All Our Yesterdays
Percy Thrower looks at the best herbaceous perennials for the garden
FEW plants have undergone a greater change in conventional use in the past 25 years than herbaceous perennials. These plants, which were traditionally grown in herbaceous borders, are now rarely used in this way except in public parks. As gardens have become progressively smaller, it has become increasingly difficult to allocate sufficient space for borders devoted exclusively to herbaceous plants. These plants have had to take their place along with other types of plant in a partnership designed to create the greatest possible effect with the last expenditure of labour.
11 Kniphofia
These are the red-hot pokers or torch lilies that usually have stout flower stems terminated by poker-like spikes of red and yellow flowers. Very typical of this style is ‘Royal Standard’, an old variety that is still first class and not too big to be accommodated even in a tiny garden.
Yet not all kniphofias follow this standard pattern and ‘Maid of Orleans’ is an example of something very different, an almost white poker with just the faintest hint of cream and yellow. The flower spikes are long, well filled and shapely, and altogether this is a most desirable plant for a warm sunny place in the garden in soil that will remain reasonably moist in summer without ever becoming waterlogged in winter.
12 Iris
Irises, like delphiniums, have been so fantastically developed in gardens that varieties are legion and tend to be constantly displaced by better (or maybe just better publicised) newcomers. But also, as with delphiniums, a few oldtimers contrive to hang on among the fashionable leaders by virtue of their proven excellence.
Such are clear-blue ‘Jane Phillips’, one of the loveliest June-flowering irises ever raised, and ‘Cliffs of Dover’, an equally lovely white. Do not forget the smaller flowered but very beautiful and easily grown varieties of the Siberian iris (I. siberica), of which I pick ‘Caesar’s Brother’, violet-purple; ‘Perry’s Blue’, light blue; and ‘Snow Queen’, white.
13 Hemerocallis
It is particularly important to select daylilies with care because they are easily raised from seed and a lot of inferior varieties have been marketed from time to time. But the best are readily available and are such splendid easily grown flowers that everybody should have them.
For really small gardens a species, H. multiflora, is a little beauty with narrow leaves, coppery buds and many small golden-yellow flowers on wiry 2ft (60cm) stems. Among the larger-flowered hybrids I pick ‘Pink Damask’, a pastel shade of pink, and ‘Stafford’, glowing chestnut-red, which are five-star plants.
14 Lupinus
No one doubts today that the late George Russell did an enormous service to gardeners when he produced the first lupins with widely expanded petals in the standard of the flowers, so producing a much more solid, effective flower spike. But lupins are never long-lived plants and, though readily raised from seed, seedlings – even from carefully saved seed – can be variable in quality. So the best varieties must be frequently renewed by cuttings.
15 Paeonia
The peonies are the most sumptuous of early flowering plants, and since they have good foliage as well they should be included in every garden. First to bloom in May are the old-fashioned European varieties with huge double but scentless flowers. I like the Old Double Crimson (Paeonia x festiva ‘Rubra Plena’), but the Old Double White (Paeonia x festiva ‘Alba Plena’), which starts by being pink and then fades to white, has many admirers and there is a good pure white and double pink as well. Just a week or so later comes ‘Defender’, a deep-scarlet peony, single flowered so that it displays a cluster of golden anthers in the centre of a huge goblet.
Then in June come the Chinese peonies, all scented, some single, some semi-double, some fully double. So many
are good that it is difficult to know where to stop, but for a shortlist I choose ‘Bowl of Beauty’, semidouble, Paeonia lactiflora pink and cream; ‘Duchesse de Nemours’, white; ‘Sarah Bernhardt’, pink; and ‘Félix Crousse’, carmine.
16 Pyrethrum [Tanacetum]
These are among the best hardy perennials for cutting, their flowers not unlike single or double chrysanthemums carried on long wiry stems. The foliage, too, is ferny and elegant, and pyrethrums would undoubtedly be much more widely grown if it were not for a tendency to rot away in winter. To prevent this, they must be grown in good well-drained soil and should be lifted and divided every second or third year. The old single pink [Tanacetum coccineum] ‘Eileen May Robinson’ is still one of the very best varieties and ‘Kelway’s Glorious’ is a reliable single crimson.
17 Rudbeckia
The coneflowers got their popular name because of the raised cone-like disc of their daisy flowers. I think Rudbeckia var. ‘Goldsturm’ is the fulgida sullivantii best all-round rudbeckia for small gardens. This has orange-yellow petals surrounding a black, almost button-like centre – a very attractive combination that makes it one of the most striking of flowers in the garden in August and September. It grows about 2ft (60cm) high and presents no difficulty.
18 Salvia
When salvia is mentioned many gardeners will think straight away of the half-hardy scarlet salvia, so popular as a summer bedding plant. But the herb called sage is also a salvia and perfectly hardy, and there is a first-class perennial species named Salvia x superba, which produces slender purple flower spikes in late summer and is an outstanding ornamental plant at that season.
There are several garden varieties and I choose from these Salvia ‘Lubecca’ for its intense nemorosa violet-purple colour and compact habit. It is unlikely to exceed 18in (45cm) in height, whereas some forms can reach 3ft (90cm).
19 Sedum [Hylotelephium]
Most of the stonecrops are rock plants or trailers, but two first-class kinds are erect and just right for the front row of a bed or border. One is Hylotelephium spectabile (Brilliant Group) ‘Carmen’, with fleshy greyishgreen leaves and flat heads of deep-pink flowers on 1ft (30cm)-high stems. The other is ‘Autumn Joy’ [Hylotelephium (Herbstfreude Group) ‘Herbstfreude’], which is just a trifle taller, looks rather similar at first, but its rose flowers gradually deepen with age until they become a unique russet-red. They can remain like that until November.
■ In AG 3 July we look at Percy Thrower’s five-star plant selection of rock plants.