Small flowers for top of stone wall

[Timothy Murphy]

I have an old stone (granite) wall around my cottage,
and would like to grow some small flowers on it.

I've seen recommended
Trailing bellflower (campanula poscharskyana) and
Adria (or adriatic or dalmatian) bellflower (campanula portenschlagiana).

I don't think my local garden centre sells either of these.
Can anyone recommend an online site for them?
Either plants or seeds.

Also, any other recommendations?


--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College Dublin

[Sacha]

On 2013-05-18 12:49:35 +0100, Chris Hogg said:

> On Sat, 18 May 2013 12:24:05 +0100, Timothy Murphy
> <gayl...@eircom.net> wrote:
>
>> I have an old stone (granite) wall around my cottage,
>> and would like to grow some small flowers on it.
>>
>> I've seen recommended
>> Trailing bellflower (campanula poscharskyana) and
>> Adria (or adriatic or dalmatian) bellflower (campanula portenschlagiana).
>>
>> I don't think my local garden centre sells either of these.
>> Can anyone recommend an online site for them?
>> Either plants or seeds.
>>
>> Also, any other recommendations?
>

> Erigeron karvinskianus
> http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=729
> Grows it the tops of numerous stone walls in the West Country, under
> the most difficult of conditions. Seeds itself freely. Fully hardy, I
> believe. See here for the Google search page
> http://tinyurl.com/cckq3d9

I'd heartily endorse this suggestion. It's a delightful little plant
and flowers over a very long period. Depending on the scale of the
wall (and if it's possible) I'd also suggest lavender which likes the
good drainage of growing in a wall, valerian which insects love too and
Helichrysum Italicum, Phlox subulata and Persicaria bistorta. Some of
these will depend on the sun/shade aspect of the wall.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

[Emery Davis]

On Sat, 18 May 2013 13:11:12 +0100, Sacha wrote:

> On 2013-05-18 12:49:35 +0100, Chris Hogg said:
> Also, any other recommendations?
>>
>> Erigeron karvinskianus
>>

> I'd heartily endorse this suggestion. It's a delightful little plant and
> flowers over a very long period. Depending on the scale of the wall
> (and if it's possible) I'd also suggest lavender which likes the good
> drainage of growing in a wall, valerian which insects love too and
> Helichrysum Italicum, Phlox subulata and Persicaria bistorta. Some of
> these will depend on the sun/shade aspect of the wall.

Yes, Erigeron is great stuff, it was recommended to me here (maybe by
Chris and Sacha too!) for stone walls, it has done really well. All came
back in spite of the very hard winter, I even bought a few more plants
this spring.

Valerian is good but can be invasive, I found.

--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

[Spider]

You should be able to get the Campanula seed at Middletons, see link below:-

http://www.garden.ie/supplier_details.aspx?id=156


I also endorse Erigeron karvinskianus 'Profusion' along with others
here. It seems to enchant everyone who sees it.
Look out for the smaller wallflowers (Erysimum spp.), which are good for
insects and are real wall-growing plants!.
Try Thrift (Armeria spp. and cvs.) which will cope well and flower for
longer when dead-headed.
I love Veronica 'Crater Lake Blue'. It flowers late spring into summer
with the most stunning blue flowers.
You may even like to try Primroses (Primula vulgaris). Although they're
essentially woodland plants, I find they seed themselves in all kinds of
cracks in my garden, both on walls and at the base of walls. They're
often very early flowering and therefore good for bees and other insects.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay