It is so hard for any gardener to narrow their favourite plants down to just three! We may say we would have different favourite plants in different seasons, but when put on the spot and asked to narrow it down, it is very interesting to compare which three plants each of our guests chose.
“I love ferns. They're probably the thing I love best in the garden. I've got so many of them and I've actually just created a new big bed in quite a shady spot. So I've been dividing all my ferns, which is very exciting, I'm hoping they're all going to spring to life, but all sorts of different kinds of ferns are just wonderful. I would definitely choose all of them. At home, I've got tree ferns and ostrich ferns as well, they’re so vibrantly green.
“Another one is an amelanchier. I have a couple in my garden: I've got an old one that's been there since the house was built in the 60s, and I put one in about maybe three or four years ago. That was such a worthwhile thing to do. It wasn't very big when I put it in, but it's just now at the point where all of a sudden it's there, and it's creating quite a presence in the garden. The early leaves are really pretty and that white pinky flower is gorgeous. I'm growing it as a sort of multi-stemmed tree, so I'll probably clear out the lower branches when it gets a bit bigger. I think it’s a really nice one as a kind of small tree or kind of stately shrub for your garden.
“And then the third choice is quite difficult, but I'm very fond of Verbena bonariensis. I know it's not terribly hardy where I am, but I discovered I could grow it from seed quite successfully, so I grow quite a lot of that each year and then I lose quite a bit, but quite a lot still comes back, so I just try and keep it going in the garden. I always think it's quite surprising that you can grow something that feels a little bit exotic and a bit unusual, but has a real wow factor. It's quite robust as well, it’ll stand up to the wind, and is nice to put into grasses. I like the fact it's got these little square stems, and it’s not a difficult one to grow, but you'd think it would be, so I would highly recommend that.”
Catch up with the rest of Liz’s chat in Episode 2 of the Scotland Grows Show.
Lizzie: “I would definitely have to have a dahlia, probably ‘Preference’. For cut flowers for the house, ‘Preference’ is just such a beautiful one.
“Then I would also have to have some sort of echinacea, great for drying, the seed heads look beautiful in autumn. Great for making wreaths and stuff like that.
“And probably agapanthus as well. I love a bit of agapanthus, probably because it grows so well in our garden.”
Malcolm:
“I’ve got this real soft spot for Melianthus major. I absolutely love Melianthus major and those big, long honey spikes.
“Another one of my favourites is Fatsia japonica. It’s just such a good plant and grows pretty much anywhere. And those big, palmy leaves on it - it's just brilliant!
"And then third, I'd probably go with bamboo. So one that I've got a real hankering for at the minute is the walking stick bamboo, which has got these really big knuckles on the stems. And in fact, if anything interferes with the stems, they’ll go in 90 degree angles, so it almost looks like pipe work underneath a sink. They’re really beautiful."
Catch up with the rest of Lizzie and Malcolm’s chat in Episode 3 of the Scotland Grows Show.
“Tree wise, I'm going to go for the Davidia involucrata, the handkerchief tree. It's also known as the dove tree, which I think is a bit more romantic than the handkerchief tree. When it flowers, it just has the most amazing bracts on it. It's just like somebody's just clothed that tree with white handkerchiefs. It's an amazing tree, and gives your garden, a bit of structure.
“I love a cherry tree as well so Prunus incisa 'Kojo-no-mai', you can’t beat a cherry tree. This one has lovely white flowers, but it's got zigzagging branches, so it gives you interest in the wintertime and you get a nice autumn foliage off it as well.
“Then I'll go for a perennial, veronicastrum. I do like veronicastrum. The insects love them as well. Lovely set of spiky flowers: whitey, pinkies, sort of mauve, touch of blues. I really do like those plants. You could ask me tomorrow and I'll give you three different ones.”
Catch up with the rest of Brian’s chat in Episode 1 of the Scotland Grows Show.
“Trillium is one of my absolute favourites. A beautiful woodland flower, very delicate, it’s a heralder of spring. And if you've got the right soil and location, there's just something so special about it as a plant.
“My second plant would be a grass, I do like grasses. I didn't really garden with grasses for a long time myself, but I grow them in my garden. And the tall Calamagrostis ‘Karl Forster’ is pretty tough, it will put up with a lot of grief. It expands quite quickly, has seed heads for the winter that you can leave for insects and creatures. There's something about the way it moves in the wind at a certain time of year, and it goes that really golden colour as it goes into the late summer into the autumn. It's a fantastic plant!
“My third selection is a plant that I almost challenge anybody to see if they've ever heard of it. It's something called Melanoselinum decipiens, and it is a very distant thug brother of Bishop’s weed, or ground elder, but it is a biennial, sometimes triennial. Basically it has the same leaf as Bishop’s weed, it grows on a woody stem, and it will flower in about the third year if you can grow it from seed. It has enormous leaves that look like ground elder which are about 18 inches to 2ft long on the top of a stem. Then out the top when it flowers is a panicle, so you have to think of something like cow parsley, but about 2ft across, half a sphere of pink flowers, and after that, it sets seeds and dies. So Melanoselinum decipiens.
“You can get the seeds from online seed retailers, and you have to keep them inside, and then plant them out, but when it flowers, wow - it’s an absolute showstopper. Unfortunately, I've only managed to grow it once and flower it once, but it's amazing!”
Catch up with the rest of Chris’s chat in Episode 5 of the Scotland Grows Show.
“I'm obviously going to have a pumpkin, that goes without saying, because once it's fruited, that fruit is going to last me all year round.
“I'm going to also go with nasturtiums, because I love nasturtiums. Many people look at them as a bit of a weed, but the flowers are edible, the leaves are edible, you can collect the seeds, and the seeds are edible. They are a really versatile plant, and a great companion plant if you are growing fruit and veg as well. And they're bright and bold and brash, which I love.
“And I'm going to go with dahlias. It’s an interesting one because with dahlias in this country, some people are able to leave them in the ground and overwinter them, like my parents down on the southwest coast, down by Stranraer, because the Gulf Stream runs through there. They can leave them in the ground over winter, whereas they're a bit more fussy up here, where it is colder in the winter so we do have to lift them. But dahlias as my third choice because they are beautiful - and the petals are edible and the tubers too!”
Catch up with the rest of Helen’s chat in Episode 4 of the Scotland Grows Show.
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