Plants For Derbyshire

Hello, we are new to gardening and have just started to look at doing someing with our garden. At the moment we have nothing in there and we want to start adding a number of low maintenance and easy to grow plants that can add a bit of colour to the area.

Now we live in the hills of Derbyshire and our garden isn't the most sunny and obvioulsy the weather isn't great in that area. Could someone please recommend some plants for us to start of with?

 

Hi pn1005 and welcome. A new garden can be a big subject. There are lots of non plant aspects, then for plants, you have shrubs, perennial (ie live for more than one year), and annuals (one year only).

But don't worry about all that - just get stuck in somewhere. The rest will come if you become interested. I would suggest you get some perennials, as they are relatively low maintenance, will flower and then die down over the winter and then come back and flower the next and hopefully subsequent years. Look to see what other people are growing, as these will be happy in your conditions.

I would recommend Geranium (the perennial - not the red bedding plant). Try to look for 'Patricia' and 'Rozanne'. They are both brilliant and will flower for a very long period of time - in my opinion they are the best. Centranthus ruber is also very long flowering. Other plants - flowering early are Dicentra, Aquilegia and Astrantia. Flowering later - Astilbe, Monarda, Helenium. Nepeta fasenii, Penstemon, Verbena bonariensis, Hemerocallis, Echinacea, Solidago, Rudbeckia and Phlox. And flowering very late (Sept) are Asters. Don't get Aster novi-belgie they tend to get mildew, but do get Aster fricatii - 'Monch' or 'Wunder von Staffa' as they flower for twice as long as any other Aster - they are in flower now and will go on till November.

I have used Latin names - and suggest that you Google these names to get information about them. These are all simple easy plants and most of them are long flowering, though Penstemon tend to die if they get waterlogged over winter.

You don't have to buy a lot of plants, perennials expand each year and you can divide them to get more. You can grow most from seed - but not the two Geraniums I mentioned - they are sterile, which is part of the reason they flower for such a long time - they are trying to make seed and can't.

 

Hi pn1005 and welcome also. Having lived in NE Derbyshire for many years I've found that most things will grow quite well. PeterS is right about looking at what is growing in everyone elses gardens, if they can grow it you can! I tended to go for shrubs mostly (I love pruning) especially Hebes and Spireas then fill in with bedding. Our garden was only small so I couldn't get in as much as I wanted, one foliage plant I would recommend is Diablo but unfortunately cannot remember its Latin name. It is a lovely bronze colour which you can prune back to nothing and it will come again. The only thing I really had trouble with was Potentillas, don't know why. Hope this helps.

 

Hiya pn1995
Ground cover is ideal for a low maintenance garden.
One really good plant for this job is Ajaga (AKA Bugle)it comes in a few different shades my favourite is Burgundy Glow.



This beautiful Ajuga is growing just outside my back door, I brought it as a small plant last year and is now quite a large patch as you can see!
Helen.xxx.

 

Oh I forgot to add that I live near Rotherham/Sheffield which is just over the border from you in Derbyshire so it should grow just as good for you!
Helen.xxx.