PLANT YOUR BORDER
A sunny site and welldrained soil is a must if you want this border to perform with real pizazz.
Add plenty of well-rotted organic matter when you plant to improve the soil structure, ensuring it has both good drainage and the potential to hold onto some moisture over summer. On heavier ground work in generous amounts of horticultural grit too.
A thick mulch between plants helps to conserve moisture and suppress annual weeds. You could use compost but gravel adds to the sun-drenched mood.
1 Start with the phormium
With the phormium’s star quality it’s worth visiting a nursery to buy a cultivar with the foliage tints that you’re after. ‘Sundowner’ is hardy to about -10C, so while fine for coastal and sheltered spots it may be a bit dicey in more exposed areas. You can help plants by choosing a sheltered spot, ensuring good drainage, establishing large well-rooted specimens and tucking a dry mulch around its skirts before winter. Some layers of fleece may be wise during very cold spells.
Plant any time between spring and late summer but avoid planting too close to the end of season because you want them to get established before cold damp weather arrives. Summer plantings need generous watering during dry spells. Allow plenty of room for the phormium to spread without leaning or being lent on by neighbours. Tidy plants in spring, clearing away any tatty leaves and refreshing the surrounding mulch. Large clumps can be lifted and divided, removing rooted side shoots and potting them up to grow on under cover for a year before planting out.
2 Add the stipa
The second sizeable star of this planting is the large golden oats. Establish new stipas between spring and early autumn. It can be challenging to imagine just how big they will grow, so use a 1.8m (6ft) bamboo cane to help give you an idea of both height and spread. The tall panicles of flowers will stand right through autumn if you can resist picking a few for cut flower arrangements. Finally tidy up plants in spring, combing out any dead leaves and cutting out the remaining flower stems. Lift and divide large clumps every few years, just beware splitting them too small when you do so.
3 Paint a splash with perennials
The two verbenas may differ dramatically in shape, but both offer months of tiny purple flowers. V. bonariensis has been popular for decades thanks to its giraffe-neck stature that allows you to bring plants to the border front without blocking views through. ‘Bampton’ is a newer kid on the block but its metallic purple-tinted foliage and haze of fine wiry branches make it a stand-out plant (it’s worth trying as a container specimen too). Establish new plants of both in mid to late spring, making sure they have excellent drainage.
V. bonariensis will flower in its first year from an early sowing and should self-sow around the garden when happy, but for ‘Bampton’ buy the named cultivar if you want to be sure of good foliage colour. Pinching out young plants helps encourage bushy growth. Both can be propagated by cuttings to increase your stock. Leave the top growth on over winter only cutting back to new low growth once the worst of the frosts are past.
Plant the achillea and hemerocallis in autumn or spring, pulling them forwards for maximum appreciation of their red and terracotta tones. Achilleas love the good drainage of a gravel garden and their flat flower heads provide months of pollinatorenticing flowers especially if you deadhead them. Leave these late flowers and they’ll catch any trace of frost once temperatures fall. Tidy up plants by cutting back any remaining stems in late winter.
‘Sammy Russell’ is a hardy and hearty hemerocallis forming clumps of slender bright green leaves. Extra compost in the planting hole will help prevent it drying out in the summer months. Deadhead regularly to keep it looking smart. They soon increase and large clumps can be lifted and split in autumn or early spring.