Selection Of Shrubs And Perennials For An English Garden

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

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Rosehip

If you do not visit the country house too often, then you do not always have time to look after capricious roses. And the soil is also not always suitable for growing them.

Therefore, in some cases, it is better to prefer rose hips to roses - a less demanding, but no less romantic garden plant.

In England, rose hips are called "park roses" - for their ability to winter well without shelter. An ancient variety of prickly rose White Scotch with white, semi-double, medium-sized flowers, very decorative and frost-resistant, can become an excellent tapeworm or join the composition with the already mentioned geraniums and cuffs.

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Viola

Violas will perfectly fit into the stylized English garden of the variety of wrinkled rose, or wrinkled rose hips. The unusual flowers of the Grootendorst group, collected in inflorescences, are small, with serrated petals, reminiscent of carnation flowers, therefore they are often called "carnation roses".

Combining these plants with various varieties of cloves will give the composition a holistic look. Only two forms of garden carnation are suitable for our climatic conditions, despite the fact that they have been grown since the end of the 14th century. These are Shabo and Grenadines forms, which have many different colors. You can replace roses with another traditional plant - the Thuringian Lavater.

This plant has been cultivated since the 16th century - the first mention of it as a garden plant dates back to 1588. Forming bushes up to 2 m high, the Thuringian Lavatera blooms in July and blooms until September - this quality alone makes it an irreplaceable plant in the garden. Large (up to 10 cm in diameter) single flowers on long stalks, light pink, white or purple, are concentrated in the upper half of the plant; for their beauty, this lavatera received another name - Thuringian rose. Lavatera Thuringian can withstand frosts up to? 30? C, and the amazing cold resistance of this plant makes it very promising for landscaping where real roses do not take root well.

Lavatera

The whole plant, both the stem and the leaves, are covered with hard hairs, which is why they have a gray-green hue, in combination with bright flowers it looks very beautiful, therefore, single clumps of Thuringian Lavater on the lawn become strong and bright elements of the garden composition. Thuringian rose is very effective in mixborders made from large plants, especially in combination with tall bells and foxgloves.

Planted along the edge of the garden, it becomes a luxurious hedge. You can also create a flowering wall from it, decorating outbuildings in the garden. The lush Thuringian rose bushes at the entrance sets the tone for the entire property. In recent years, in the wake of the growing interest in the Thuringian Lavater, foreign varieties have appeared on sale: Lilac Lady with lilac flowers, Eye Catcher with deep pink flowers and Barnsley Baby with delicate white and pink flowers. Without a lush flower garden, the composition of an English cottage garden will remain unfinished. Types are not suitable for him either. Let's start with the most traditional ones.

Antirrinum

Antirrinum, or snapdragon, was introduced into culture in England, at the beginning of the 16th century, at the same time the first terry varieties of antirrinum were bred. Antirrinum blooms from July until frost, therefore, when planting it, it is necessary to tamp the composition with earlier flowering species so that the flowering becomes continuous. Recently, a series of tall Roket antirrinums with large flowers of six colors (bright red, dark red, bronze, pinkish, golden yellow and white) has become very popular. An antirrinum flower garden can become the main decoration of the garden.

Mallow is another traditional plant in English flower gardens. The terry variety Chater's Double and the one-year early varieties Majorette and Summer Carnival are very popular these days. A close species to her is the one-year-old three-month lavater. During the four-century history of its breeding, this plant has been enriched with many different varieties. Two new varieties of Lavatera are especially good for an English-style flower garden: Silver Cup (flowers are silvery pink and veins are dark red) and graceful Mont Blanc (flowers are white with darker veins).

Violet tricolor

The tricolor violet came to English gardens back in the 17th century, and with its help European gardeners developed many new varieties. Many different violet hybrids, differing mainly in shades and size of flowers, can easily blend into any composition. One of the most traditional locations for pansies is in the variegated rabat, when several varieties are planted together. It is also good for decorating the underside of tall plants such as the purple foxglove variety Excelsior.

As a garden plant, aquilegia (catchment) began to be grown in the monastery gardens in the 13th century. For many centuries, aquilegia has remained a traditional plant in English gardens. For the openwork leaves of most varieties and species of aquilegia, a bluish-gray bloom is characteristic, which gives them a special decorative effect. For all its decorativeness, the catchment is frost-resistant, does not require shelter for the winter, which also adds to its popularity. Wild aquilegia species are so beautiful from nature that many species from the middle of the 17th century began to be introduced into culture without any selection.

Aquilegia

Aquilegia ordinary is the most frost-resistant species (withstands up to -35? C), numbering many varieties and hybrids, among which you can choose medium-sized and tall varieties for an English garden. The powerful, tall Flore Pleno Black (with double dark red, almost black flowers) and Peachy Woodside (with peach-pink flowers and yellowish leaves) are widely cultivated.

The variety Nivea is very interesting (flowers are blue-violet with white stripes). Most aquilegs do better in mixed group plantings under cover of other plants, so they are ideal for mixborders along with tall bells, ornamental grasses, and ferns. It is worth remembering that in the background of the composition, the beauty of the aquilegia is lost, so it is better to place it where you can admire the flowers nearby, for example, near the garden bench.

The most famous species of peony in Europe - medicinal peony - one of the oldest garden plants, in the old days it was cultivated for the treatment of gout. Since the 19th century, hybrid forms of the Asian peony of the milk-flowering have become increasingly popular among English flower growers; soon its hybrids have spread throughout European gardens. Its advantage is a very pleasant sweetish scent that fills the entire garden at the peak of flowering (in the second half of June).

There are about 3 thousand cultivars of milk-flowered peony of the most varied colors. The peony is beautiful both in a traditional mixborder in combination with other tall perennials, and in mono-planting. In the first half of the 17th century, under the influence of the Dutch, new flowers appeared in English gardens, which later became an integral part of the old English cottage garden: nasturtium and, of course, tulips.

Nasturtium

There are a lot of varieties of nasturtium, but, in my opinion, the golden-yellow flowers of the Luteum variety are especially good in the composition. When growing this annual in our climate, it is important to remember that nasturtium is a thermophilic plant and can be damaged by late frosts, so you should not rush to plant seedlings, especially since large plants tolerate transplantation very well.

Tulips allow you to get very beautiful and harmonious garden compositions. But their use in borders is possible only if they are skillfully combined with other plants, since after flowering tulips go into a dormant phase and lose their decorative effect. The foliage left after flowering can spoil the appearance of the flower garden, so neighboring plantings must compensate for their absence. You can also prepare seedlings of annual plants (such as nasturtiums) in advance and plant them in place of the tulips after the bulbs have been dug. So the flower garden will remain beautiful throughout the summer, and the areas of soil allocated for tulips will not be impoverished and eroded by rains.

Low-growing, miniature varieties are placed in the first rows of the composition, and tall ones are used at a distance. For a flower garden in the English style, a popular bouquet planting scheme is suitable, when from 6 to 10 bulbs of the same variety are placed in the neighborhood. When creating a composition, it is important to remember that not only the correct color and historically correct combination of plant species will give the garden an English gloss. The main feature of the cottage garden is, of course, neatness. It is necessary to closely monitor the plants, remove fallen leaves in time and cut off faded shoots. Cleanly swept paths, neat foliage and fresh buds - this is the hallmark of the English cottage garden.