Ivydene Gardens Mixed Borders in RHS Garden at Wisley Garden Design:
EAST BORDER of MIXED BORDERS in the Royal Horticultural Society Garden at Wisley:
Section 4 Part 12 and Section 5 Part 12 and
with limited garden space, put a wildflower lawn on the roof of your shed/garage/lean to or concreted area on ground to provide flowers

Page Menus are below the Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn photos.

Winter. Photo taken on 4 January 2013 by Heather Kavanagh

Spring. Photo taken on 1 May 2013 by Heather Kavanagh

Early Summer. Photo taken on 1 July 2013 by Heather Kavanagh

Early Autumn. Photo taken on 19 September 2013 by Heather Kavanagh

Late Autumn. Photo taken on 23 November 2013 by Heather Kavanagh

With limited garden space , put a wildflower lawn :

• on the roof of your shed / garage / leanto or
• area between the 2 concrete sections for your car tyres support along your drive or
• concreted area on ground

to provide flowers during the summer:-

Flat roof build up of materials for Sedum Matting, with the result:-

Use the sedum mat on a beehive - this of course will provide a shorter distance for the bees to fly and then get nectar!!

Kate's Sedum Roof on her study.

"Our mats can be used for roof coverage on any kind of structure from a hen house or garden shed to a vast hospital roof in the centre of a city.  A green roof provides a habitat for micro ecosystems, which, in turn, provide habitat for all types of wildlife. They can be placed on all forms of roofs from flat, to those with a considerable pitch.  For Green Roof Consultancy just contact Sedum Green Roof and speak to one of our team who will offer full advice and even come and visit your site.Sedum Green Roof can offer you a step-by- step guide to installation, providing all the necessary components. We can also offer a complete installation service. 
  
It doesn’t have to be on just a roof, it can be installed on difficult areas in the garden such as shaded areas to give a beautiful and colourful expanse of vegetation, or, on roundabouts and barren areas around office buildings providing all year round interest. Being drought tolerant and easy maintenance these plants will grow practically everywhere.   
  
On a roof, once the water proof membrane is down the drainage layer is laid which incorporates an integrated root barrier.  It is important to ensure there is enough rainwater outlets as the Sedum does not like to be waterlogged.  The drainage layer is there to irrigate the plants during dry spells and also retains up to 80% of rainfall releasing it slowly and thus reducing the effects of flash flooding or heavy rainfall by reducing the pressure on the drainage systems. The Sedum mat will also filter pollutants from the rainwater." from Sedum Green Roof.

Add a small pebble edge to a roof meadow for drainage of excess rain, or a sloping roof to drain the rainwater:-

and later on the roof mat grows into a luscious roof meadow:-

"Green Roofs can enhance biodiversity, by providing a habitat which sustains wildlife in an area which would otherwise be lost by the footprint of a building.

Lindum has developed a range of beautiful, biodiverse and colourful wildflower green roof mats designed specifically to flourish in the often harsh growing conditions created on a green roof.

The planting mixtures in the Wildflower Turf mats have been developed with the University of Sheffield’s Professor Nigel Dunnett and The Green Roof Centre to provide an alternative to pure Sedum mats, containing a vibrant mixture wildflowers, herbs, sedums and perennials.

Wildflowers and other plants are selected for their
drought tolerant properties, as well as colour and ecological
benefits, attracting a wider range of birds, bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

Research has shown that wildflower green roofs attract twice as many bee species and five times as many blossom visits compared to sedum green roofs.

Sustainably grown in the UK, all Lindum’s green roof wildflower mats are supplied ready to roll out as an instant vegetation layer with the plants already established and growing in a strong felt mat made from recycled British textiles. Lightweight, easy to install and low maintenance, they are available in varying roll sizes to suit site requirements and suitable for use with a lightweight green roof substrate." from Lindum Turf Limited.

MIXED BORDERS in Royal Horticultural Society Garden at Wisley with my GARDEN DESIGN PAGES

Introduction

WINTER, SPRING, SUMMER WITH EARLY AND LATE AUTUMN SECTIONS OF WISLEY MIXED BORDERS
1-6 East Border
7-10 East Border
1-5 West Border
6-9 West Border

FOLIAGE COLOUR
.Black
.Blue
(o)Brown
.Bronze
(o)Green
(o)Grey
.Other
(o)Purple
(o)Red
(o)Variegated
(o)Variegated White
.Variegated Yellow
.White
.Yellow
.4 Season Colour

FLOWER COLOUR RANGE IN 71 PARTS OF MIXED BORDER DURING
May
June
July
August
September
October
November

7 Flower Colours per Month in Colour Wheel below.

Click on Black or White box in Colour of Month.

The distribution throughout the 71 parts of the Mixed Borders of each flower from the

• Permanent Herbaceous Perennials, Bedding Plants and Other Permanent Plants

split into

• Blue, White, Yellow, Unusual, Red, Orange or Pink

is in each of these Month Pages

• May, June, July, August, September, October and November

Summary of the Mixed Border Planting Design and Garden Maintenance - including in tabular form - shows the number for each single colour and combinations of colours for each of these months and whether it is from the Permanent Herbaceous Perennial (See its Index Page), Bedding Plant (See its Index Page) or Other Permanent Plant (See Index in Flower Colours per Month) plant type.

See which of the 7 flower colours have been used for each of the 71 parts during 2013 in a table of colours.

SPRING FOLIAGE COLOUR
Spr-Black
(o)-Brown
(o)-Green
(o)-Grey
Spr-Other Colour
(o)-Purple
(o)-Red
(o)-Variegated
Spr-White
Spr-Yellow
Spr-None
Spr-Multi-Colour

SUMMER FOLIAGE COLOUR
Sum-Black
(o)-Brown
(o)-Green
(o)-Grey
Sum-Other Colour
(o)-Purple
(o)-Red
(o)-Variegated
Sum-White
Sum-Yellow
Sum-None
Sum-Multi-Colour

AUTUMN FOLIAGE COLOUR
Aut-Black
Aut-Brown
(o)-Green
Aut-Grey
Aut-Other Colour
Aut-Purple
Aut-Red
(o)-Variegated
Aut-White
Aut-Yellow
Aut-None
Aut-Multi-Colour

WINTER FOLIAGE COLOUR
Win-Black
Win-Brown
(o)-Green
(o)-Grey
Win-Other Colour
(o)-Purple
Win-Red
(o)-Variegated
Win-White
Win-Yellow
Win-None
Win-Multi-Colour
 

Plant Height from Text Border

Bulb

Brown =
0-4
inches
(0-10
cms)

Blue =
4-8
inches (10-20
cms)

Green = 8-12
inches (20-30
cms)

Magenta = 12-16 inches (30-40
cms)

Red = 16-20 inches (40-50
cms)

Black = 20-24 inches (50-60
cms)

Orange = 24+
inches
(61+
cms)

Perennial

1 inch = 2.5 cms,
12" = 1 foot = 30 cms,
3 feet = 1 yard,
40 inches = 1 metre

Brown =
0-1 feet (0-30
cms)

Blue =
1-2 feet (30-60
cms)

Green =
2-3 feet (60-90
cms)

Red =
3-6 feet (90-180
cms)

Black = 6+ feet (180+
cms)

Brown =
0-1 feet (0-30
cms)

Blue =
1-3 feet (30-90
cms)

Green =
3-5 feet (90-150
cms)

Red =
5-10 feet (150-300
cms)

Black = 10+ feet (300+
cms)

Brown =
0-20 feet (0-600
cms)

Blue =
20-40 feet (600-1200
cms)

Green =
40+ feet (1200
cms)

Blue =
0-3 feet (0-90
cms)

Green =
3-10 feet (90-300
cms)

Red =
10+ feet (300+
cms)

Blue =
0-2 feet (0-60
cms)

Green =
2-6 feet (60-180
cms)

Red =
6+ feet (180+
cms)

Plant Soil Moisture from Text Background

Wet Soil

Moist Soil

Dry Soil

Click on thumbnail to add the Plant Description Page of the plant named in the Text box below that photo.
The Comments Row of that Plant Description Page details where that plant is available from.
Flowering months append the Sun Aspect in the Text Box below each Thumbnail.

Permanent Plant Name if background is yellow

Flower Colour

with link to a Design of East Border or
Design of West Border Page where that plant is located

Flowering Months

with link to each Month of that Flowering Colour Page

Height x Spread in inches (cms)

1 inch = 2.5 cms,
12" = 1 foot = 30 cms, 3 feet = 1 yard, 40 inches = 1 metre

Foliage Colour

Bedding Plant Name if background is blue

Spring

with link to that Foliage Colour in the Spring Page

Summer

with link to that Foliage Colour in the Summer Page

Autumn

with link to that Foliage Colour in the Autumn Page

Winter

with link to that Foliage Colour in the Winter Page

Alternative or Extra Plant Name if background is pink

Bamboo

Bedding

Bulb

Climber

Conifer

Deciduous Shrub

Physocarpus opulifolius 'Diabolo'

Pinkish-White

June, July, August

96 x 96
(240 x 240)

Dark Purple

ages to Green

Green

Deciduous Tree

Evergreen Perennial

Evergreen Shrub

Evergreen Tree

Fern

Grass

Hedge

Carpinus betulus (Hornbeam)

Green Catkins

May

480 x 320
(1200 x 800)

Mid-Green

Mid-Green

Brown dead leaves

Brown dead leaves

Herbaceous Perennial

Crambe maritima

White

June

20-40 x 4-20
(50-100 x 10-50)

Lobed, wavy-edged Blue-Green

Lobed, wavy-edged Blue-Green

Lobed, wavy-edged Blue-Green

Hemerocallis 'Chicago Royal Robe'

Plum-
Purple

June, July, August, September

23 x 30
(57 x 75)

Strap-like, Dark Green

Strap-like, Dark Green

Strap-like, Dark Green

Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Inverleith'

Crimson

July, August, September, October, November

18 x 18
(45 x 45)

Heart-shaped, Mid Green

Heart-shaped, Mid Green

Heart-shaped, Mid Green

Phlox paniculata 'Violetta Gloriosa'

Lilac-Purple

July, August, September

36 x 12
(90 x 30)

Dark Green

Dark Green

Dark Green

Solidago
'Golden Wings'

Yellow
Plants in front grew higher than this plant, so could not photo flowers of this plant

August, September, October

60 x 32
(150 x 80)

Mid Green

Mid Green

Mid Green

Veronicastrum virginicum 'Fascination'

Violet-Blue/ Mauve

July, August

40 x 20
(100 x 50)

Light Green

Light Green

Light Green

Herb

Odds and Sods

Rhododendron/ Azalea /Camellia

Rose

Soft Fruit

Top Fruit

Vegetable

Wildflower

This Mixed Border scheme has deciduous climbers, trees, evergreen and deciduous shrubs with bulbs as its other permanent plants to provide a permanent structure; which is backed by a deciduous hornbeam hedge.

This mixture provides a foliage and flower foil against which these other permanent herbaceous perennials can provide new growth from the ground each year, with the different colours of foliage from juvenile to mature to dying off in the autumn and then an easy maintenance during the months of December-March for removing most of the growth above ground and replacing the plant supports to provide a neat bed in a series of large ground areas.

The bedding plants provide the icing on the cake at different flowering time periods between May and November to enhance the overall flower colour scheme. The new bedding each year can provide opportunities to vary the look of these beds.

It was disapointing that I did not see and/or identify the flowers during 2013 of almost a third (28%) of these Permanent Herbaceous Perennial Plants - possible reasons shown in Lost Flowers Page with 'Walkabout' Plants and 'Stateless' Plants Page.

A table for each month - May, June, July, August, September, October, November - shows the flower photos for each of the 71 parts of the Mixed Borders split into Blue, Orange, Pink, Red, Unusual Colour, White, or Yellow for all the plants. Besides that, you can see from the table below that Red and Pink with Unusual Flower Colours seem to be predominant as flower colours and that these are spread throughout the beds.
Not having the knowledge of a fully qualified Royal Horticultural Society gardener, I am failing to see either

• a colour scheme from pastels to bright colours and then back to pastels to accentuate the middle area of the entrance to the Plant Centre or exit path to the Bowes-Lyon Rose Garden on the other side or
• the Red, bright Blue and Bright Yellows being closest to the garden entrance with the pastels at the furthest point of Battleston Hill to provide a visual extension to these beds or
• the duplication of the same plant throughout the beds to provide continuity (there are 14 Phlox varieties which provide some kind of continuity in the bed in using the same family with the same kind of plant form). Each of the Permanent Herbaceous Perennials normally only occurs in 1 patch in these Mixed Border Beds - rarely twice and even more rarely in 3 patches. Each of the parts of the Mixed Border beds overlaps the adjacent parts, so depending on how wide on the ground is that patch of a collection of a plant, then it depends on how many parts of the 71 parts that it is on.
  or
• change of flower colour from for example Yellow in May to Red in September to coincide with the possibility of the herbaceous shrubs/trees/hedge foliage becoming Brown/Red in the Autumn, in this Mixed Border or background hedge.
  or
• how the following distribution of flower colours from the Permanent Herbaceous Perennials in these beds comes from a restful to the eye and mind, coordinated and planned flower planting scheme:-
  Red or Pink flowers occurs in
  35 parts (17 Pink + 20 Red - 2 Pink and Red) in June,
  53 parts in July,
  59 in August and
  60 in September.
  Multi-coloured or not Blue, Orange, Pink, Red, White or Yellow flowers occurs in
  35 parts in June,
  53 parts in July,
  57 parts in August and
  47 parts in September.
  Mixtures of 2 or more colours is
  29 in June (16 of 2 colours + 17 of 3 colours + 2 of 4 or more colours - 6 of White and other Colour),
  52 in July,
  55 in August,
  50 in September.

I will continue to add the BEDding (started January 2014 - completed March 2014) and then the OTHer Permanent Plants (started March 2014 - completed May 2014) to the table below to show the flower colour planting scheme of the Bedding and the Other Permanent Plants and then its combination.
"Bedding Plant in Unknown Section" top data row in the Flower Colour Range months pages refers to the lack of a photo taken by me or H. Kavanagh of that bedding plant with the label in the same photo of a Permanent Herbaceous Perennial or Other Permanent Plant whose location in 1 or more of the 71 Parts of those Mixed Borders can be identified.

Me and H. Kavanagh were unable to obtain photos of the flowers of these Other Permanent Plants in 2013:-

7 Climbers,

• Miscanthus sinensis 'Kaskade',
• Miscanthus sinensis 'Roland',
• Sambucus nigra 'Guincho Purple',
• Sambucus nigra 'Gerda' and
• Buddleja davidii nanhoensis 'Nanho Purple' from the Other Permanent Plants produced spring foliage, but then were lost as the plants in front grew higher than they grew or the visability of its Plant Label was lost after May 2013.
• Ligustrum quihoui,
• Cornus alba 'Elegantissima' and
• Paeonia lutea var. ludlowii were at the back of the borders and were too far away to find and photo its flowers in 2013.
• Catalpa bignonioides 'Aurea' and
• Paulownia tomentosa produced foliage but no flowers.
• Artemesia abrotanum produced foliage but no flowers - is this because this plant rarely produces flowers in British gardens?
• Artemesia 'Powis Castle' at the front of the border was overgrown by the Pennisetum orientale 'Shogun' behind it.
• Clematis 'Kermesina' was probably removed from East Border 23 in March 2013.

In the late 19th century, Onopordum acanthium was introduced to temperate regions of North America, South America, and Australia as an ornamental plant, and is now considered a major agricultural and wildland noxious weed. I would not recommend growing it in your garden, orchard or fields.

If you find it difficult to buy Rosa Bonica 'Meidomonac' in the Retail Market like at garden centres or mail-order nurseries, then see WISLEY WISLEY Rose Classification System Page for details on this Rosa Retail Name 'Trade Name' RHS naming system.

--------

Of the 98 named bedding plants
in the Mixed Border of the RHS garden at Wisley, neither I nor H. Kavanagh managed to take photos of their flowers with mature form during 2013 for

11 of them ,

• 17 of them had white labels with handwriiten plant information instead of the normal printed name on a black label; when their photos were taken by H. Kavanagh or me,
• 1 had insufficient identity in its plant name - Verbena x hybrida - to be able to state exactly what its flower colour, number of flowering months, or height and width were; or anything else about the plant,
• 2 of them had conflicting plant names Heliotropium peruvianum
  'Dwarf Marine' on the White Plant Label with Heliotropium arborescens 'Marine' on the Black Plant Label inserted later in the year for the same plant group and
• 3 of them I could find no information about or mail-order supplier for Dahlia '15 Love', Dahlia pinnata 'Dawn Sky' or Dahlia hybrid 'Trinidad Sunset'.
• H. Kavanagh and I took photos of more than the 36 bedding plants with no plant label as shown in the Un-Labelled Bedding Plant Index Page during June, July and August 2013.
   

I am sure that as 1 of the 1,000,000 visitors to the garden at Wisley in 2012-2013 and I am not sure how many visitors in 2013-2014, that I must express my grateful thanks to the RHS that more than 50% of the Summer Bedding Plants in the Mixed Borders during the summer of 2013 could not be identified or that the writing on their white plant labels was too small to be read from the path alongside the beds.

--------

See my comments about
The RHS Companion to Scented Plants Hardcover - 16 Oct 2014 by Stephen Lacey) (Author), Andrew Lawson (Photgrapher) ISBN 978-0-7112-3574-8.

See the response to my comments on RHS Wisley Garden by the RHS in
Blue Flowers in January

Site design and content copyright ©February 2013. Chris Garnons-Williams.

DISCLAIMER: Links to external sites are provided as a courtesy to visitors. Ivydene Horticultural Services are not responsible for the content and/or quality of external web sites linked from this site.
 

Solution to Unemployment in Britain:-

"The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Auckland, New Zealand, have taught 3 rescue dogs to drive in an effort to encourage people to adopt and love shelter pets."

Besides the trained dogs who aid Blind People in walking, these other dogs could be trained to drive in Britain. Then, when a Blind person wishes to be driven, an unemployed person could earn their benefit by being in the front passenger seat giving directions to the dog who is doing the driving, but not to the dog who is sitting in the back seat alongside the Blind passenger.

The Blind person gets social interaction and the unemployed person - in aiding this blind person to go further than that person can walk for shopping or to visit friends - increases their self-esteem and self-worth.

The cars are maintained and operated with the dog driver during 8 hours each week by these unemployed. The running costs, cars and car parts are paid for by the local Government Employment Department.