had choisia ternata (and the yellow Sundance variety) and lonicera nitida Baggeson's Gold, but all the other ideas are new to us. -- rbel |
Grateful for shrub ideas
On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:50:56 -0000, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:09:10 -0000, rbel wrote: We removed some very elderly shrubs and some rather sick large escallonias last autumn from some metre plus wide borders and would be grateful for suggestions as to what to replace them with. Preferably evergreen, flowering or just attractive foliage and shape. The location is south Devon, about 800 metres from the coast, on a relatively exposed hill. Two borders receive full sun for around 2/3 of the day and another for 1/3 of the day. Frosts of any significance are rare (even this winter) but high winds are fairly frequent. We are on the edge of the Devon Redlands and the soil has a fairly high clay content. Existing planting includes various conifers, pieris, mahonia, various broom, eryngium, photinia davidiana, some large phormium, a couple of surviving escallonia gold ellen, various euonymous, fatsia jopinica, skimmia, berberis darwinii. I'm also by the sea and exposed to salt gales, but further west than you. Minimum temps in my garden typically -2C. I have/had in my garden: Pittisporums, and in particular P. tobira, which has larger leaves than P. tenuifolium. White flowers with orange blossom scent. Buddleja colvilei, pendant panicles of large rose-red flowers Cistus species and vars. Callistemon species and varieties, esp. c. citrinus, gorgeous red bottlebrushes with yellow anthers, but I lost mine last year at -6C. Correa species, but ditto. Euryops pectinatus. Bright yellow flowers, long season, but ditto. Kunzea baxteri, but ditto. Echium pininana, tall fox-tail up to 15ft (much higher on Tresco!), covered in thousands of small pale blue borage-like flowers. Bees love them. E. candicans syn. E. fastuosum is a shrubby species with shorter candles of flowers, purple-blue in the best forms, slightly more tender than e. pininata. But ditto. Leptospermum scoparium vars. esp. Red Damask Olearia scilloniensis, masses of brilliant white daisy flowers in summer (but the flowers don't last long and it looks a bit sad when they die!) Raphiolepis vars. Teucrium fruticans Camellias do surprisingly well in exposed gardens by the sea, but some varieties prefer shade or the leaves go yellow. Others are OK in full sun. Like a humus-rich neutral to acid soil. Cytisus battanderei, pineapple broom, bright yellow flowers in summer, smelling of pineapple. Myrtus communis tarentina is a small-growing myrtle Hamamelis mollis Perovskia atriplicifolia (Russian sage) Phlomis fruticosa Lavatera arborea Senecio greyii Rosmarinus vars Ceanothus vars Cassinia fulvida Genista hispanica Viburnum tinus Looking that lot up should keep you out of trouble for a day or two! Some may get too big for your situation. Remember that young plants in exposed situations need staking until they get established. I have to use at least two stakes, sometimes three in a triangular arrangement. Many thanks From an initial look through I have noted the Pittisporum tobira, Euryops and the Cytisus battandieri. We have tried batches of Echium Snow Tower, Pink Fountain, Wildpretii and Blue Steeple repeatedly over the last four years in increasingly gritty soil mixes but only managed to overwinter one which we then lost this winter. -- rbel |
Grateful for shrub ideas
On 2010-03-20 20:32:53 +0000, rbel said:
We removed some very elderly shrubs and some rather sick large escallonias last autumn from some metre plus wide borders and would be grateful for suggestions as to what to replace them with. Preferably evergreen, flowering or just attractive foliage and shape. How good is bay (Lauris nobilis) at growing near the sea? All of the above, plus useful, though its flowers are short-lived and not spectacular. Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
Grateful for shrub ideas
wrote in message ... On 2010-03-20 20:32:53 +0000, rbel said: We removed some very elderly shrubs and some rather sick large escallonias last autumn from some metre plus wide borders and would be grateful for suggestions as to what to replace them with. Preferably evergreen, flowering or just attractive foliage and shape. How good is bay (Lauris nobilis) at growing near the sea? All of the above, plus useful, though its flowers are short-lived and not spectacular. Very good. we have them popping up like weeds. Have them in hedges and one as a specimen. Needs hard pruning every year to keep its shape. We are within 150 metres of the sea. South facing garden in Sandown Bay south east part of the Isle of Wight. (I wish a few more people stated where they are) Mike -- Base for a Botanic visit to the Isle of Wight? www.shanklinmanormews.co.uk |
Grateful for shrub ideas
On Sun, 21 Mar 2010 10:43:04 -0000, wrote:
On 2010-03-20 20:32:53 +0000, rbel said: We removed some very elderly shrubs and some rather sick large escallonias last autumn from some metre plus wide borders and would be grateful for suggestions as to what to replace them with. Preferably evergreen, flowering or just attractive foliage and shape. How good is bay (Lauris nobilis) at growing near the sea? All of the above, plus useful, though its flowers are short-lived and not spectacular. At our previous place, where the sea was just the other side of the road, we had an inherited bay that was probably over 3 metres tall but apart from occasional raid for culinary use it was not a favourite shrub. -- rbel |
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