A burst of yellow joy, kissed by delicate white petals.
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Larry Smith and the Riverside Gardens team talk all things pots, plants and pruning in their weekly gardening column.
A vibrant burst of colour for every season.
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One of the harder decisions to make when designing a garden is choosing a plant palette for the small to medium infill plants that bulk out a garden. They can make up much of the planting, filling out the garden, framing garden features and feature plants.
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They can be plants chosen for their bushy dense habits, architectural foliage, foliage colour, or plants that put on a beautiful display once a year but then drift back into the background of the garden for the rest of the time.
‘Weigelia Floridia Variegata’ is a great example of one of these. They are a medium deciduous shrub that has an arching or billowing habit with attractive yellow-green variegated foliage. In spring, clusters of rose-pink funnel-shaped flowers make a beautiful display, but once finished the plant blends back into the garden.
Another variegated plant that is well worth a look at is ‘Abelia kaleidoscope’. This is a low-growing, evergreen shrub that provides interest all year. It has a lime green to yellow variegation on the foliage that becomes a real standout in the cooler months when the outer yellow margins turn a fiery red-orange colour.
Over the warmer months, the plants are massed with flushes of white tubular flowers. Abelia kaleidoscope grows in full sun to part shade and can reach a height and width of just under one metre.
A splash of pink petal bliss.
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‘Rhaphiolepis indica Rajah’ is a low-growing shrub with dark green foliage that produces heads of pink blooms throughout the spring months. Although it is often used as a hedging plant it also works well as an infill plant by itself. They prefer a sunny to partly shaded position with reasonable drainage and can grow up to one metre high by one metre wide.
If you are looking for bold strappy foliage in a part shade to a full shade place in the garden it is hard to look past ‘Clivia Miniata’. Their deep green broad, clumping, strappy leaves can make a lovely contrast in the garden and work well as an understory planting amongst trees and larger shrubs.
A little piece of the forest right at home.
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In spring large heads of clustered trumpet-shaped flowers appear on long upright stems that put on a stunning display. My favourite would be the yellow-coloured variety, but they also come in orange, a red which is more like a dark orange than red, creamy white, soft pink and two-tone colours. They are very easy to grow and require very little maintenance.
‘Loropetalum little China ruby’ is a versatile plum purple foliage plant with bright pink tassel-type flowers. It looks and grows very similar to ‘Loropetalum plum gorgeous’ but is shorter, reaching only a metre in height by one and a half metres wide, making it ideal for smaller places. The dark plum foliage will pick up a green tinge in shadier positions but holds its colour well in full sun. Another easy-to-grow low-maintenance plant, it is naturally dense and bushy, requiring little to no pruning.
Orange blossoms, full of life and colour.
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Coprosma tequila sunrise is an extremely hardy attention-grabber for a hot, sunny well-drained position in the garden. It features glossy, lime-green leaves in spring and summer that change to bright orange and burgundy colours in autumn and winter. Growing to one metre by one metre, it only requires a light trim over occasionally to maintain its bushy habit. Used in with other varieties of Coprosmas, you can achieve a very colourful display of varied foliage colour that will all change together with the seasons.
Correa amber chimes is one of the many bushy small Correas that make great infill plants. These Australian native plants can handle full sun to reasonably heavy dappled shade and work well as understory plantings. They require little to no maintenance and put on a long display of tubular flowers that attract all sorts of little pollinators to your garden. They are often called native Fuchsias because of their flower shape but that is where the similarity ends. They are extremely hardy and easy to grow.
Blue star fern ‘Phlebodium aureum’ makes a great space filler in a shade garden. Growing to half a metre high with striking blue-green shapely foliage, it can become quite a highlight as an infill plant used repeatedly around the garden. They can create colour contrast and movement in the garden as their big leaves on fine stems flick about in the breeze. Being an epiphytic fern, they require only a small amount of water and nutrients and minimal maintenance. They can also be grown as an indoor plant.
This time of the year we have a huge range of small to medium-sized growing plants available in the garden centre to fill in those places in the garden. Full sun to full shade, damp or dry — there is bound to be something to suit your requirements. And if you are unsure, just ask one of the crew. They will be more than happy to steer you in the right direction.
