Flowers to Take Over My Garden ?

[fruit&vegvirgin]

see, aquiliegia (sp?) I can let anywhere, cos its small and delicate, and disapears after flowering. but bergenia, with those vile leaves.....!

[sewer rat]

FVV
I bow down before your spelling prowess. I love them as well, but then that's what Jennie was initially looking for - nice flowers that would spread and self seed all over her garden.
I have a Bergenia - rescued it from a garden we were digging up last year - if it's a bit of a thug, it better watch out or it'll be unrescued.

[nick the grief]

Don't the leaves turn plum coloured in the autumn or am I thinking of something else?

If you want a nice plant for Autumn how about Sedum Spactable, spreads looks good & good for late nectar for bee's & butterflies

[Birdie Wife]

My bergenia does indeed turn red in autumn. I like it because it's a hardy b*****r (self-censorship!) and stays evergreen even in the frozen wastelands of my tundra/garden. Anything that doesn't go dead-looking in winter has my instant vote of approval!

not sure what variety the bergenia is though.

[fruit&vegvirgin]

down here, bergenia leaves go black in the spring. not pretty!

[JennieAtkinson]

Is it a perennial or a shrub ? - trying to find it in my handy book of plants, but not succeeding yet.

[bramble]

Hi Jenny, Dr Hessayons book says it is a large leaved perrinial with pink, white, red or purple flowers. Given the right conditions it will spread giving ground cover. In the autumn the leaves turn red. It gives color nearly all year round.
Hope this is helpful.

[eskymo]

I've not had a problem with my crocosmia. A couple of years ago, when we first moved into our house, I wanted to dig up a whole bed of the stuff and was told it couldn't be done by several gardening friends. They advised me that it would be a nightmare as I would have to dig very very deep. But I was determined and found that I didn't need to dig very deep at all, even though the plants had been established in the same bed for 15 years. I have since successfully divided and moved big clumps of them to other parts of the garden and they've settled in fine and there has been no regrowth at all where they were planted originally.

As for Clematis Montana - I am so chuffed to hear it grows so fast as I've just planted a couple of them on either side of my garden. We've got a metal railing fence that runs around the perimeter of our garden and it's at a really funny angle and makes all the other straight lines in our garden look wonky, so I thought I could soften the edges by growing this clematis along both sides of the garden - I can't wait for it to start!

[nick the grief]

Mine grows about 2' per week Eskymo, I cut it back regularly to try and keep it in check & a bit more compact

Heres a foto I found of it.

replaced on another post due to gremlins

[eskymo]

i can't see your picture - I get this error - "Invalid Attachment specified". Can you check your link as I'd love to see an image of your clematis.

[JennieAtkinson]

My montana clematis only grows about 2 feet a year and its in the polytunnel - you lot are SO lucky !

[nick the grief]

I can see it OK Eskymo. I'll try & post it again.

[eskymo]

I can see it now NTG, cheers for posting the picture again - it looks amazing. I just hope mine starts growing soon. I got two [buy one get one free bundle] and one looks great and full of life and the other looks like a twig. It always happend like that with BOGOF deals doesn't it!!! One should have white flowers and the other pink. Do they take a while to get established? and do they flower in the first year?

[smallblueplanet]

Woah! Whats that on the other side of the fence? 'Nuneaton Family Robinson'???

[JennieAtkinson]

Wow - see what you mean NTG with 2' a week! How long have you had it planted? Mine is a very pale pink - is it the same sort do you think? I'll try and find a picture of mine and have a go at posting. Not tried that yet