more gormless questions!

mardatha

Can you buy short thin sticks for stuff like baby sweet pea plants? What are they called?
Can anybody suggest a tall fully hardy cottage gardeny type plant that will come back year on year?
Do climbing runner beans need full sun all day or can they manage with part shade?
Thanks

DawnW

Hello Mar,
You can use bamboo canes for sweet peas, but 'pea sticks', which are bushy twiggy things are better. Either can be bought here, but not sure if that is the case where you live.

Tall hardy cottage gardeny plants - lupins? foxgloves? is that the kind of thing you mean? There are loads of others, but I like foxgloves as they come in lovely colours and don't insist on full sun. Lavatera is quite good as well, but is more of a shrubby kind of thing. Have a look at a garden centre, or the Thomson and Morgan web site or similar?

Runner bean - prefer full sun, but I have grown them in partial shade before with no problems, but possibly fewer beans (though still quite a lot!)

mardatha

Thanks Dawn xx - just been floating around a lovely site called Plantmenow and they have some lovely stuff, and you can search by height as well. If only it would get warmer - we had snow on and off today.

jules-2005

What about a delphinium ? very cottagey and come back bigger and better each year

mardatha

Have added to my wee list, ty

sobie

Your probably thinking of split green flower sticks for supporting your baby sweet peas. Once they get going you'll need at least 7" bamboo canes (1" for going in the ground) and/or Pea Netting.

What perennial you choose for the back of the border will depend a lot on the situtation - is it sunny or shady, whats the soil like?

Runner beans do best in full sun and need lots & lots of water.

mardatha

Yes, I saw some short green thin sticks once and they would be fine, but I don't know what they're called so can't look on ebay for them!
I have green plastic netting stuff that I pinched from my neighbour's bin fixed up on the fence for the sweet peas.
I've got one side of an ex aviary still standing and thought instead of pulling it down just fill it with something that climbs -thought would do the beans but it only gets sun half the day.
The bed I need to fill should be good soil now as I dumped all the chicken waste in there the summer before last. On a slope like all of my garden, never gets waterlogged, and is a 4ft wide strip facing south west.

DaftyDuck

mardatha wrote: »

...... plastic netting stuff that I pinched from my neighbour's bin

I think I'm in love with you.....

Runner beans would fill that aviary - they do prefer full sun, but my Scarlet Emperor do fine in part shade.

For starter sticks for sweet peas, I buy a bag of kebab barbecue sticks, and part split them lengthways with a knife - get an adult to supervise They then progress to twiglets salvaged from the trees and hedges, which are free and give the natural look.

I like the other suggestions for a cottagy garden plsnt, but you could go sofist... sophisty... different, and try a combination planting, say a rose for structure, with clematis within for flowers. You can get a wide flowering season by doing this.

mardatha

The husband is an adult, and anyway he wouldn't let me anywhere near a knife.. and I do like sofisty yes that's SO moi. I did want a couple of roses in there because I like them. Will try the beans and see, and I can try some out in full sun as well. TY all

Jnelhams

Ok for a good cottage garden style, you need to throw out the windows the concepts of neat, and colour coordination for it to work.

So at the back of a sunny area, you would have every 2 - 3ft a mix of Hollyhocks, and in front of these Delphiniums about 1.5ft in front of the Hollyhocks (Don't worry it looks big gaps) and towards the ends of the rows (not straight try for a bit of a curve) put in some foxgloves, and in between add some Lupins,
in front of these you can plant the larger types of hardy geranium such is Geranium Himalayense, and pop in the odd Dianthus (Pinks) and a a couple of Sedum Spectabile and Physalis plants, in the very front add some dwarf hardy fuchsias such as Tom Thumb then across the open ground scatter Nigella Damascena seeds. In the later autumn pop in a few daffodils in clumps and the odd a few hardy cyclamen hederiflolium corms. If you have enough space, add lavender bushes, and a couple of old tea roses, such as Peace or Papa Meilland which will give you an incredible scent or and find a corner for a dark blue or white bearded iris such as Sable Night or Immortality.

You will find it all merges together, and the Nigella can be a little rampant but pulls out easy enough. The secret is to avoid putting things in order, just to try to keep tall things at the back and short things at the front, and do not try to plan the colours, unless you want to go for a single colour such as white which can look amazing.

It takes a year or two to work out, but its a question of just popping things in the gaps, and moving the bits that don't work, but its amazing how colour clashes don't seem to happen, it all looks amazing.

mardatha

That's perfect!. All I needed was the various heights and plant names, and I can do the artyfarty bit. Thanks
EDITED - I love that rose to bits but it says half hardy.. we've been down to -19 here so it wouldn't do. Am off to find another one that will suit