Tuesday 16 September 2008

Barrier troughs and Lowtown beds

This is one of our barrier troughs containing drought-tolerant alpines and succulents. Obviously the rainy summer hasn't been ideal for them, but they have survived! The calandrinia in the one above is absolutely covered in bright pink flowers.
These are the beds in the seating area on Lowtown. This shows the bed on the right. As you can see in the picture below, there are a few gaps at the front, however, we are growing some agastache from cuttings and will plant these out soon. The agastache will add some scent to the beds too; their foliage smells of aniseed.
Below is the bed on the left. The stipa giganteas are starting to flower on this side. In future years they will be even more impressive; their flower spikes can be over 6 foot tall.
The plants are all doing really well. When we planted them most were very young plants in 9cm pots so they have grown a lot since spring.
We chose rich warm colours in shades of pink, orange, yellow and purple. The picture below shows rudbeckias, potentillas, knautias and achilleas.
The grasses are doing well too. We chose evergreen species that will look good all year round. The one in the picture below in stipa arundinacea which has green and orange foliage.
The bright pink achilleas and bright yellow rudbeckias look really striking together. The rudbeckias were the smallest plants when we planted them, about 5cm high, but now they are the most visible.
Another evergreen foliage plant we used were heucheras. This purple-leaved variety looks great with the rudbeckias too.
The heucheras also get tall flower spikes of tiny blooms which contrast with the big bold flowers of the other perennials.

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