The plantsman's border (Filed: 30/06/2001)
The rarer the plant and the harder it is to grow, the more enthusiasts love it. Mary Keen explains how to impress
PLANTSMEN garden in all weathers. There is never a month when they cannot trump you with an interesting flower. Because their focus is narrow, the borders they create are the sort that look good in photographs, where detail matters.
Plantsmen rarely waste space on repeating plants, which means that the overall effect can sometimes seem spotty. Everything is grown to perfection and the best form of any plant is always preferred. The constraints of the layout of this page prevent me from showing the crammed effect of a plantsman's border, but the lists of underplanting give you some idea of what might be added.
Plantsmen are experimenters. They rush to Bob Brown's nursery, Cotswold Garden Flowers, for a must-have plant that is obscure. Tunnel 3 is the Mecca for small numbers of what Vicky, the nursery manager, refers to as "really weird stuff".
Cypella coelestis, with its intricate blue flowers, is new to me, and Eucomis 'Sparkling Burgundy' has been popular with the cognoscenti this year (there are still a few left).
Having a plant that no one else has heard of, let alone seen, is the aim of all committed plantsmen. If you want a short cut to choosing the best, consult the RHS publication on Award of Garden Merit plants, AGM 2000 (£5.95).
Plants for sunny spots
On the wall, the shocking-pink prunus will appear in February. This is an arresting colour so early in the year. Other winter interest comes from the tender coronilla, with pea flowers of palest lemon from January (if mild) to the end of April, and the hellebore, which has beautifully marked leaves and green flowers.
The small-leaved myrtle is an evergreen, with white flowers in August. One-upmanship is owning August blooms. The poker - pokers are very "now" - is pale green and yellow, and also flowers in that tricky holiday month. Eryngiums are fashionable, especially the bluest forms. They too will flower until August. Morina is another late-summer performer. It looks like a thistle and has pinky spires for a long time, which darken with age. It demands somewhere moist but well-drained. Unless you are a true plantsman, this is the hardest of all arrangements to provide.
The penstemon is slightly tender and also demanding. But then, half-hardies that need to be propagated and kept warm in winter are a favourite challenge for the obsessive. The peony 'Scarlett O'Hara' is borderline: it can fail to flower after cold winters, but it is a beautiful single scarlet. P. cambessedessi is similarly picky. It needs a warm site, but its pewter leaves and magenta flowers in March make it worth all the effort.
The small plants - the tiny iris that smells of plums, and the origanum, with maroon flowers that go on until the frosts - you will not find in every garden. The alliums are also dark red and late. They are much more recherche than the purple globes that haunt our borders in May.
The aquilegia is very desirable. Palest yellow, it flowers for months if you dead-head it. (Plantsmen do not mind hours spent with scissors.) Tulipa clusiana (in the unimproved form) is hard to find, and the eremurus is the ultimate desirable trophy.
Plants for shady spots
Winter is high season for plant buffs, who like to compete with snowdrops. They grow large, scented forms. They also love hellebores, but only the rarest (and preferably those on a waiting list) will do. Helleborus x nigercors is an Award of Garden Merit plant. Not pretty, but handsome in an arresting way, nigercors has bold leaves and large flowers.
The green-flowered currant will also cheer up winter. It is easy, but few people recognise its pale, early spring tassels. The best Euphorbia wulfenii is 'Lambrook Gold' ('John Tomlinson' is too big, in case anyone disagrees) and it, too, has green flowers - great bottle-brushes of golden green set against blue leaves, from March to May.
Ferns are all-year plants, and 'Bevis', belonging to the polystichum family, is a king among ferns. It will be happy anywhere. It should stay green all winter. The London Pride is evergreen, and the form chosen has darker prettier flowers than the common type.
These plants will form a background to summer flowers. The viburnum is a non-stop performer with blossoms like white lace caps. The hemerocallis has good leaves and delicate flowers. The flowers are scented: perversely, those of the honeysuckle are not, but it is such a glamorous plant that it is worth growing on a north wall.
Technically, the abelia, with its coppery leaves and pink
flowers in late autumn, needs a warm spot, but it can
cope with shade. Choice and unusual, the crocosmia and
viola are slightly harder to grow than their kindred. The
pale blue geranium is easy - the challenge is in finding it.
Add named forms of aquilegias, some rust-coloured
foxgloves, and the impossible-to-establish green-flowered
Smyrnium perfoliatum and you are on the way to
impressing others.
-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001