Reliable Hardy Perennials or Exotic Looking Plants?
Campanula lactiflora ‘Mies Stam’
Geum ‘Prinses Juliana’
Nepeta grandiflora ‘Wild Cat’
Reliable hardy perennials or exotic looking plants? What to choose? As gardeners we always have a choice. We probably have good reasons for our choices, so no choice will be better than the other. Both options have their advantages as well as disadvantages. We notice an increased interest by some gardeners for exotic looking plants. We see them on our social media feeds and they look bright, attractive and to be thriving here in Ireland. They bring glamour and hot colour in this present grey and often depressing world. At Caherhurley Nursery we fully understand the desire for something more uplifting, something bright and colourful in these challenging times. However, what’s the truth about these delicate plants? Are they the best way to create a garden full of interest here in Ireland with our temperate climate? If we choose colourful glamorous exotic looking plants we have to be aware of some pitfalls: many of those plants are tender and will have to be brought inside in winter. For instance Dahlias, many warm coloured Agastaches and popular Salvias that are originally from Central America. They're great for one season. For some gardeners this isn't a problem, you can always buy new ones next year. The labels don't always tell you that you have to bring in those plants to get another season out of them. Bringing plants inside is no problem for gardeners with lots of room, but not all of us have the possibility to do that year after year. Or the willpower to save tender plants is lacking after an exhausting garden season, digging things up and carting heavy pots indoors. Also: not everyone can afford to repace lost plants after winter. It can turn out very expensive, many of these exotic and glamorous tender plants have a high price tag. We all appreciate more value for our money, especially these days with many prices rising. There are Agastaches and Salvias available that are hardy and will survive our Irish winters in the garden. Agastache ‘Blackadder’ and Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ are two examples that we find hardy even here on our windy mountain slopes in East Clare. The Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ is one of the plants we rate most highly in fact. Group plantings of it look stunning. The upright strong stems, compact growth and deep purple indigo of the flowers, miniature bracts, look great close to and far away as a purple haze about a foot off the ground. The Agastache ‘Blackadder’ produces lots of nectar. Great for attracting pollinators. It’s bottle-brush spikes of flowers are deep coloured and make good cut flowers. We believe that with a little thought a garden full of colour and with a wide variety of interesting shapes and textures of both foliage and blooms can be created using hardy, Irish grown perennials and that this garden will grow year on year, thriving and bringing pleasure and surviving our winters and giving great blooms even in our sometimes short summers. When autumn comes around the changing colours of foliage and the hardy late flowering Chrysanthemums and Rudbeckias can be enjoyed from the window with a nice cup of tea, or while peacefully strolling around the garden, happy in the knowledge that the heavy work is done for the season and like the garden, your body can have a rest. For the more practical gardeners there's another option: if we want glamorous looking plants choose the ones that are reliably hardy. At Caherhurley Nursery we grow a wide selection of those plants. It reflects our approach to gardening. We like plants that come back year after year. They become like old friends. Veronica, Leucanthemum and Nepeta are essentials in every garden bringing (in order), clear glowing whites, the ever popular daisy flowers and soft blues. A garden of hardy perennials is more sustainable, better for the environment and it grows and matures as a garden should. It becomes an ecosystem. If we choose to use hardy perennials we can still put some tender plants in pots near our house or around our seating area, and here and there pots with tender plants can be tucked away in in our herbaceous borders. Tender plants are available everywhere else nowadays. Sorry, not at Caherhurley Nursery, where we grow completely hardy plants, propagated by us here on the nursery in small batches and grown outdoors. No time to get soft indoors here. This means our plants take longer to produce- their growth is slower because it is at a natural pace not forced. This method produces stronger, healthier plants that are ready to take off when planted out in the garden. To create a garden that will thrive in the coming years and will be sustainable we all need hardy perennials. The variety of these available in good nurseries may surprise you. For example we have close to 900 varieties here at Caherhurley Nursery. Varieties that don’t survive outside here we simply don’t grow. We don’t think it’s fair to sell plants that we don’t see surviving the winter, with the damp and the frost. We believe that Irish gardeners deserve good quality plants that will thrive in their gardens. Caherhurley Nursery strives to grow plants that are essential for creating a well-balanced garden. Gardeners here find many reliable stalwards plants that have proven over a long time to be essential for a natural looking garden. This includes plants with more subtle, natural beauty. To name some: Geraniums (a real building block of the garden so easy to grow, ready to take off as soon as you plant them out), Campanula (really hardy and making great clumps full of their waxy large bell shaped flowers), Geum (we love the classics that come back true year in year) and many others. They haven't lost any of their apealing charm. Let's celebrate their glory! And we must mention three more, Rudbeckia extending our season of colour in the garden, Potentilla with its often exotic colours and long flowering period and Polemonium with the lovely fern like leaves and ladders of flowers adding a delicate touch to the garden while being very hardy.
Rudbeckia triloba ‘Blackjack Gold’
Potentilla ‘William Rollisson’
Polemonium ‘Henriette’
Veronica gentianoides ‘Tissington White’
