Plant Advice Blog

Hardy Geraniums
(Hardy geranium) Indispensable, easy to grow and often long-flowering, what more does any gardener want from a plant? We are, of course, talking about hardy geraniums as opposed to the brightly col...
12 min read
Helenium
Heleniums are also known as Sneezeweed, a name that refers to the unfounded ability to cause hay fever. They seem to have been largely unknown as a garden plant before the end of the 19th century, ...
4 min read
Hemerocallis
This easy-to-grow, extremely tolerant group of plants produces lots of colourful flowers and for those who are just venturing into gardening or have little time Hemerocallis (Daylilies) require alm...
6 min read
Persicaria
(Bistort or Knotweed) Persicaria are handsome, carefree plants that can be divided into two - ones that are big and ones that are small.
9 min read
Potentilla
(Cinquefoil) Distinctly different to the popular shrubby potentillas, the flowers of herbaceous kinds (these are the none woody types) look very similar. Simple and pretty, unlike their shrubby cou...
5 min read
Pulmonaria
Hardy and easy to grow, Pulmonarias have been grown in gardens for centuries and as a result have many common names. The most familiar is ‘Lungwort’ which refers to an old assumption that it was a ...
9 min read
Sanguisorba
(Burnets) These are not the sort of plant that immediately leaps into the mind when considering plants for the garden, which is a shame because these tolerant, long-flowering hardy perennials marve...
5 min read
Salvia
Salvias can be the most useful hardy plants to use in a border of mixed perennials. Loved by bees and all flying insects, they belong to a family more commonly known as Sage, to which the herb Rose...
7 min read
Sedum
(Ice plant) Sedum, in my opinion, are amongst the most garden worthy perennials. I am referring to the big border types that tend to be the upright, not the little alpine sedums that form very shor...
7 min read
How To Grow Irises
Irises are beautiful, often flamboyant plants that are easy to grow given the right place. There are three types of irises; ones with beards, ones without beards and ones that grow from bulbs.
4 min read
About Bearded Irises
Bearded irises are the irises with large glamorous flowers that have a caterpillar of hairs on the falls (lower petals), and a large rhizome at the base of the leaves. All types of bearded irises h...
8 min read
Intermediate Bearded Irises
This group of delightful irises fills the flowering period and size gap between Dwarf Bearded and Tall Bearded irises...
2 min read
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