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 Bog garden plants
A lot of bog plants, such as Iris sibirica, have quite short flowering seasons so include plenty of dramatic foliage plants to back them up.
Here are five of the best:
- Gunnera manicata is the ‘giant rhubarb’ with enormous umbrella-like leaves and prickly stems. When it dies down for the winter, cover the crown with its own dead leaves for insulation.
- Primula pulverulenta and other candelabra primulas have flowers arranged in tiers up their stems in early summer. They self-seed through a bog garden, building up striking colonies.
- Darmera peltata ‘Nana’ produces pink flowers which appear before the foliage. When the blooms have faded the large saucer-shaped leaves appear. The foliage then takes on fiery tints in autumn.
- Lobelia ‘Queen Victoria’ is a striking moisture-loving plant with upright stems of beetroot-red leaves topped with crimson flowers. It is not terribly hardy so insulate the crowns with bracken or dead leaves in winter.
- Lythrum salicaria ‘Blush’ is a cultivated form of wild purple loosestrife. It is smaller than most wild plants and produces pale pink flowers in summer.
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Summary
Water gardening isn’t the cop-out some people think as you still need to do all the usual planting, weeding and thinning out, and take all the usual growing conditions and design considerations into account. But the results are well worth it when you see the mature pond and bog garden in all their glory, so why not give it a go?
If space is a premium in your garden, learn all about pushing boundaries and using height, colour and texture to your advantage in our next topic, the 'No space garden'. |
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