Your favourite hardy perenials

I am altering one of my boders to make it into a a cottage garden border. The back of the border is the house wall and we have a plum tree trained up it. The border is 8ft by 14ft.

What are people's favourite hardy perenials and cottage garden plants?

I need some inspiration!

 

Most of my stuff is half hardy, dies off every winter and costs an arm and a leg to replace every spring. But if you have walls, I just love climbers. Clematis everywhere in my garden. So much choice. So much colour. Can get them flowering from April to September, (not the same ones). Otherwise - I am sure one of my neighbours is growing marijuana as a perennial. :D

 

For me it has to be Acanthus spinosa followed closely by Phlox with Lobelia cardinalis a very close third ( if the slugs leave it alone ). David.

 

Hi Manderson60

I love Delphiniums so tall and statley and how about Dianthus/garden pinks or a Bleeding heart oh dear I could go on and on! :D
Helen.xxx.

 

Marion - thats a good wide bed. You can afford to have some height. My choice at the back would be Eupatorium purpureum (flowers for a long time), Hollyhocks and Delphiniums, Filipendula rubra Venusta (a beautiful pink) and Aster 'Little Carlow' (absolutely covered in flower now). In the middle I would have Centranthus rubra, Astrantia (there's white, pink, and very dark red) - both of these are very long flowering see http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=000130 .

I would also have Anemone japonica, Lobelia 'Queen Victoria' (red flowers, purple foliage) L 'Tanya' (purple flowers, green foliage), L syphalitica (blue flowers - very hardy), Astilbe, Verbena bonariensis, Echinacea, and at the front Nepeta, Geraniums (Russell Prichard, Mrs Kendal Clark, Patricia and Rozanne are all very long flowering. etc.

 

Hi Marion... my favourites have to be Pentsomens..lots of colours and very long lasting throughout the Summer if you remove dead heads. Good luck with whatever you deceide to do.

 

you cant beat phlox peniculata it starts off around 80cm x 40 cm and each year it spreads around 30 cm and has the best shades around and v hardy.

 

lupins or miclmous daisy

 

I have always liked (and grown) Agapanthus, others are Incarvillea, Eremurus and Cosmos.

 

You've just got to have Carnations/Pinks. Can't think of anything more traditional.

 

Definitely cosmos, and the chocolate ones are a joy. I also like daisy-flowered things like argyranthemums, echinacea, osteospurmums etc. and also astrantia,dahlias and, of course, you can't do without geraniums in one form or another.