Recomendations please!...

[silverback]

Hi All,
the front of our house faces east, we are looking for a ground covering plant that flowers from early summer onwards, preferably evergreen. The soil is loam and PH is neutral, any suggestions or recomendations would be much appreciated..

[rhubarb93]

How about one of the low, spreading forms of ceanothus? Or an Abelia - some have scented foliage, flowers and berries later. Or for a non-evergreen, there is a geranium, type macrophylla which also gives fragrant, spreading ground cover.

[Steve the Gas]

Berberis (sp)?

[4 french hens]

Grrr.......

Thistles and nettles do well anywhere!

Mike

[silverback]

Many thanks for the suggestions guy's..

Thistles and nettles do well anywhere!

Somone told me if you have nettles growing, you got good soil! .

[lancashire lass]

Nettles are indeed a good indication of good fertile soil rich in nitrogen Sorry I can't help you much with your recommendations list - I'm more of a fruit & veg person, and my knowledge of flowers is very limited to a few spring bulbs and some summer annuals.

What about heathers - my cousin wasn't much of a gardener so she planted up different types of heathers and covered the area between plants with bark chippings. It always looked amazing and required very little maintenance other than an annual fresh load of bark chippings and the odd trim. I had a heather plant in my garden in a previous house which was north facing & only got afternoon sun and it was fine, so east facing should be okay too.

[silverback]

Thanks "LL".....

[Homemade]

How about Euphorbia robbiae? Tough as old boots, spreads underground, low growing evergreen with green flowers early summer.
Or the toughest ornamental of all - Alchemilla mollis, self seeds and has round furry leaves and also green flowers in summer.

[Steve the Gas]

It's all greek to me ........

[rhubarb93]

What about heathers - my cousin wasn't much of a gardener so she planted up different types of heathers and covered the area between plants with bark chippings. It always looked amazing and required very little maintenance other than an annual fresh load of bark chippings and the odd trim. I had a heather plant in my garden in a previous house which was north facing & only got afternoon sun and it was fine, so east facing should be okay too.

Yes, I had a heather bed in my first house and it always looked great, BUT they mostly need acid soil. If you test your soil and it alkaline, you would be wasting your money trying to grow heathers. You'd need to buy a lot of peat or ericacious compost, and keep topping it up. And they still may not thrive.

[Homemade]

If you want heathers but have an alkaline soil then grow the winter flowering types they are fine. All the summer flowering heathers need an acid soiljust like rhododendrons.

It's all greek to me ........

Sorry about the long names - but if you google them you will see. It is the most accurate way and international. If you use common names you can get confusion because some things have similar common names.
Alchemilla mollis is called Lady's mantle but the euphobia doesn't have a common name.

[Steve the Gas]

Je sais, I was taking the piscine.

[Richard]

Nothing new there then !

Some good suggestions above.

Richard