Carol Klein lists her most desirable ‘stalwart’ plants to get in the ground now

Here’s my list of the most desirable ‘stalwart’ new year plants to get into the ground now

No doubt lots of us gardeners are thinking about what we’re going to grow in this new year. Even when your garden seems full to bursting there’s always room for a few more plants. There are occasions, too, when you feel the need for a change; perhaps perennials in part of the plot are looking a bit tired or you’ve become unhappy about a colour clash, or the fact that a few plants are obscured by an over-boisterous neighbour. You don’t need any excuse, though, to introduce new year plants.

This is an excellent time, too, to split plants. Providing the weather isn’t frosty and the soil is friable enough to replant the divisions promptly, they should get off to a good start. Incorporating lots of compost at planting time helps, and concentrating on plants that flowered in summer that have had time to rebuild resources is sensible, too. For late flowerers: asters, rudbeckias and other autumn-flowering daisies, it’s best to wait until early spring.

Many of the plants I would choose as my ‘best new year plants’ aren’t new on the market. For me, novelty is not synonymous with desirability! Rather than choose varieties that have just been or are about to be introduced, I’ve gone in the main for stalwarts. To join the list, plants should be accommodating and not particularly fussy about soil. Although the maxim of ‘right plant right place’ should guide all plant choice, most of these plants would be happy almost anywhere. Most have a long season of interest.

To start with something spectacular – a big cabbage! Don’t be put off, although the leaves of Crambe cordifolia are big and coarse, its airy sprays of white flowers on monumental branching stems share the sweet smell of alyssum to which, incongruously size-wise, it’s related.

Perhaps you just haven’t the room for a crambe, but even if it’s just pots on the patio or a windowbox, there are plants-aplenty for interest and scent.

For years we grew Zaluzianskya ovata, in fact it was on our plant list at Glebe Cottage Plants. Small, bushy plants are covered in starry, white flowers, opening each evening from crimson buds. Each flower has a long corolla tube.

Taken together these give the clue that it’s pollinated by moths. I’m looking forward to long summer evenings, sitting outside with our family, enjoying the perfume.

Why not try Gillenia trifoliata, grown mainly for its clouds of tiny, white flowers? Other attributes include dark stems, wiry growth and outstanding autumn colour.

Astrantia ‘Roma’, with its papery, pink bracts, has to be at the top of the must-have list. An eminently good mixer, it will repeat flower if deadheaded. Best avoided only if your soil is thin and dry, and it will always benefit from the addition of hearty organic matter, both at planting time and as a mulch.

Including a rose is surely obligatory and there are new ones introduced every year. One I’d love to try is ‘Silas Marner’ with full, almost peony-shaped flowers in pretty pink and with a delicious old-rose fragrance. But ‘Totteringby-Gently’ might be the most apt choice! Another David Austin rose, unusual in having single flowers of pale yellow, borne in heads. These single flowers must be full of pollen, making it a magnet for pollinating insects.

The perfect companions for roses are geraniums. Where to start though? Reams have been written extolling geranium ‘Rozanne’, non-stop flowering from June to November. So many excellent cranesbills from which to choose. Try Geranium phaeum and its lovely white form ‘Album’ if you’ve got shade, forms of G. sanguineum if it’s hot and dry or G. psilostemon for absolutely anywhere.

That’s what you call a ‘Best New Year Plant’!

‘Even when your garden seems full to bursting, there’s always room for a few more plants’