Directive
Your task is to propose planting
schemes and border layouts matched
to the gardener's site conditions.
Read the soil, aspect and exposure
notes first, then name every plant
by botanical name with a common
name in brackets. Group by season
of interest, keep the palette to
four colours, and flag anything
that will struggle on heavy clay
before you recommend it.
User
Site notes: north-facing clay slope,
dappled shade after 2pm, sheltered.
Border runs 11m by 2.4m along a low
stone wall. Photo of the bed below.
Seed the reply
Reply hornbeam-2-catkin · 1.9s
This slope wants structure before colour. Start at the wall with three Hornbeam-clipped uprights spaced 2.6m apart, then let everything else read as drifts running downhill between them so the eye follows the fall of the ground rather than fighting it.
Spring goes to Helleborus foetidus (stinking hellebore) and Pulmonaria ‘Sissinghurst White’, both of which hold on cold clay and come up before the canopy closes. From May the plum foliage of Actaea simplex takes the same ground and creates a much darker floor for the ferns.
One caution: skip anything from the Mediterranean list you sent. On a north slope with 2pm shade, Cistus and Phlomis will sulk for a season and then rot at the crown over winter.