from The Weatherstaff PlantingPlanner – intelligent garden design software
Hamamelis x intermedia Jelena landscape design
Hamamelis x intermedia Jelena

No one wants their garden borders to be a muddy, lifeless patch in winter! Though a touch of frost can transform the dullest of gardens into a magical wintry landscape, most gardeners aim to create an outdoor space, with delights which are less transitory.

Choosing plants for winter interest usually means selecting attractive skeleton forms or handsome evergreen foliage, picking out plants with winter flowers or looking for colourful stems and interesting bark. All of these can make the winter garden a pleasure to view from your kitchen window.

When you get up close and personal though, it will be those heady winter scents which engage the senses and lift the spirit. With pollinators few and far between, the flowers work extra hard in the winter months to entice pollinating insects and winter flowers can have the most intoxicating fragrance of all garden plants. I’ve planted some of my favourites in a flower bed near my back door to make the most of their scent.

Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’

This neat, rounded, evergreen shrub has attractive dark green leaves, which are narrowly margined yellow. Clusters of sweetly-scented, white flowers, flushed purple-pink, are borne from mid-winter to early spring. It isn’t reliably hardy though and needs a bit of cosseting in the form of a layer of horticultural fleece on colder nights.

Daphne odora Aureomarginata winter garden design
Daphne odora Aureomarginata

Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’ is an upright daphne, with intensely fragrant winter flowers. It has an Award of Garden Merit (AGM) from the Royal Horticultural Society and is widely available at the moment.

Hamamelis

Crumpled, spidery flowers provide a blaze of colour in mid- and late winter, on the bare twigs of this large, deciduous shrub.

Witch hazels flower in a range of ember colours. Hamamelis × intermedia ‘Jelena’ has coppery orange flowers, ‘Arnold Promise’ is yellow and ‘Diane’ is red.

Hamamelis x intermedia Arnold Promise winter planting plan
Hamamelis x intermedia Arnold Promise
Hamamelis x intermedia Jelena garden design
Hamamelis x intermedia Jelena
Hamamelis Intermedia Diane winter flower border design
Hamamelis Intermedia Diane
Sarcocca confusa landscape design
Sarcocca confusa

Sarcococca confusa

Sweet box is an evergreen, winter-flowering shrub, growing slowly to form a dense mound of glossy, dark green foliage. Tiny, vanilla-scented, white flowers are produced in winter, followed by glossy, black berries.

Winter border flowers Viburnum bodnantense Dawn
Viburnum bodnantense Dawn
Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’

An upright, deciduous shrub with distinctively veined foliage. As the leaves begin to fall, deep pink buds open to sweetly scented, pink-flushed, white flowers, continuing from late autumn to early spring.

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from The Weatherstaff PlantingPlanner – intelligent garden design software

I’ve visited lots of gardens, but The Water Garden at Emquartier – slap bang in the middle of a luxury shopping mall and five storeys above the city streets – was a new experience for me.

EmQuartier is Bangkok’s brand new shopping mall, next to Phrom Phong BTS station and just across Sukhumvit Road from the well-established (and recently renovated) Emporium mall. Alongside the modern glass and chrome architecture, there’s been a real effort to create breathing green spaces on every level.

Waterfall Quartier landscape design software
Waterfall Quartier
Peacock Feature landscape garden design
Peacock Waterfall Feature

Outdoor walkways connect the different zones and from these vantage points, as well as superb views of the city, you can spot the foliage of the Water Garden high up in the Helix Quartier and an impressive waterfall, complete with enormous peacocks, overlooking the atrium.

Rainforest Chandelier - garden design, landscape design
The Rainforest Chandelier

Spiralling down over 100 metres from the roof, the Rainforest Chandelier – designed by Patrick Blanc of Vertical Gardens fame – creates a striking first impression of The Water Garden. Echoing the chandelier, the floor then spirals up and up, enabling visitors to circle the gardens and then continue upwards, to select from one of the 50 or so dining outlets between the sixth and ninth floors.

Below the living chandelier, a curved wall of stone – displaying a variety of tropical plants grown hydroponically and over which a cascade of water continually flows – follows a path down to the lotus pond.

curved wall landscape design software
Water cascades over the curved wall
Plants growing hydroponically landscape design software
Plants growing hydroponically
Lotus pond garden design software
Lotus pond

A glass doorway leads to the outdoor courtyard with its interconnecting pools and swaying bamboos. Strategically placed viewing platforms give spectacular panoramic views of the city and the nearby green oasis of Queen Benjasiri Park.

Water garden landscape design software
Water garden overlooking the city of Bangkok
City view at dusk from Weatherstaff landscape design software
City view at dusk

Lobster pot-style gazebos provide quiet sitting areas for catching up with friends and admiring the gardens and views.

Lobster pot gazebos landscape design software
Lobster pot gazebos

A wooden walkway over a pond winds between Bodhi and Banyan trees, a spirit house nestling beneath their branches.

Between Bodhi and Banyan Trees landscape design software
Between Bodhi and Banyan Trees

Dusk was falling as we arrived, transforming the gardens into a magical world. Tiny starry lights hung suspended from the ceiling, flames flared from metal torch holders and hidden lights illuminated the trunks and foliage.

Flickering flames garden design software
Flickering flames

Flames flickered from a glass cube floating on the water.

Watching the city landscape design
Watching the city

It is a beautiful spot to watch night descend on the city.

Sky-high Water Garden - from Weatherstaff garden design software
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from The Weatherstaff PlantingPlanner – intelligent garden design software

You know the scenario – you’re wandering around the garden centre, a horticultural show, a friend’s garden, and there’s this gorgeous little plant you desperately need to own. So you buy it (or dig up a clump if offered or take a few seeds). Your own garden is bursting at the seams. There is no room for a single extra plant, but how many gardeners are staunch minimalists who will stoically turn their backs on that enticing little plant?

Astrantia - for garden software blog
This winsome little astrantia didn’t need to do much eyelid fluttering before it was in my shopping trolley.

So the borders are bulging with delicious combinations of plants and you dig up more lawn for an extra bed. You plant up huge flower pots and hanging baskets. You drape fences with climbers – perhaps even cover the shed roof and the wheelie bin. Where next?

You could always try creating a living wall!

Vertical gardening is the craze that’s been sweeping the world. In our concrete and glass city centres, they are soothing to the eye, covering up ugly, decaying or just plain boring grey structures and creating new green spaces in our cities. Green walls lower the temperatures of buildings and help reduce the urban heat effect. They have been used indoors in countries with severe winters, like Canada, to counter Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). And, of course, they are a work of art in themselves.

The living wall at Siam Paragon shopping mall, Bangkok
The living wall at Siam Paragon shopping mall, Bangkok
A tapestry of greens - garden design blog
A tapestry of greens

Patrick Blanc, the French botanist and pioneer of living walls, is a garden artist, creating his living wall installations around the globe – Paris, New York, Tokyo, Dubai and Bangkok. His latest installation – ‘Rain Forest Chandelier’ at the new EmQuartier luxury shopping mall in Bangkok – looks visually stunning.

Rainforest Chandelier - garden design, landscape design
The Rainforest Chandelier – a hanging green spiral at EmQuartier, Bangkok

It spirals down for over 100 metres, above the 3,000 square metre indoor tropical water gardens, 5 storeys above the streets of the country’s capital city.

Rainforest chandelier close-up, from garden design blog
Rainforest chandelier close-up view of planting

Since the plants on living walls must be able to survive without soil, relying instead on a nutrient solution, the careful choice of plants is essential.

The first green walls were made with tropical species, plants observed to grow vertically in the wild without the need for soil. However, gardeners now use a much wider choice of plants, experimenting to find ones that can cope with being grown hydroponically.They also need to have interesting foliage, which looks good when viewed from underneath, and require little in the way of regular maintenance.

Codiaeum variegatum for garden software blog
The colourful tropical plant, Codiaeum variegatum, is often grown as a house plant in cooler areas

Tropical plants such as Calathea, Codiaeum variegatum pictum, Spathiphyllum wallisii and the Philodendrons work well on indoor living walls – or outdoor walls in tropical regions!

Tougher plants for outdoor walls include fuchsia, hebe, epimediums and ferns such as Cyrtomium fortunei and Asplenium.

Tropical plants - good for living walls, landscape design
Colourful tropical planting is perfect for indoor living walls

Living Walls - from Weatherstaff garden design software
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from The Weatherstaff PlantingPlanner – intelligent garden design software

With a feeling of excitement, adventure and just a little trepidation, we recently set off on an amazing family road trip in northern Thailand. Stunning mountain scenery, tranquil tea plantations, fruit juice freshly squeezed at an orange orchard, a night of solitude with just the frogs and cicadas for company in an isolated hilltribe village awaited us.

Stunning mountain scenery
Stunning Views
After a particularly adventurous experience, lurching and jolting over a lonely mountain road not yet fully surfaced (but with the most fantastic view in the whole of Thailand), we headed back to the charming, moated city of Chiang Mai and civilisation.
Choui Fong Tea Plantation
Choui Fong Tea Plantation

On the way, we stopped at the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden, near the little town of Mae Rim and about 30 miles northwest of Chiang Mai. Like many Royal Projects in Thailand, this one was beautifully designed – with more people working on the site than actual visitors! We passed a handful of other tourists, but most of the time the gardens were ours to explore. We stopped at the Lanna-style Visitor Centre near the entrance to ask for a Visitor Guide and, after some scuffling, one was finally produced – but it was the last one, I was told with a smile, and it seemed to have taken a bit of searching for!

The Visitor Centre at Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden, Chiang Mai
The Visitor Centre at Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden, Chiang Mai

A driveway meanders around the site, so that you can take your car in and drive through the grounds, pulling up at the side to hop out and inspect the plants, and leaping back into the air conditioning afterwards.

A number of trails are signposted along the way – the Waterfall Trail, Fern Garden, Banana Avenue – and, at the top of the site, is the Glasshouse Complex, with 8 glasshouses each housing its own collection of plants including water plants, bromeliads, variegated plants and medicinal plants.

Waterfall Trail
Waterfall Trail

The Waterfall Trail near the entrance is a lovely place to start. The path passes beside the low waterfalls where the Mae Sa stream tumbles over rocks and leads on pushing through the shaded undergrowth to the Orchid Collection.

Zephyr or Fairy Lilies
Zephyr or Fairy Lilies

Though our visit at the beginning of the rainy season meant that many of the outdoor ornamentals had finished flowering, it was a good time to admire the fairy lilies, which carpeted the ground as we climbed up the main drive towards the Glasshouse Complex.

Arid Plants Glasshouse
Arid Plants Glasshouse

It was in the comparative coolness of the glasshouses themselves that we lingered longest.

The spikes and spines of the desert-dwellers were displayed in the Arid Plant Collection.

Bromeliads Glasshouse
Bromeliads Glasshouse

Bright, pink-flushed Bromeliads huddled amongst stone carvings and ornate Thai pots.

Lotus Flower
Lotus Flower

Exquisitely layered blooms of the lotus flowers and water lilies were a delight in the Aquatic Plants Glasshouse.

Water Lily
Water Lily
Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden - from Weatherstaff garden design software
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from The Weatherstaff PlantingPlanner – intelligent garden design software

It’s the Magnolia time of year again – every other garden boasts eye-catching, head-turning starry flowers.

Here’s one of my favourites: Magnolia stellata or Star Magnolia. Strokeable, furry buds and a starburst of pure white petals in March and April. Perfect in a woodland garden … or any garden really!

Magnolia stellata from Weatherstaff Planting Planner
Spring flowering magnolia stellata.
magnolia stellata at the Planting Planner
Magnolia stellata buds
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from The Weatherstaff PlantingPlanner – intelligent garden design software

Some plants make perfect bedfellows. Here are some of my favourite plant combinations.

Here’s an irresistible trio of plants for well-drained soil in full sun.

Allium sphaerocephalon with Stipa tenuissima and Chamaemelum nobile planting idea for well-drained soil
Allium sphaerocephalon with Stipa tenuissima and Chamaemelum nobile

Alliums are flowering plants which include onions, garlic and chives, as well as a number of gorgeously trendy, ornamental plants for the herbaceous border. Allium sphaerocephalon is also known as the round-headed leek or drumstick allium.

The ovoid flowerheads, densely packed with bell-shaped flowers, sway on slender stems, green at first then maturing to a delicious dark red-purple. The strap-like foliage is already starting to wither when the summer flowers appear and can be cut back if necessary.

The intensity of the flowerhead fades to parchment as the summer passes. A bulbous perennial, it will return each year, gently self-seeding to spread its charms abroad.

Allium sphaerocephalon alongside wispy Stipa tenuissima Planting Plan for summer
Allium sphaerocephalon alongside wispy Stipa tenuissima
Drumstick allium Weatherstaff plan
Flowerhead of drumstick allium

It looks fantastic against a backdrop of ornamental grasses and the wispy Stipa tenuissima is a perfect companion. It is a superb, tactile grass, with soft, finely textured, bright green leaves. Dancing, feathery, light green flowerheads, fading to beige, appear from spring until autumn, and persist well into winter.

Like other ornamental grasses or grass-like plants, Stipa tenuissima is easy to care for. Simply trim untidy leaf tips and remove flower spikes, before new growth starts in early spring. Pull away any dead foliage.

Ornamental grass for summer
Stipa tenuissima
Chamaemelum nobile summer border idea
Chamaemelum nobile

I’ve planted these two in my garden, surrounding a circle of stone setts and underplanted with chamomile. The low, aromatic foliage of Chamaemelum nobile is finely dissected, creating a feathery, fern-like appearance, and white, daisy-like flowers, with yellow centres, appear in summer.

Chamomile is a carpeting perennial, which can cope with light foot traffic. The flowers can be dried and used to make chamomile tea.

Winning Combinations Allium Stipa Chamaememlum - from Weatherstaff garden design software
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from The Weatherstaff PlantingPlanner – intelligent garden design software
Daffodils spring garden
Dancing daffodils

“Daffodils that come before the swallow dares, and takes the winds of March with beauty.”

William Shakespeare

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,
She wore her greenest gown;
She turned to the south wind
And curtsied up and down.
She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbour:
“Winter is dead.”

Daffodowndilly – AA Milne

The daffodil is the national flower of Wales. On March 1st – St David’s Day – we dressed up in Welsh National Costume, complete with frilly apron and tall black hat, and pinned on a daffodil. By the end of the day, it was a sorry, droopy little thing, but, still, I always preferred a real daffodil, with its fresh, delicate scent, and cheery yellow flower, to its coarse alternative, the pungent leek.

Even its names are cheerful and pretty – daffodil, daffadowndilly, jonquil, narcissus. The sight of these sunny, flowers swaying their frilly bonnets on tall stems is a real sign that spring has definitely arrived. The flower is instantly recognisable – 6 petals surrounding a trumpet- or cup-shaped corona. Narcissi have been cultivated for hundreds of years and there are numerous cultivars available.

Narcissus 'Actaea' spring garden designs by Weatherstaff
Narcissus ‘Actaea’

Some cultivars have reflexed petals, as though swept back by the March breezes. The flowers may appear singly, in pairs, triplets or more, at the top of tall stems rising up from a spreading clump of strap-like foliage.

While some garden varieties are orange or even pink, the traditional yellow or white are my favourite. Many have received the Award of Garden Merit (AGM) from the Royal Horticultural Society.

Narcissus ‘Actaea’ has pure white, sweetly scented petals, with small yellow cups, rimmed with red. A solitary flower is carried on each stem in late spring and early summer, growing to 45cm. (AGM)

Narcissus 'Thalia' white daffodil for garden borders
Narcissus ‘Thalia’

Narcissus ‘Thalia’ is slightly shorter, at 35cm height. It has narrow, slightly reflexed, soft white petals and cups. Two nodding flowers are carried on each stem in mid-spring.

Magnolia stellata and Narcissus 'Thalia' garden design idea
Magnolia stellata behind a spreading clump of Narcissus ‘Thalia’

In my garden, it flowers at the same time as the Magnolia stellata and the matching, fluttering, pure white petals illuminate the garden as it emerges from the coppers and browns of winter.

Narcissus 'Jetfire' Weatherstaff Planting Planner ideas
Narcissus ‘Jetfire’

The smaller narcissi are charming additions to spring borders. Narcissus ‘Jetfire’ has strongly reflexed, golden petals, with long, orange trumpets. It grows to 20cm. (AGM)

Narcissus 'Tête-à-Tête' spring landscape plan
Narcissus ‘Tête-à-Tête’

The popular Narcissus ‘Tête-à-Tête’ has slightly reflexed, golden petals, with deeper golden cups. Twin flowers, sometimes triplets, are carried on each stem in early spring, growing to 15cm. (AGM)

Narcissus 'Rip van Winkle' spring garden plan
Narcissus ‘Rip van Winkle’

Narcissus ‘Rip Van Winkle’ has attractive double flowerheads, the perianth petals pointed and flounced like a fairy’s petticoat. Yellow flowers, with a hint of green, are carried on each stem in early spring. It will reach 14cm.

Narcissus 'Hawera' landscape border design
Narcissus ‘Hawera’

I love Narcissus ‘Hawera’ for its light, ethereal beauty. It has slightly reflexed, soft yellow petals and fairly short cups. Up to 5 delicate, nodding flowers are carried on each stem in late spring. It grows to 18cm (AGM)

Daffadowndilly - from Weatherstaff garden design software
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from The Weatherstaff PlantingPlanner – intelligent garden design software

There’s something deeply satisfying about getting a bargain. Grabbing that floaty cardi you’d been eyeing up, now with a hefty discount tag attached to it. Booking a stay at a hotel that would have been out of your price range if it hadn’t had its rates reduced. Fortunately, being a plant-lover and a bargain-hunter is not mutually exclusive!

summer garden border idea
An entrancing, summer display at my local garden centre

Garden centres are devilish places. They beguile and bewitch and tempt you with plants at the peak of their flowering season. If you pick up one small pot, it sits there forlornly, bereft of its friends and neighbours, in danger of tipping over, without another pot or two to offer support.

So you pop another plant in – and the combination of colours and contrasting foliage is wonderful. Then, that third flower ties together the first two so beautifully. And the tall, waving grass complements the group…

Buy early in the season

The trouble is that you can end up paying a pretty price for that cart-load of beauties. Buying earlier in the season, when the plants are small, can help save some money. There’s often a ‘Buy 3 for 2’ or some other offer which can help soften the blow at the till.

Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens' herbaceous border idea
Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’
The Clumpers

Another good way to cut costs is to get hold of plants which quickly bulk up and can be divided to make new plants. For one of my garden borders, I was keen to plant up Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ en masse, to create a weed-suppressing, groundcover. The gorgeously, sophisticated black mondo grass has purple-black, strappy foliage and tiny, bell-shaped flowers of the palest mauve.

I baulked at the price of buying them in bulk, though the manager at my local garden centre was very helpful and offered me a good discount when he realised what I planned to do.

Hellebore border design
Helleborus ‘Hillier hybrid Burgundy’

The answer in the end was patience. The plant spreads by rhizomes and also clumps up nicely, so that within a year or two, the original small grasses had spread, or been divided and replanted, until they covered the flower bed wonderfully.

Anemone blanda landscaping design
Anemone blanda

They carpet the ground beneath two camellias and provide a lovely backdrop to hellebores and anemones, as they push their way through from late winter to spring.

Geranium 'Johnson's Blue' herbaceous borders
Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue’

Clumpers, which can be divided with a sharp crunch of a garden spade, are useful not just for providing new plants from old in your own garden, but are great for distributing to friends and fellow plant-lovers. In fact, a social coffee and chat can often end with a stroll around the garden, trowel in hand, and an armful of new plants to find homes for.

Astrantia perennials for border design
Astrantia major subsp. involucrata’Shaggy’ AGM

Good ‘clumpers’ include geranium and astrantia.

The Spreaders

Plants which spread, rooting as they go, like the trailing campanula (Campanula poscharskyana) and lily of the valley, can cover a large wild area quickly. Sometimes, they can spread too vigorously, so it pays to be cautious and check which plants can become invasive in your area.

Campanula poscharskyana for ground cover
Campanula poscharskyana
Lily-of-the-Valley garden design software
Lily-of-the-Valley (Convallaria majalis)
The Self-seeders

And finally, there are the self-seeders. The most effortless and cost-efficient way of all to fill your borders with new plants.

Aquilegia vulgaris is an endearingly old-fashioned, cottage garden plant, also charmingly called Granny’s Bonnet. The nodding flowers of the wild species are usually blue, but there are many variants available. The plant will hybridise freely, so that the new generation of flowers may vary from the ones you planted the previous year. I like the purple, pink and white variants and have been charmed each spring to see old favourites return along with their equally delightful offspring.

Columbine or Granny's Bonnet (Aquilegia vulgaris)
Columbine or Granny’s Bonnet (Aquilegia vulgaris)

Another favourite of mine is the candelabra primula, which carries whorls of red-purple flowers on tall stems in late spring and early summer. Primula pulverulenta will also hybridize liberally with surrounding primulas, so if you have other varieties, you may end up with a delicious woodland drift of pinks and reds.

Primula pulverulenta Landscape design software
Candelabra primula (Primula pulverulenta)
New Plants for Old - from Weatherstaff garden design software
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from The Weatherstaff PlantingPlanner – intelligent garden design software

Need a Planting Plan for a Shady Garden? Click here

Some plants are particularly versatile and unfussy, making themselves at home and seeming to thrive wherever they come to rest. Most plants however have a preference for a particular set of growing conditions or cannot cope if the temperature gets too high or the water supply too low. Keen gardeners may relish the challenge of coaxing a particular favourite plant to prosper, but if you don’t have the time to lovingly cosset your choice specimens, getting the plants in the right place to start with is the way to go.

Plants for Deep Shade

If your garden is dark and gloomy on even the brightest day, you may have resigned yourself to a colour palette ranging from forest green to black. Or decided to give up entirely and pave the whole thing over. However, there are many plants which can tolerate deep shade – and some which positively thrive on it. Here are a few:

Ajuga reptans ‘Burgundy Glow’

A creeping, evergreen perennial, spreading by means of rhizomes to form a mat of attractive foliage. ‘Burgundy Glow’ has variegated leaves – silvery-green, with shades of pink, red and cream. Short spikes of deep blue flowers appear in late spring and early summer.

In ideal conditions, it will make excellent ground cover, even during winter.

Wildlife Interest: Ajuga attracts butterflies and bees.

Ajuga reptans Burgundy Glow ground cover for shade
Ajuga reptans Burgundy Glow
Cornus canadnesis

A creeping, deciduous perennial, spreading by means of rhizomes to form a mat of whorled, mid-green foliage. Attractive flowerheads, comprising tiny green flowers surrounded by 4-6 white petal-like bracts, appear in late spring and early summer, followed by red berries.

Wildlife Interest: the berries are enjoyed by birds.

Cornus canadensis shady garden plan
Cornus canadensis
Brunnera macrophylla Jack Frost Weatherstaff plantiing plan
Brunnera macrophylla Jack Frost
Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’

A clump-forming, deciduous perennial, providing good ground cover in shaded areas.

The frosty silver foliage of Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’, attractively veined and margined mid-green, helps to illuminate dark corners of the garden.

Delicate sprays of forget-me-not blue flowers appear in mid- and late spring.

Tiarella ‘Iron Butterfly’

A stunning, clump-forming perennial, with attractive foliage and sprays of delicate flowers.

Tiny, starry, white flowers, opening from pink buds, are produced in late spring, sometimes followed by a second flush in summer. The deeply lobed, mid-green leaves have central maroon markings.

Tiarella Iron Butterfly shade border perennial
Tiarella Iron Butterfly
Shade-loving Tiarella Planting Design
Shade-loving Tiarella

Ferns are popular for their attractive, sometimes evergreen, foliage and often thrive in damp, shady conditions where other plants might struggle.

Polystichum-munitum Shade-loving fern
Polystichum munitum
Polystichum munitum

A striking, evergreen fern. It forms an impressive clump of dark green fronds, divided into pairs of narrow leaflets. It likes moist soil in partial to deep shade.

Cyrtomium fortunei shady border
Cyrtomium fortunei
Cyrtomium fortunei

An evergreen fern, forming an upright clump of mid-green fronds. Pairs of roughly triangular-shaped leaflets clothe the stems, providing a useful contrast to ferns with more finely divided foliage. The spores are carried on their undersides.

Mahonia aquifolium

A low-spreading, evergreen shrub with a suckering habit and spring flowers.

Pinnate leaves have up to 9 bright green, spiny-toothed leaflets, turning purple in winter.

Dense clusters of slightly fragrant, bright yellow flowers are produced in spring. The flowers are followed by blue-black berries.
Mahonia berries are edible but very sharp. The birds will probably get to them first!

Wildlife Interest: winter flowers are useful for early insects, while the later berries are attractive to birds.

Mahonia aquifolium shady border shrub
Mahonia aquifolium
Fragrant spring flowers of Mahonia aquifolium for shady planting plan
Fragrant spring flowers of Mahonia aquifolium
Sarcococca hookeriana var.digyna

A winter-flowering shrub, slowly spreading by suckers to form a compact clump of upright stems.

Sarcocca hookeriana shade border planting plan
Sarcocca hookeriana var digyna

The glossy, evergreen foliage is mid- to dark green. Clusters of tiny, sweetly scented, cream-white flowers are produced in winter, followed by glossy, blue-black berries.

A useful shrub, it tolerates difficult growing conditions such as pollution and shade, though it appreciates being sheltered from cold winds.

Sarcococca can be grown as ground cover, especially in woodland areas.

Wildlife Interest: the scented flowers attract insects, while the shiny berries are enjoyed by birds.

Need a Planting Plan for a Shady Garden?

The Weatherstaff PlantingPlanner makes it easy for you to create a shady garden. The interactive gardening software designs all-season planting plans for your garden, tailored to your garden’s soil and light conditions.

Choose your favourite planting style (for example: cottage, contemporary, Mediterranean) and pick your colour scheme. The PlantingPlanner will draw up an individual planting plan for you.

Finding the Perfect Plant for Deep Shade - from Weatherstaff garden design software
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from The Weatherstaff PlantingPlanner – intelligent garden design software
Campanula poscharskyana landscaping software
Campanula poscharskyana

When we first began planting up our garden, my parents dug up from their own garden and donated fast ground-covering plants, like pretty blue campanula, to help cover some of the wilder areas at the top of the garden. These did the trick nicely, romping off to cover up the bare soil and could be cut back whenever we found a choicer specimen to replace it with.

We soon found though that the cheery, bell-shaped flowers seemed to get on remarkably well with whatever we chose to partner it with. It is just the perfect purple-blue to set against yellow, orange and pink, as well as making a great partner for silver and dusky or darker shades of purple. And, apart from needing to be pulled up when it threatens to scramble off into the ether, it’s an incredibly easy-going little perennial too.

Clematis tangutica Aureolin plant design
Clematis tangutica Aureolin

We planted a mixed green and purple beech hedge to section off the wild part at the top of the garden and set a metal archway into the hedge to lead into our ‘secret garden’. I planted this gorgeous yellow clematis to clamber up and over the arch and its perfect partnership with the spreading blue campanula at the foot of the arch was a wonderful, serendipitous combination.

Artemisia and Eryngium landscape software
Artemisia ludoviciana Silver Queen and Eryngium

Here, the purple-blue of the bellflower adds depth to the sophisticated combination of silvery Artemisia and ghostly-white Eryngium.

Fragaria Lipstick landscaping software
Fragaria Lipstick

Its unassuming nature makes the campanula a good choice for a ‘wild’ area. We planted up the base of the hedge with wild and wild-ish flowers, including this luscious lipstick-pink cultivated strawberry plant.

Eschscholzia mexicana and Geranium landscaping design software
Eschscholzia mexicana Sun Shades and Geranium Bill Wallis
This sunny combination of Eschscholzia mexicana Sun Shades and Geranium Bill Wallis demonstrates how well the purple-blue of the geranium brings out the best in these cheerful orange California poppies. Another future partner for my campanula perhaps?

As well as providing attractive groundcover, campanula is also a really useful addition to container plantings, offering a long-flowering, easygoing display.

Sociable Little Campanula - from Weatherstaff garden design software
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The Weatherstaff Team