Choosing Perfect Plants

How To Choose The Right Plants For Your Garden

Any gardener worth half their salt should have an eye firmly fixed on the future. Gardening is after all is inextricably linked with how fast and to what shape plants will grow, alongside the changing of seasons, and what looks good when.

A few questions that often get forgotten yet need asking prior to choosing plants:

How fast do I really want this plant to grow? Here is an interesting one, we often choose plants because they are a decent size and have the ability to provide quicker growth and faster screening, yet come year four or five we might be fighting a constant battle of pruning and shaping to keep the plant under control. Size isn’t everything nor is getting big quick!

It might look good now, but what will it look like in a month’s time? This question really needs asking over and over again when you’re in the garden centre and looking at that impulse buy. Many summer flowering shrubs will provide a splash of summer colour for a couple of weeks and then spend the rest of the year looking rather dull. This is less of an issue in larger gardens where such plants can be kept at the back of a bed but in smaller gardens you need to go for plants that have attractive foliage and a good shape so that you can be happy with that plant all year round: think of the flowers as an added bonus!

What sort of look am I actually looking for? This involves a degree of design know-how and maybe even some reading up – and you can look at our book list to look up some good books. It’s all about putting together the right arrangement of plants that will look good together – grouping plants by colour and by period of interest for instance, as opposed to throwing together a mixture of disparate plants.

Am I being realistic about my ability? Sunday supplement gardening is a common gardening mistake. You might see a picture on an idyllic scene in a magazine and try and replicate it, but do you really k now what you’re doing? Do you know how often these plants will need trimming and tweaking? Often not. Best start with simple planting plans and known easy going plants and then work your way up, so to speak.

How much time do I want to spend in the garden? Certain plants lend themselves well to armchair gardening, and some will almost seem to do your gardening for you! Many low growing and spreading shrubs and ground cover plants, especially evergreens, will smoother out any weed growth as rarely need pruning as they grow low to the ground. Slower growing shrubs such as Lilac are also good as alternative to hedging as they rarely need shaping or pruning and put on a show of blossom year in and year out.

What about garden safety? Many plants can offer an ideal opportunity to poison small children and that’s not a good thing. Younger children will often take a shine to berries and fruit so always check they are not poisonous well in advance.

Spines can be a good or bad thing. A spine laden hedge will keep out intruders but a spiny plant next to a path or near where children play can be a bad idea. Also prickly plants are often less pleasant to work with along with many of the taller grasses such as Miscanthus or Cortaderia can give nasty paper cuts.

Toxic sap is always an issue with plants like euphorbia or Pulsatilla, being something of a no-no for gardeners with sensitive skin.

Looking Good In Your Neighbourhood

Ideally the gardener to be out and about scouting out plants that are looking good in order to source and plant now and by identifying plants which are looking good in local gardens you can be fairly confident that the plants you are buying will flourish in your garden.

Always remember to take account of your garden microclimate by sizing up factors such as exposure to extremes of sun or cold winds, heavy shade or poor soil, as by choosing plants that flourish in garden environments much like your own the chances are they will do well in your garden as well. It really is that simple.

When choosing plants it is also worth bearing in mind that most perennial plants really don’t start shining for a good two or three years. By looking out for plants that you like that are looking good in their mature state you are giving yourself loads more control over how your garden will develop over time. This is far and away a better method of choosing plants than simply turning up at the garden centre and marching between row after row of flowering sticks, each of which is furnished with a practically useless label which will inform you that the plant you are buying will become a large shrub that likes most soil types.

Knowledge Is Power

If you are going to be a good gardener then you need to be armed with maximum plant knowledge so resorting to plant browsing at your local garden centre is far from ideal; you really do need to have a half decent wish list of plants before you set foot in the garden centre and that’s where a plant finder such as findmeplants can really help, alongside any crib notes gathered from visiting local gardens.

Finally, its important to think about all year round interest – this is bordering on design and maybe somewhat object, but a good rule of thumb is to try and allow for a backbone of plants that will provide all year interest – that’s plants with foliage and form, plants that just have a natural ability to look good without flowers.

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