How About Some Retail Therapy?
This Saturday is my favourite Go-To plant sale. Twice a year, May and September, Plant Heritage has a rare plant sale in Highgate. This plant sale started life in the Kenwood carpark, what, over 15 years ago at least, and I have only ever missed one sale and that was for my niece’s wedding this spring.
But surely you haven’t any room, I hear you cry. And as any avid plantaholic will tell you, you can always make room for more! This summer has certainly sorted the men from the boys. Whilst salvias and rudbeckias have flourished, persicarias, penstemons and veronicastrums have withered under the scorching glare of relentless sunshine.
As soon as the rains came, the borders started perking up. My beady eye was already at work redesigning my planting plan. As I started to move the failing perennials, gaps started to appear. Hurrah!
My wish list includes edging plants with coloured foliage, to complement thriving stachys byzantina. Betony has also been a raging success. On our recent coach trip to Norfolk with HGS Horticultural Society, we visited an amazing nursery called West Acre Nursery and Gardens. Exercising an uncharacteristic reserve, I refrained from buying a most unusual betony with chartreuse foliage and purple flowers, as I told myself sternly that I had no room. Oh, how I regret that decision!
Franchoa is a firm favourite of mine for shady understories. Tolmiea, often called the Piggyback Plant on account of its spreading habit, is a fantastic ground cover. Ceratostigma is creeping around, under my wapping great salvia Animo.
Late summer in my garden is just this side of chaos, tall perennials and climbers fighting for supremacy, just how I like it. Filipendulas and sanguisorbas have done well, so I’ll be looking for new varieties of both. Filipendulas ulmaria variegata and ulmaria Aurea are stunning cultivars for the shady border. Filipendula venusta, with its towering, frothy pink plumes, gives height and drama to the June border. As that fades, sanguisorba Lilac Squirrel takes centre stage; its bright pink tassels make my heart sing. Sun to part shade gives them time to recover from the heat. And forget verbena bonariensis, try verbena hastata instead, it’s more robust and hardier. Palest pink eupatorium Purple Blush, or Joe-Pie Weed, goes well with ornamental grasses, as does late flowering vernonia crinita. All these towering beauties are pollinator friendly, providing nectar well into autumn.
So, go on, summer isn’t over yet. Zhuzh up your late summer borders and give yourself a lift. Nothing like a bit of retail therapy to ward off the pre-autumn blues.
Love, Caroline
Cover photo: Vernonia crinita.
Plant Heritage Rare Plant Sale. Saturday 5th September 9.30am - 2.00pm, St Michael’s School, N6 4BG
