Philip Clayton's top 5 plants
Features Editor of RHS The Garden magazine, Philip Clayton, profiles five outstanding plants at this year's show, and explains why they deserve a place in your garden.
Stipa barbata
This remarkable and elegant grass is a plant for a sunny, well drained, sheltered corner. The slender evergreen foliage forms tufts reaching 40cm or more high, but the real drama comes in summer. Taller, rather arching, flowering stems up to 80cm bear long silvery, whispery silken awns, around 30cm long, which wave delightfully in the breeze. It is not fast growing for a grass, but will form a decent clump in a couple of years. See it on the super display from Todd’s Botanics.
Astilbe ‘Professor van der Wielen’
I am not usually a great lover of Astilbe, but this splendid selection is one I will be giving a place in my garden. It is rather taller than many cultivars, reaching up to 1m high and bearing open, airy, near fountainous panicles of creamy-white blooms, which are held on contrasting reddish stems above attractive divided foliage. It flowers for several weeks during summer and will need a fairly moist position with some sun. Shown by Holden Clough Nursery.
Eucomis ‘Leia’
Pineapple lilies have increased in popularity in recent years thanks to their relative ease of cultivation and useful blend of attractive foliage with late summer flowering habit. This relatively recent and compact introduction, reaching little more than 30cm, has attractive and distinctive long lasting heads of rose-pink flowers. It would make a super plant for a container, given some winter protection, or could be used at the front of a sunny, well drained border. Offered by Trecanna Nursery.
Watsonia ‘Tresco Hybrids’
This dazzling bulbous perennial, originally hailing from South Africa, with 1.2 m tall spires of bright orange trumpet-shaped blooms, demands attention. The upright, sword-like leaves are evergreen in mild winters - for it to thrive it will need sun and sharp drainage and some protection in cold winters. Alternatively try it in a large pot kept well watered in summer and in a cold glasshouse overwinter. Shown by Trewidden Nursery.
Epilobium glabellum
A close relative of that familiar weed of derelict land, rosebay willow herb, this choice plant is a rather smaller and more refined character. Ideal for a scree bed, gravel garden or sunny rock garden, this low growing evergreen sub-shrub reaching around 20cm, with oval, toothed green leaves bears short spikes of relatively large, creamy-white open flowers. It has great charm and looks good where a showy but low growing plant is required. Offered by Slack Top Nurseries.