Perennial lobelias and other perennial suggestions?

SarahLou

Hello,

Well after spending a small fortune on our (quite large) garden last year we're determined to cut our spending this year. However, stupidly, we got a bit carried away with pretty and colourful plants last year which turns out are practically all annuals so we're never to see them again.

We had a gorgeous border of blue and white lobelias but they were the cheap ground cover annual types. (Bought as tiny seedlings which spread really nicely and were lovely last year). Can you actually get perennial lobelias? (Garden centre people seem to give us two answers - some say yes, some say no). Help! If you can, are they similar looking to the border/trailling type you see going cheaply in most garden centres? Or do they look distinctively different. (A name for them would be handy!)
And if you can get perennial lobelias suitable for making nice borders, are they quite hardy or not? As we do get harsh winters.

As much as we like gardening in summer we're fair weather gardeners and being honest, we'll never cover plants in winter so we are only looking for perennials that are hardy and will come back year after year, even if snow does lie for 4+ weeks during the winter. (This year being the worst for 30 years of course won't have helped!!) :rotfl:

Anyone have any suggestions for relatively low to the ground pretty looking perennials that are hardy and look nice in borders? (Not fussy on colours - we have a random effect and have absolutely no planning with regards to what colours get planted where!)

We're ideally looking for something in the region of 15cm-25cm in height to go in the borders. Any suggestions? Must be hardy perennials though that don't require covering or bringing in or anything to keep them alive over winter.

Ta muchly

Mortal

Yes you can get perennial lobelias, but they are hugely different to the the lovely little clouds of annual ones.
The perennials ones are sometimes called Cardinal Flower, and the flowers are borne on spikes a couple of feet tall from a rosette of purple or bronze foliage.

Why not pop some spring bulbs into little pockets to brighten up the spring while your herbacious perennials get going? Add some evergreens too, to give a little interest, and then for your hardy perennials, go for something like:

Arabis Alpina (alpine rock cress)
Heuchera
Golden rod
Achillea
Astilbe
Penstemons - I love the variety of these
Creeping phlox
Bleeding heart
Pulmonaria
Alyssum
Aubretia - which looks a little similar to the annual lobelia - it's the blue-purple mat forming plant you often see growing over walls.
And my must have plant - Hardy Geranium

SarahLou

Thank you very much for that reply. Much appreciated. :T

I suspected you were going to say that about perennial lobelia - when I googled before putting my post on the only pictures I could find were of ones that looked nothing like the lovely annuals we had growing in our garden last year.

However, we do have a packet of Aubretia seeds in the drawer (possibly going to set about planting some of those tomorrow). So thats a good start. Thanks for all those other suggestions, I'll make a note of them ready for our next trip to the garden centre.

Fidget21

You could also try campanula, but make sure you buy hardy plants. A lot of the Garden centres sell beautiful double flowered ones at this time of year, but they've usually been bred in Holland intended as houseplants!!! Either grow from seed (although it might not be a first year flowering perennial) or buy in 3L pots (more expensive but a more robust option)

I second Mortal's must have of the hardy geranium. I have a lovely bright blue one that scrambles through my flower bed and another one called 'Splish Splash' which has white petals with splashes of blue on them.

Another of my must have's is Erysimum (Wallflower) Bowles Mauve, it's in all the garden centres at the moment. It can be quite expensive at about £7.50, but it is definitely worth it. It spreads without getting out of hand and mine is just showing bud and once it flowers it will continue to do so through til the late Autumn without needing much encouragement.

Aubretia seed can be planted any time from now until June, but probably won't flower until next spring, but when they do they're beautiful.

Mercy

Sedum are plants I like. I use the smaller spreading ones as ground cover between other plants. They flower late spring / early summer but give lots by way of foliage. Green ones, yellowy green and bluey green. Most have yellow or pink flowers.







Taller varieties exist. My favourite is Autumn Joy and it stands succulent with up to 2 ft pale blue green stems and leaves, topped in late summer with wide crowns of many small pink flowers.



They all root easily from cuttings and so 1 plant can be many quite quickly. I've never lost one and often pot up bits which friends or charities are pleased to accept.

Best bit is slugs just don't touch them Even with the warm wet starving slug times of the last 3 years.

Great as a complement to anything else you want, always there no matter what.

The smaller ones have stayed evergreen all winter and the Autumn Joy is already making good solid clumps. Seems weather really doesn't bother them at all :j It's been quite frozen here for weeks at a time.

I love them :rotfl:

Mx

Davesnave

There is a perennial lobelia that looks like the ones you mention, but it is a tender perennial and a bit of a pig to keep in winter, even in a heated conservatory. It's called Lobelia richardsonii and it is usually available about now in garden centres, among the little pots of baby plants. The colour is light blue and unlike the seed raised strains, it just goes on and on flowering until one takes it in, away from frost.

Apparently, someone in Japan has bred a new version of this lobelia with dark blue flowers and patented it, so it looks as if there will be a larger colour range in future.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/PP18735.pdf

Now all they have to do is make it easier to keep!