Valentine-Garden-Design
Looking for a different valentines gift for a green-fingered loved-one, then why not try these !
1) Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis) - they look delicate both flower and foliage-wise, but are tough as old boots. You may have seen the white version too ('Alba'), but both in our experience are great garden plants for semi-shade. Being herbaceous perennials (die back in winter) they really are a sight in spring. We plant a lot of these and they're generally tolerant of our varying SE London soils.
2) Trim your bush for valentine's ....I mean Ivy bush! Ivy gets a lot of hate but when people are bothered to manage it properly it a great evergreen climber & an ecosystem in itself. If you've every peeked into an ivy you'll see many bugs and beasties sheltering within, early bees enjoying the flowers as well as birds munching the seed heads. So chop, chop, get busy with the secateurs for a low cost, high impact gift!
3 ) Brunnera 'Jack Frost' - another great gift which will give a double valentine surprise with its silvery, heart shaped leaves and forget-me-not dainty blue flowers in spring. We find they're generally good part-shade do'ers in most locals soils, just avoid dry sites tho. You could definitely combine with the bleeding heart in a shadier spot for a real spring boost ! I keep mentioning spring as its currently p_ssing down as it has for most of the the new year so far!
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