By Cammomile
west sussex,
United Kingdom 
I have dug out a monsterous hydrangea from my sister's west facing small garden. I am going to rent the house out and need something to fill the gap. The size for planting is approximately 5ft long by 4 ft wide with a hosta at the bottom end. The plot gets full sunshine in the afternoons. Any ideas for instant colour and interest would be appreciated.
30 Oct, 2014
Answers
Thanks Seaburngirl. I would like to put more plants in. I have added bearded iris from my garden in another border and blue geraniums but need to fill the space.
30 Oct, 2014
sorry Cammomile, I read that as wanting a shrub to replace the hydrangea but if you are going for perennials there are many that will do the job. Consider summer flowering bulbs that once planted will need little input from you. You can stagger bulbs to keep coming up/flowering /dying back as other ones come up etc.
variegated phlox are good but there isn't any winter interest.
31 Oct, 2014
Once again, thank you. I've dug a few more perennials up from my garden and I am just off to the garden centre where they have a special on bulbs.
31 Oct, 2014
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how about a skimmia? evergreen, lovely flowers and if you have a female or a self fertile one, berries too. relatively slow growing and undemanding.
30 Oct, 2014