Shade-loving alpines
Don’t worry if you haven’t got a sunny spot for alpines as there are many that prefer cover
Autumn-flowering perennials are often yellow. Many originate from the prairies of North America and are tall with daisy-shaped flowers. The brightest coloured of these is rudbeckia (blackeyed Susan) which has a distinctive black centre.
Similar in flower shape and colour are helianthus (perennial sunflower), heliopsis (ox-eye daisy) and helenium (sneezeweed) which are a must for the autumn border. All these daisies combine beautifully with asters.
Super-hardy and long-lived, Cyclamen hederifolium is happiest when growing underneath small shrubs or trees, where it’ll seed around and form clumps of lovely silver and green patterned foliage in all but the summer months. Masses of pink or white flowers appear in late summer and autumn.
Corydalis solida ‘George Baker’ is another bone-hardy plant, this time flowering in early spring with stunning brick-red flowers and neat fronds of leaves. It goes dormant in summer so can be grown between other plants or underneath small trees or shrubs.
Surprisingly unattractive to slugs is a miniature hosta with the
cute name of ‘Cracker Crumbs’. Growing to only 10cm (4in) tall, with neat gold and green leaves, its purple flowers appear in summer. While most saxifrages like plenty of sun, Saxifraga zimmeteri is quite happy in some shade. It’s ideal grown between rocks or crevices in walls, where it forms delightful evergreen cushions, from which the starry, white flowers emerge in summer. It’s so easy to grow that rosettes can often be pulled off and simply poked into shady cracks where they soon take root.