The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Bedding plants give a quick blast of colour but don’t forget perennials
ANNUAL bedding plants are top of the list for many gardeners just now, but are they good for the environment, especially with the climate emergency?
Begonias, petunias, busy lizzies and lobelias will brighten pots, borders and hanging baskets, but come the end of the season they’ll be destined for the composter or, Heaven forbid, the bin.
With the International Climate Change conference coming to Glasgoow, we should show the world that Scotland gardens sustainably. And annual bedding plants don’t measure up as large quantities of CO2 are emitted by the peat, plastic and transportation used in their production.
Of course we all use annuals in the garden, but we could often use some perennials that are well adapted to our growing conditions. Plonk and discard misses the magic of gardening. With perennials we can see and value the whole cycle of life, from birth to fresh regeneration the following spring.
Admittedly perennials can’t compete with the long-lasting colourful display of many annuals. But they’re more hardy and much easier to look after.
Many of the brighter and to some, gaudy, annual flowers are fulsome doubles where breeders have removed the reproductive parts to allow for extra petals. So they are useless for pollinators and provide no seeds in autumn for birds. As well as being kinder on the eyes, perennials work well in a border, with bulbs in spring, hardy perennials such as geraniums throughout the summer and the daisy family in late summer and autumn.
For me, green, in its endless shades, is the most under-rated colour. Just stop and look and marvel. Green foliage brings soothing peace to a border, providing an invaluable backdrop to any floral display. Take Euphorbia palustris. From early summer, a mass of soft fresh flowers emerge, a captivating lemon froth astride a carpet of darker green foliage.
Greens form a backdrop to Hemerocallis, a plant I couldn’t be without. What a varied genus, with an endless choice in flower colour, from the wonderfully deep crimson of ‘Olive Bailey’ to the breathtakingly gorgeous yellow flowers of H. lilioasphodelus. As the name suggests each bloom is a fleeting joy but new blooms continue for weeks.
Because individual perennials only flower for a few weeks, achieving a summer-long display in pots is harder. Only very large containers would work.
Alternatively, if you have enough storage space, switch pots round, replacing those that have finished flowering with ones about to start.
Either way, you could start with spring bulbs such as tulips, followed by lilies, and lower edging plants like thrift and Armeria maritima that adds in a splash of white, red or crimson. And what could beat dianthus, another of my many favourites. I simply can’t see beyond ‘Stargazer’ with white petals encircling a deep crimson eye.
Or let a pot provide a succession of the same genus, such as Anemones. Begin with Anemone blanda in early spring, then A. nemorosa or A. coronaria and finish with Japanese anemones flowering through in to autumn.
A third option is to devote a large planter to an individual perennial. I have a repeat-flowering patio rose, Merengue, in a corner with low-growing perennial geraniums, like sanguineum and versicolor, round its base.
Some of the species currently used as annuals, like fuchsias and salvias have perennial forms and include reasonably hardy species that flower year after year. Just give a modicum of winter shelter and follow up with some feeding and mulching in spring.
Hanging baskets are more challenging, but thymes tolerate dry conditions and have variegated leaves with flowers of different shades of pink. Low growing sedums, saxifrages and sempervivum are possible. But perhaps hanging baskets aren’t an essential part of life.