I use these 10 plants for an Irish garden type lists when I’m doing gardens for people who maybe want to tell their mates what they have got in theirs or, in the plants off the season when you just can’t remember the name or describe just what that stunning clump of green foliage will look like in a few months time.
Of note these are 10 plants that are as they look as of about 5 days ago. And should your garden look like 50 shades of bland, this is where spending the extra dollar combined with some cocky horticulturist like myself superior horticultural knowledge really pays off. It is the difference between we got the garden done and it looks grand, except for the planting is shite, if you will.
Also I say September, its more August and September. And see images taken this week, below. And it’s been a cracker of a much warmer summer so all the ‘flowers between then and then’ garden books are miles off the mark. Unless they’re extremely vague. Anyhow, just in case you wanna heckle me this time next year coz your Rudbeckia came into bud 3 days later than I told you so. If you get me. You get me ? Anyhows….
Not all of them will catch your eye. Far mor importantly, horticulturally not all of them will grow in your garden. But like Heaney and Hendrix there is a place where, when we sit together and close our eyes, they and we fit perfectly.
1. Echinacea purpurea magnus
There’s a reason why I love botanical latin. This is one of them. Growing to 3 – 4′ tall, the stems protrude upwards higher than the original clump upon which this 6 ” diameter purple and orange flower appears. As of now I’ve cropped mine back to around 1′ tall and popped the flowers on the kitchen table. my hot tip: plant now when they are not trying to flower yet available. Plant lots of them together. You’ll thank me next year.
2. Geum chiloense Mrs Bradshaw
Of the same family as the roses, I prefer when these fellows are mashed in between another batch of plants. Partly because they have a sort of off type foliage and then boom ! out of nowhere from the 7 – 8″ tall plant comes a 2′ tall protruding stem [also known as a cyme] upon which the red 1.5″ flowers appear.
3. Campanula poscharskyana Blue Waterfall
I always read these as Campanula posh arse. It’s not that funny when I think about it now. But it did help me remember them when I filling my brain with 49 other plants, per week all the way through college. These beauts are perennial and spread by a little like strawberries except they do it underground. Buy one or two of these and you should be giving them away to your mates a season or two later. Even better they only grow to about 6″ tall.
4. Erodium x variabile Bishops Form
Though I’m not that mad on the Erodium, these beauts flower from around June to September and form a lovely carpet that grows around 4 – 6″ tall. Perennial. Comes again year after year.
5. Thymus x citriodorus Andersons Gold
Absolute crackers for attracting bees – Mom take note/ children – they are as the 2nd part of the name [Citro – as in citrus – as in lemon] suggests Lemon scented thyme. Ilove the colour of the foliage and on a warm day my jeep had never scented so good. Most of all I love the carpet it forms that can get up to 12″ tall and forms an off pink flower.
6. Campanula portenschlagiana resholt variety
Grows to 6″ tall and around 2′ wide. Perennial.
7. Delosperma congestum
The Delosperma are quite low growing mat forming plants and can grow to about 8″ tall. To me, they kinda look like a miniature garden that you might see in some [also miniature] western. In that, think cactus and from that you can kinda gather they’re not that great with sub zero temperatures.
8. Dianthus India Star
no. 9 and 10/ above and below.
You are spot on if you thought these above and below look like Carnations ~ which I should note I usually hate and to this day cannot stand. These fellows however are the exceptions.
I don’t know why but this pair [and some of the previous plants noted], always make me wonder why coffee shops and restaurants continue to buy flowers [gold star by default if you do] when these will literally grow anywhere and return year after year.
Great in pots, window boxes, gardens and just about anywhere else you can plant them. And though it kills me to say so, they do look good.
9. Dianthus night star
see above.
10. Rudbeckia fulgida Goldsturm
An all time favourite of mine, they grow kinda like the Echinacea [above top]; partly because they are of the same Clan. The plant itself grows to around 2′ tall and its flower heads grow 4 -5 “. Of note – botanical latin. Do not go out and buy a/ just any Rudbeckia – you need the full name. A bit like going out and buying a Donegan. And there are tons of us. All very special unique in our own way, everyone knows there is only one that you really, really want. Also of note: planting en mass.
Source: Peter Donegan Landscaping – Plants For A September Irish Garden – Peter Donegan
