Mixed borders
Buddleja ‘Lochinch’
The mixed border, a staple of gardens everywhere for hundreds of years and enjoying a resurgence. This border or mixed bed is the most pleasing type of planting to look at. It has vertical as well as horizontal interest. You can create any style that you want, be it formal or funky. It can be whimsical, you can have fun with it and you have great scope to create something unique and true to you.
Shrubs can be pruned to create a harmonious shape, to curb their height and to increase their foliage. Planting in layers creates pleasure and depth for the eye. Shrubs, under planted with perennials ensures interest in the garden for a longer time. Taller perennials can be planted in front of shrubs and low growing perennials will be easy to see at the front of the bed.
Mixing shrubs and perennials in your garden or border can showcase your preferences in the garden for colour, texture and height. It is a flexible way to plant. The height that shrubs bring can be used to mask walls or fences and this height creates a feeling of being in an enclosed space, it makes your garden surround you, cuts off the outside world. This for us at least, creates an enormous sense of well-being. It creates a space where we can relax, surrounded by our garden.
Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Lavendelturm’
Over time, a garden with layers of heights and a mixture of shrubs and perennials becomes a habitat. Gardening is a process, and it will take a couple of years for shrubs and some perennials to become established. Don’t give in to the temptation to over plant! One shrub per metre square or 3 to 7 perennials (depending on the mature size of the plants) is enough. Leaving some cutting back until the spring creates habitat for hibernating insects. Teasel or umbellifers with their beautiful seed heads are ideal. Grasses add an extra element of texture to the garden. Shrubs are vital to garden habitats. Buddleja ‘Lochinch’ with its compact growth and its curved branches creates an excellent habitat. Known as the ‘butterfly bush’ the orange-eyed clusters of violet blue spires of flowers are very popular with butterflies. It has a long flowering period, from summer into autumn and flowers so prolifically that you never have to feel you’ve denuded your garden if you cut some to bring into the house. The soft looking grey leaves look almost like a grey cloud from a distance. A hedge of this is stunning. Prune in spring.
For layered planting with Buddleja ‘Lochinch’ we would recommend for example; Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Lavendelturm’ with Selinum wallichanum and for the low growing plants Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’ or Geranium ‘Terre Franche’ (great foliage and blue flowers) with Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ and Ajuga reptans ‘Black Scallop’ .
Selinum wallichianum
The delicate spires of the flowers of the Veronicastrum are a pleasing contrast next to the strength of a shrub. The spire flowers placed beside the domes of the umbellifer flowers of Selinum wallicianum give us a balance of shapes and create more interest. The feel of the planting becomes more natural. It is important to include different flower shapes. For the lowest layer of planting we recommend Nepeta and Geranium. What is a garden without Geranium? Both of these species have masses of blue flowers. The Nepeta being the taller of the two, while adding plants at this ‘level’ we are not creating a uniform, formal effect. The foliage of the Geranium ‘Terre Franche’ is very lovely and has a soft look to it, echoing the soft look of the Buddleja ‘Lochinch’ leaves. The Artemesia’s grey foliage compliments the grey of the Buddleja. Including the Ajuga reptans ‘Black Scallop’with its almost metallic leaves will give us focus right down to ground level.
Deutzia x rosea ‘Carminea’
For another example of layered planting we will use the Deutzia x rosea ‘Carminea’. A classic, small, compact growing shrub with arched branches and masses of pink flowers in early summer. It adds a lot of colour to the garden and requires little special attention. Prune back hard after flowering. With the Deutzia we like Geranium ‘Patricia’ with Campanula lactiflora ‘Mies Stam’ for our mid-level planting and for the lower level at the front we would recommend here Allium senescens and Betonica officinalis ‘Rosea’.
This is on the whole a more compact planting as the backbone of it, the Deutzia, grows only to about 1.5m. We like the Geranium ‘Patricia’ and the Campanula lactiflora ‘Mies Stam’ with it- their flowers compliment the two tones in the flowers of the Deutzia. At the front we add contrast in form of flowers with the Allium and the Betonica, in two different and darker tones than the taller plants we have used, and their dense flower heads and contrasting foliage bring our interest again, right from top to bottom of this sweet, pink planting.
Betonica officinalis ‘Rosea’
Heptacodium miconioides
One final example of layered planting with a late flowering shrub this time- we are delighted to have available Heptacodium miconioides, a large shrub or small tree that provides year round interest in the garden. Make sure to leave space to see its trunk when you include it in plantings- its peeling bark is attractive in winter. It really does have year round interest- in spring its deep veined leaves stand out, the leaves change shape as the year progresses and it flowers from September, when little else is in bloom. It has creamy-white fragrant flowers. Great for pollinators getting a last dose of nectar before the winter. Following on from the flowers, the sepals turn red as they age and staying on the plant. The pretty, glossy, deciduous leaves turn pink before falling off. This is a stunner. We would recommend with this special plant to leave some space so the bark can be admired from many angles. For layered planting with the Heptacodium we have selected Leucanthemella serotina with its large, late, daisy like blooms. Something so classic next to an unusual plant makes it stand out even more. This time we are creating a beautiful landscape for our stand out piece to shine in. Leucanthemella likes to be in the sun, so do make sure they’re not shaded over. Symphiotrichum pilosum with its masses of tiny white star like flowers is another to include at this eye level. Its tiny flowers bring a glow to autumn borders. Next at a slightly lower level Verbascum chaixii ‘Wedding Candles’. This has a spike covered with small white flowers with a purple centre. It flowers from summer up to when the others start flowering, providing a contrasting shape and form of bloom and a continuous flowering period from mid-summer.
The fun of creating a mixed border is that it looks more interesting, you can include a balance of form and height. If you are lucky enough to have the space to create mixed borders we highly recommend them!
As with creating any bed before you start the most important thing is to access your site. Sun, size, soil and wind. Do a rough sketch. Remember to plant perennials in groups. Give enough space for your plants to grow. Choose plants that you like, that make you happy. After you’ve chosen your plants and brought them home put them in their places before you plant them to see how it looks.
