Ever green plants!

Which ever green plants are best to sow in this season & which require minimum of care?

 

Depends a little on the size, where its going to be put, and what you want from it? Are you talking about growing them from seed, or putting in plants/shrubs

 

Hi Fran,

I am doing a complete makeover of my garden,so I have to plant all around,like on the rockery as well as flower beds.I want the plants to stay green throughout the yearespecially i want those to be frost bearing,however requiring minimum of maintainance...are there any such plants?

 

The range of evergreens whilst large - may not give you what your looking for. Me I'd go for evergreens to provide the backdrop or focal interest in the borders and screen fences etc, and then mix the planting in front to give you all round seasonal interest. Alpines in a rockery are easier cos a lot of them are evergreen - but if you were to plant your borders with evergreens only - twould be a bit dark and boring.

Through trial and error I have something flowering every week of the year - but there are now some great books that can help - Roy Lancaster's What plant Where (currently with my neice whose doing her garden), and The Gardening Year by Lance Hattat - and of course the RHS Plants for every season.

For evergreen in my garden I have Viburnum Tinus, Golden Thuja, ericas, primulars, ivy,clematis amandii and a grey conifer whose name I disremember.

Dense planting can help a lot with maintanance - even the weeds have a struggle, except for ground elder that is

 

Hi
'fraid I disagree with you Fran, I think it is possible to have an evergreen garden that provides sustainable year round interest, as many of them flower & fruit in different seasons, & also can provide great contrast in texture, colour & form if chosen carefully. A good place to start is the RHS Gardeners encylopaedia of plants & flowers, as these have plants in sections of seasonal interest within the larger categories (Trees, shrubs, alpines, perennials etc)& give details of plants growing requirements (Copies are available for reference from libraries, or you can pick the older versions up from second book shops quite cheaply.
A lot does depend on your growing conditions - is your soil sandy, clay, free draining, acid, alkaline etc. How sunny/shady are your borders? How sheltered/exposed is your garden.
Also, how about indulging in some garden visiting to find some inspiration? local parks are a good place to start, then you could have a look at the yellow book or www.rhs.org.uk for places to visit, especially your nearest RHS garden &/or Birmingham Botanical. NB the RHS website also has a plant selector which is pretty good at "choosing" plants for you if you put in your requirements.
Decide what you want to achieve first, what you like & don't like by way of styles, colours etc, & understand your growing conditions - in order to avoid wasting too much money & killing too many plants cos they aren't suited to your garden.
Above all HAVE FUN & take your time!!!

 

Hi Fran & Bayleaf,

Many thanx for providing me such a valuable information...this will definitely help me to make a plan about my planting.

One more question i would like to ask...is it better to plant seeds in this season or mature plants

 

Hi Taney
If you are going to use evergreen shrubs it is better to plant plants rather than grow from seeds unless you are very, very very patient as they take a while to mature & many require expert knowledge in propagation techiniques (many are grown from cuttings or grafted). You can buy young plants relatively cheaply & they establish better than larger specimens. You can sow seeds of evergreen grasses & perrenials, but this is best done in late winter & early spring & you may need a propagator for some species. If you are planting now you will need to keep your plants very well watered as it is usually done in autumn or spring when it is wetter & roots can become well established. Hope this helps. If you are planting alpines make sure that the soil is very free draining as they hate the wet.

 

Hi Taney, I've been doing some evergreen planting too as I don't want bare borders! It depends on what I can get from the local nurseries, but I have got some nice cheap E/Gs that I plant in any time, and keep well watered - they seem to do fine. I have a few climbers; jasmines, clematis and passiflora - some are evergreen and some semi, also a couple of shrubby things that will get berries and/or flowers in winter & spring - firethorn, hebe (small) and one I forget the name of (sorry!) which can get to six foot, as well as a few hardy little ones. I just go round the nurseries looking at labels to see what suits, and keep the labels too!

[ 12. July 2005, 09:42 AM: Message edited by: jay ]

 

thanx everyone for your kind opinions