Best plants for wet soils
There’s plenty of choice – from natives to something more exotic!
Water in the garden in the shape of a pond or a stream can be enchanting and peaceful. It also attracts wildlife. But when it stays in the soil it’s another thing entirely. It makes the soil difficult to dig and the roots of the majority of garden plants don’t like sitting in it. This can make it difficult to create an interesting border and to find the right plants, specimens have been introduced from many parts of the globe, but some can be found right on our own doorstep!
Travel along any deep, narrow lane, where the sun rarely settles, in wetter parts of Britain and the sides will be laced with ferns. One of these is likely to be Asplenium scolopendrium (hart’s tongue fern), a short-growing, fresh-faced plant with long, strap-like, green fronds. When May comes around the sweetly-scented flowers of Filipendula ulmaria (meadowsweet) can be seen rising gracefully from wet ditches and grassland, while in June the tall, purple flower spikes of Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife) form big clumps along the banks of rivers. Geum can now be found in many varieties, but the wild form, Geum rivale, can commonly be discovered nestling among grasses in wet meadows.
These native wetland plants are only a small selection of what can be grown. Look outside our shores and North America has provided us with a wealth of garden plants, and some of them are perfect for damp soils.
Eupatorium maculatum (Joe Pye weed) can be found in Britain, but the best garden forms come from the USA, where they grow in very wet, even swampy soils. These big plants flower from late summer into late autumn, producing large, fluffy heads of pink flowers that are a must for bees and butterflies.
Lysimachia ciliata (loosestrife) has starry, yellow flowers and although this comes from North America, many other species are found around the world, including butterfly-attracting Lysimachia
clethroides. All types are easy to grow, but be careful where they’re planted as they’re likely to romp around when happy.
For a more Oriental feel, Japan and China has provided us with astilbe. This popular plant is perfect for a damp garden and water edges. I find it difficult to combine it into the cottage garden-style my garden favours, but when grown with other statement plants, such as yellow, daisy-flowered ligularia, dramatic-leaved rodgersia and large-leaved
hosta, wonderful drifts of colour and shape can be created. However, these are big plants for big gardens, so for a smaller garden grow the delightful candelabra primulas including Primula florindae and Primula japonica. When these are planted together and allowed to seed, you’ll get an array of cheerful flowers.
One of the best all-round garden plants is the iris. For a wet soil, the types without beards must be grown. Our native wetland Iris pseudacorus is a bit of a thug and should be avoided in smaller gardens, whereas Iris sibirica and its types are happy in wet soils and won’t grow too big. These will flower from late May to the end of June or early July, and the leaves are perfect for adding shape to a border.