Changing garden fashions

All the above alive and kicking in my gardens - except red salvias and mignonette. No reason for that, just happenstance.

The list of plants that are 'in fashion' is rather larger in my opinion. I chuck a few in below and hope for reinforcements from you all:

Rudbeckias, Heleniums, Miscanthus varieties - well loads of grasses, Sedums, Alliums, various Salvia species, and Irises seem to be coming back this year judging from Chelsea (Yippee!)

In London I see pelargoniums all over everywhere, not just the old fashioned 'geranium' but all the newish zonal/regal hybrids, and ivy leaf ones.

I personally like the humble Busy Lizzie. Brilliant plant. Don't suppose that will ever be trendy...but I'm going to put my money on Paeonies coming back into fashion again sometime soon.

 

Try Saxifraga Umbrosa Mike.

 

Ferns are fashionable.

Phloxes are out.

Echinaceas are in.

Dahlias used to be right in, then they were out, now they're in again.

Gladioli have been very, very, very out but I think they are creeping back in.

Ditto, pampas grass.

Ophiopogon nigrescens - has been in, time it went out, IMO.

I would like Busy Lizzies to be in, but only the wild, rampant tall kind, not the dumpy little bedders.

 

@ Pete, that does look very much like it, th eonly slight difference from what I recall is the leaf colour, I seem to remember it as considerably darker.
However we are making progress.

 

You will still find Heliotrope used in parks, I have just grown 500 here. The downside is that the seed produced varieties such as Marine have little in the way of scent. The old cutting raised ones like President Garfield had a fantastic scent but overwintering these plants for stock cause problems and it is these kinds of plants that have disappeared, they may still be found at specialist nurseries.
Amaranthus Caudatus, Love Lies Bleeding, seems to have gone in favour of newer varieties like Foxtails.
Antirrhinums were out of favour for a long time due to wilt problems but new wilt free (and a cascading! variety) has brought them back in popularity.

 

mike- is it Saxifraga x urbium your looking for?

http://www.english-country-garden.com/flowers/london-pride.htm

 

Thanks Glen, that's the one, dunno where I got UrbiCum from, better lay off the mead.

 

Strongy, I had some heliotrope plants and I loved the scent- does this mean I always have to buy plants or take cuttings? Aren't there any well-perfumed varieties from seed? :(

 

Liz, I have only grown Marine from seed which as I said doesn't have a very strong scent but there may be others in seed catalogues that I don't know of.

 

I think zantadeschias (calla lilies) are the new up-and-coming plants!

 

call me old fashioned but I just love anyhting that grows and is slug resistant -London pride being one of them and alchemilla herbs etc.

 

I've had calla lilies for years, and my nasturtiums self seed every year I have loads of them!

 

Millet, Millet and more Millet (Pennisetum), seems to be one of the newer 'architectural' plants of recent years. I have had to grow a couple of hundred of them for various parks and roundabouts but I am not keen on them.

 

I quite like millet, but got no more room and don't want to shrink the grass anymore yet. Just looking out of french doors quite windy my bananas are getting a battering!! :(

 

Hi T.O. hope you had a great holiday. I agree with you about Millet. The containers in the place where i work have just been planted up and everyone has Millet as the centre-piece.