Celebrating 20 years of perennials

In Your Garden with Philippa Foes-Lamb

In September, we celebrated 20 years on our beautiful spray-free property. We were originally looking for half a hectare but fell in love with two. Even though it is a lot of work and will never look perfect, I cannot imagine living anywhere else.

Discovering we had Moutere clay was a bit perturbing, but now I am so thankful for it. Over the years, regular dressings of gypsum, along with big amounts of compost and sheep manure pellets, have resulted in humus-rich soil that is beautiful to work with. The clay base means my trees and other plants can cope with the driest summers. I have several large, established perennial gardens.

My passion for perennials began in the mid-1990s when I left the corporate world to work part-time in garden centres. They captured me with their vast variety of foliage and flowers, plus their ability to come back year after year, sometimes under adversity.

My perennials really come to the fore in November, my favourite month in the garden. We have a lot of established trees, so most of the underplanting thrives in partial shade. Interestingly, some perennials that normally prefer full sun do very well in partial shade because of the strength of New Zealand’s sun.

When asked, ‘’What is your favourite perennial?’’ my immediate reply is ‘’hardy cranesbill geraniums.’’

This genus of plants is exceptionally popular in the UK, and I am doing my best to encourage gardeners here to recognise how wonderful they are. My garden is home to a large collection of these treasures.

Cranesbills are nothing like their pelargonium or zonal geranium cousins. They come in varying heights with flowers in shades of white, soft pink, rich magenta and blue, including some with deep coloured veins. There are evergreen, semi-evergreen, and winter dormant varieties, and many will tolerate very cold temperatures, thriving in frosty zones and even under snow. Their foliage alone makes this genus a musthave in the garden.

A massive plus is that there is a variety to suit every garden situation, from full sun with sharp drainage to damp partial shade and dry shade. They are also fabulous in containers.

One favourite of mine is G. phaeum ‘Mourning Widow’, the first cranesbill I bought in 1995. Her flowers are deep velvety purple, almost black, hence her name. I planted G. phaeum ‘Alba’ here a few years ago, and now my garden is full of lots of different seedlings in shades of plum, purple and soft mauve.

I could wax lyrical about cranesbills for hours. If you would love more information about them or have any gardening questions, please do not hesitate to email me at [email protected]. I would love to help.