Hello, Can anyone suggest a plant with/for the following...
Rock garden Low growing Spreading Red flowers Flowers in summer Hardy Based in UK > Northen England
Quite demanding I know but I just thought I'd ask.
Cheers Steve
Phedimus spurius (formerly Sedum spurium) 'Dragon's Blood'
The message from snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (Steve) contains these words:
You'd do better to ask in uk.rec.gardening, because most of the gardeners here don't garden in the UK. I don't know much about rock-garden plants, but helianthemum, potentilla, and dianthus would fit your criteria.
Janet
I have a red flowering thyme that has been quite hardy here in New Hampshire. No idea of the cultivar name, I got the start from a friend, who got it from a friend.
Cheryl
Sunrose or Helianthemum nummularium will fit all your requrements. Very hardy; low spreading evergreen foliage, ideally suited for a rock garden or wall where it can spread or cascade. Small, tissue-paper thin flowers appear over a long period in late spring and early summer. Lots of cultivars and flower colors to choose from - 'Henfield Brilliant' has large, coppery-red flowers, 'Ben Ledi' has smaller, true flowers, 'Fireball' has smaller double red flowers and 'Cherries Jubilee' has double cherry-red flowers.
Shear off old flower stalks after the bloom period and you will get another flush of flowers in late summer or early autumn.
pam - gardengal
I'd second Pam's choice as I'm a huge fan of these groundcover sunroses that produce such splendid blooms & almost never need watering, but do need a good sunny spot. "Fireball" has been a perpetual bloomer in my garden, & the blooms are super-red (very small pompoms; the non-doubles actually have the more dramatic flowers but not as persistent as are the sterile pompoms).
-paghat the ratgirl
In the PNW, Sedums or Lewisia work just great in those conditions, given adequate drainage.
I don't mean to be argumentative, but why can't he ask here? Are the plants in the UK unique to that country? Hardy is hardy and there are many areas of the UK that will experience weather extremes and/or climate conditions similar (not identical, but similar) to parts of the US or even other parts of the world that are reflected by posters here. There are scores of rock garden and alpine plant societies that are international in their membership and that share plants and planting tips freely.
FWIW, of the suggestions provided so far, the sedum and thyme are hardy to -39C and the helianthemum to -23C. Certainly one of those should qualify.
pam - gardengal
Not Lewisia. None of them are spreading plants.
Only a few Sedum or former Sedum have red flowers.
adequate drainage.
Because Janet Baraclough is an elitist limey gardening pig!!! She believes Americans are inferior to her inbred kin.
message
Thanks all for the advice. This is my second post here and the responce is amazing, very friendly group (apart from Cereus-validus, who lowered the tone a little).
Sunrose's and Sedum both look and sound just right, I'll have a look at what I can find locally and then decide.
Thanks again
Hey, sweet pea.
Yeah, go and check out what your local plant nurseries have. Its such a crazy idea, it just might work!!!
It was that nasty troll Janet Baraclough who made the disparaging remarks about American gardeners not me.
If you don't agree with her, just say so.
The message from "Pam - gardengal" contains these words:
True, but I wouldn't expect overseas posters to know if north England's climate matched their own or not. If they didn't know the climate of north England, they might not be able to offer appropriate suggestions.
Yes, but that does not mean that every swap succeeds in any climate.
Temperature isn't the only consideration for hardiness in alpine plants. For instance, alpine specialists in Britain, often grow sub-zero alpine plants under a glass cover, **to keep them dry**. They can take far colder temperatures than our winters, but if they were exposed to our rainfall levels, they would rot and die.
Sedum and thyme often rot in mild, very wet winter weather here.
Janet (Scotland)
Thanks for your support Cereus, Crazy as it sounds, we're not all experts in gardening, in fact some of us only have a shared yard and an interest in making it look a little better for everyone. Which, thanks to the info I've recieved here, I've done quite well.
For your info, I get advice on plants from books and from this newsgroup. Find the right plant for the right location and then visit a local nursery to buy it. What is so wrong with that???
No idea what Janet Baraclough said, I think it must have been removed. So I know if I agree, so I cannot say.
Anyway, lets move this on please... I done a little reading and here (in northen England) I am in Zone 8. Temps dropping to about -6 to -12 c
Thank you
Do as most have done here, put the fool Cereus-validus in you kill-file, he is only a troll!
Bill
Yeah sure.
Everyone should be a total asshole like know-nothing Bill the pill!!! You can be sure he will be voting for Dubya providing the red-neck doesn't have a criminal record!!!
One last suggestion? Take a look at dianthus, some are ground hugging perennials with red flowers.
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