Border Replenishment

Hey all,

It's come to that time of year when some plants are starting to go to seed and die back - rather annoyingly - any tips/ideas what could be suitable replacements for Foxgloves, Sweet Rocket, Honesty and Forget Me-Nots? I have some Cosmos on standby but not much else! Poached Egg plants at the front I've replaced with Convolvulus and Tagetes.

This is what it looks like now - minus the Sweet William to the right of the Hollyhock, that clump was 6 years old and looking very, very tired.

Cheers!

 

Each to their own, we never have that problem.

We've no annuals, can't be bothered with them, too much like work.
Our borders are full of azeleas, wild bluebells, a lot of lily of the valley and cyclamen, two camellias, some roses and some fuchsias right at the back. So the beds never look empty. It's OK if like us "you don't mind green" for much of the year.
This week now the blooms have died off, I've got rid of all the bluebell foliage before it goes all slimy.

 

If you get a move on, get the plants bought and planted, you should still get some colour and flowering from perennials - try Helenium and Day Lilies for July/August and Rudbeckia, Asters and Sedum for August going into September. Just as an example. You might need to spend a bit of money though as smaller planted put in now will not give as many flowers as if they'd been planted earlier in the year.

One of the skills/trials of gardening is trying to have a few things blooming at any one time in the year. Herbaceous perennials are good for that - from Hellebores in late winter, through to Kaffir Lily in October/November. Underplanting with bulbs that flower at different times of the year can fill any gaps

 

ArchD - your garden looks very nice, but as you say all the plants you mention are early flowerers.

I use two approaches.

1) In part of the garden I grow early biennials like yours, then pull them out when they have finished flowering. Then I replace them with a second shift of tempory late flowering plants. These include annuals like Cosmos and Cleome, and tender perennials such as Dahlias, Fuchsias, a load of different Salvias, Geraniums (technically called Pelargoniums and not to be confused with hardy Geraniums), Argyranthemums, Osteopermums, Felicia, Cannas etc. The benefit of the tender perennials is that they flower for a very long period of time. However this method involves more work, as you have to grow more biennials for the early shift and store the tender perennials in frost free conditions over winter. All the tender perennials I have mentioned can be bought now and will do well this year. But its expensive to keep buying them if you can't store them overwinter.

2) The second approach as SussexG said is to use hardy perennials which involve little work, but have a range that flower at different times. SussexG has suggested some excellent ones. I would add Centranthus ruber, Astrantia, Geranium 'Patricia', Geranium' 'Rozanne', Geranium 'Ann Folkard', Nepeta fassenii (catmint) and Aster fricatii 'Monch', all of which flower for an exceedingly long time.

 

Roses are flowering strongly at this time and there are some crackers. Maybe not much good for this year but it will put on a good show next. Permanent planting is an idea-hydrangeas etc