**MY TOP 9 !! PLANTS OF 2017**

Thank you for a great idea DD- have so much enjoyed looking at all the favourites.
Did you grow the Bidens from seed or buy plants?

Yes, you have certainly got us all thinking and contributing!

The rose is a very delicate, pretty one which I really like.

Thank you for suggesting this, not too strenuous and a very pleasant January activity by the fire!!

I'm glad to see someone other than me being unable to show only 9 plants lol
Interesting choices. Nice to have them doing well in your garden :)

Lol..breaking your own rules eh?! Now, I wanted to ask your advice...Salvias...which ones do you think would do best in my windy site?

A wonderful collection of plants you have there, DD! How difficult it is to limit oneself to just 9 plants!!! You have done very well! Perhaps I should give my list of 9 favourites a look over!

I was particularly struck by your Bidens Beedance Painted Red as I now believe that was the plant our local town council may have used in it display troughs near the fire station here. I noticed it early in the season & liked the flowers ever so much so I thought I would look out for some seeds on the plants that I could perhaps grow on the balcony. Despite looking on several occasions, especially when I knew the time for taking them down was fast approaching, I never did find any seeds! ?

I did a search for it online & found they are grown only as plants, not even T&M sell the seeds, only plants! The price, other than the fact they were sold out, is far too much for me to pay at £20 for half a dozen plants! ?

J Parkers have them at 8.99 for 6 in their latest catalogue Balcony.

The dwarf iris are amazing and I couldn't squeeze them into mine 9. I didn't want to cheat too much :o))

Thanks Dotty. Your Salvia reminded me of how incredible these small shrubs are . . . so easy from cuttings, and reliably long flowering. I love the deep pink one (something like Pesto in the name!) obviously can’t put my hands on the label since moving house.

Btw, the Burncoose website / catalogue lists masses of them.

Sheila I love Salvia, and would have them all over the garden, looking for smaller long flowering varieties now, as some of ours are huge!..
I follow a grower on Instagram who grows hundreds in their garden, and reports on how they grow/thrive/survive....when to take cuttings etc and provides lovely photos too! so useful!
Seaburn I do like the dwarf Iris, got ourselves a bargain today at the nurseries 75% off all bulbs, found four varieties we hadn't got!!
Balcony please do take part, can be indoor plants too! we bought the Bidens as a plant, only paid a couple of pounds for it!
Karen there are so many Salvia to choose from......they are untidy plants! can be very sprawling...........and the flowers are small, although vivid in colour.....I would certainly recommend Royal Bumble also the pineapple sage I thought you had this one though? and a new one we bought last year Love and Wishes.......
Hywel it was tricky to keep to the 9......I will admit, unlike you we do not have many plants that remind us of our family!
Wildrose pleased you found the blog interesting......I found it quite therapeutic, looking back at all last year's photographs!
Stera the Bidens was purchased for a few pounds from a local nursery....will look out for it this year, we bought a pink and white variety but they were not a patch on the orange !

I do have pineapple sage, but the growing season here is just too short for it. Every year it buds up in September/october and the frost takes it all away before it has chance to flower. I’m still experimenting with what works well under the roses in the patio border. Ladt year the culinary sages went wild and there was far too much green. So I removed all the green ones and planted a few of the pretty lilac flowered parahebe. I think I’ll just get a few more of those...they flower all summerlong and are the perfect height for underplanting the roses. And evergreen as well. Its just that I was looking at Sarah Raven’s catalogue and noticed that she says she underplants her roses with shrubby salvias and it helps keep the pests at bay. So I wondered if there might be one that would tolerate my windy conditions...I know you get your fair share of breezes!

I really love the variegated Weigela...one of my favourite shrubs. Couldn’t do without one!

You obviously had the same catalogue as we did, because I read that too!! re blackspot etc the trouble with underplanting roses, whatever it is it will always get a hefty dose of rose feed, have tried various suggestions such as hardy geraniums, well they certainly don't like feeding!...so we plant around them not under them all the Salvias we have survive the winds....you could look in my garden, although I have not many photos.....or Google hardy shrubby salvias, we have planted several new ones ......but not under the roses...

Those are very good points, and thats probably why my sages went crazy last year....ok...will think about it. X

Wonderful suggestion Dd, still working on mine, lol. Its really good looking through all the choices, the hints and tips are an added bonus, I'm loving your selection as well as the idea, nice to see the Photina and Heuchera's amongst yours, a definite favourite here also....

Loved your selection Dd, especially that Yellowy Heuchera in the basket, looks great.

Thank you Feverfew, Lincslass, all fairly reliable plants here in the South...

Lovely choices, a lot of my favs there Dotty x

Thanks Annella lovely to see you ....Happy New Year to you and yours...

Dotty, you mentioned on another blog about your Salvia having a prune! Well if it's Royal Bumble if could be OK, I've looked through my notes and it was Simbad that told me that to stop them going leggy, cut right down late March and they'll grow from the base again. I like the S microphylla varieties :)

my royal bumble is still producing the odd flower. I give mine a severe haircut late march and it springs back happily every year.

Great Seaburn, that seconds it, I'm going to prune mine end of March too :)