Digitalis grandis thrives in shady places
A shady bank of Chaerophyllum hirsutum
The verges were as enticing as the meadows with shady and sunny habitats providing a wonderful diversity of plants. In the shade, the soft yellow digitalis grandis was just coming into flower, while carpets of alpine strawberries providing snacking opportunities and pink chaerophyllum hirsutum, so desirable in our gardens, defeated ranker plants to become the feature plant on a shady bank. It is so exciting to see what we regard as choice plants in their natural habitat. I found a clematis alpina growing among rocks and nearby a patch of large-flowered blue aquilegia. On the sunny side of the street, so to speak, there were campanulas, thymes and salvias all thriving in the free-draining soil. When we see plants in the wild, it helps us to provide similar conditions in our garden and grow better plants. Keith Wiley of Wildside Plants is a great proponent of this and you can read about his methods in ‘On the Wild Side: Experiments in New Naturalism‘
. Dove Cottage Nursery is an excellent source of plants for naturalistic planting.
So much more peaceful than a strimmer.
