High and Mighty - Tall Perennials for You Garden
by Martin Blow SpecialPerennials.com
Many gardeners I talk to steer away from tall plants thinking them difficult, overbearing and liable to crowd out the smaller inhabitants of their beds and borders. But adding planting height to gardens of any size not only increases interest but also has the effect of bringing the sky into the garden creating the appearance of space and scale. Not all tall plants are bullies to be shied away from. It might seem a tall order, but herbaceous perennials can go from zero to hero in one season scaling heights of 6ft / 2m or more so there’s no need to be patient to get the best out of these high and mighty flowers. Here are some of my favourites.
For a small garden, tall plants need to be architectural and have slender stems and flowers to allow the eye to see past them to plants beyond. One of the best of for this is the Veronicastrum Lavender Tower. She is the most graceful of her type with long, slim candelabra-type flower stems from mid-summer. Plant her with dark foliage plants behind to create the best effect. The variery Fascination is equally tall but more branching and bushy
We’ve all grown towering annual sunflowers as children and there are very tall perennial types too. “Bitter Chocolate” is one of the tallest and latest to flower and has chocolate scented flowers – if you can reach them to have a sniff! The golden yellow flowers look glorious silhouetted against the October skies.
Coneflowers are very popular and there are several very tall ones to choose. “Autumn Sun” (“Herbstsonne”) is 6ft / 2m plus tall and will grow in sun or shade. Some staking in shade will be necessary. “Maxima” has tall stiff stems and blue-green leaves, however can suffer from slug damage in prone gardens.
“Joe Pye Weed” (Eupatorium Atropurpureum) has lovely purple stems and big, fluffy heads of pink flowers in September and is a magnet for bees and butterflies. Naturally growing in boggy ground they can reach 6-8ft (2 – 2.5m) in these conditions. They grow equally well in dry soils but are only three quarters the height.
The tallest of all in my garden is the Plume Poppy (Macleaya) with his airy, feathery and completely un-poppy-like flowers in late summer. The leaves are glaucous blue and intricately shaped. The flower stems have reached upwards of 12ft / 4m in some seasons so this is definably one for the back of a well-drained border. Plume Poppies are a bit of a thug creating a large mass of stems and sending out runners underground so in this case not really suitable for a small garden.
Heleniums come in a variety of heights but I love the extra tall ones that shoot up to more than 6ft / 2m to flower in August or September. Sunshine Superman is one of the loveliest and looking up through them towards the blue skies of late summer always thrills me. Slighty shorter at 5ft / 1.5m is the flamboyant Vicky.
Sanguisorbas come in a variety of heights with the tallest topping out at about 5-6ft / 1.5-2m. My favourites at the moment are Arnhem and Pink Elephant. Arnhem goes particularly well with the spend flower heads of Giant Spanish Oats (Stipa gigantea). Pink Elephant is just amazing anywhere in the garden. Beware there are a lot of inferior plants circulating under the name pink elephant.
Many of these plants don’t really require staking but usually a few canes and cordon of green twine is ample. I also use metal supports as these are long lasting. I am also lucky enough to have a good supply of hazel rods to use as supported as well. These look natural and “disappear” from view as the plants grow.
I think it's time all gardens got a bit more high and mighty!
Text and images: copyright SpecialPerennials.