Our June meeting was Low Maintenance plants by Matt Tanton Brown from Place for Plants East Bergholt. He had a lovely display set out, a plantsmens’ paradise and opened the evening by stating that there is no such thing as a low maintenance plant as all plants need some sort of maintenance.
He looked at the shrubs first and there are many common shrubs such as Golden Choysia, cerastigma, nandina domestica to name but a few which are very suitable attractive plants that need little care. He then moved on to the Herbaceous and discussed the merits of hemerocallis (day lily), Crocosmia, a new variety called Limpopo, that doesn’t spread like the usual montbretias. Also nepeta, a small variety, calaminthe,an evergreen geranium with yellow foliage called Blue Sunrise, not forgetting the beautiful agapanthus, Torbay, though these need to be kept in a greenhouse over winter. Matt then looked at the conifers showing us some really miniature varieties suitable for the rock garden.
This was followed finally by the grasses and more unusual Arisaema or snake lily a most unusual arum type plant with black flowers good for a bog garden and Epemedium which is so good for that difficult area of dry shade. It was a very humorous talk and a most enjoyable evening plus a chance to purchase some lovely plants. Our chairman reminded us of the open garden in July and the members table show at the next meeting.
