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large bank to cover - any suggestions ?


Jaxcasban

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We live near Cahors in the Lot and get very hot summers and cold winters. We have a large south facing bank which we covered in Hypericums last year. They were only small, about 5 euros each. We have an irrigation system but even so most of them shrivelled up and died whilst the weeds thrived.

Any suggestions for something cheap, hardy and pretty ?

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[quote user="Jaxcasban"]

Any suggestions for something cheap, hardy and pretty ?

[/quote]

It sounds as if you might need to consider a weed suppressing mat to give your plants a chance to get established. This will also help to retain moisture. Unfortunately not a pretty sight until the plants have spread themselves a bit.  For choice of plants I would suggest you look around and see what grows nearby.  Shrubs that come to mind are cistus, lavender and thyme, all these grow wild, I imagine, in your area but there are lots of different varieties.  Also ground cover roses might be OK and a great favourite of mine is Hypericum Olympicum which is much lower growing than the one you probably had.  I would also suggest you put off planting until the early Autumn if you can which will give small plants a chance to get established before the winter, then firm them in if they are lifted by frost.

Liz

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Hi .  Im suprised your Hypericum failed to grow as these are THE plant for banks, and they are  also normally an excellent weed suppressor.Perhaps you could change variety. I would suggest Hypericum.calycinum , a low growin plant approx 1-1 1/2 ft. Failing this try Cotoneaster.dammeri  a lot more expensive than Hypericums but then it is the Rolls Royce of ground cover plants. Once this plant is established not even sycamores find their way through......Good luck  Phil.H.
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You could try some low growing small conifers eg juniper. Also I had

some bushy plants covered with tiny star shaped yellow flowers which

did well during the heatwave summer but don't know the name.Someone

told me a good trick for watering single plants - before planting dig a

round hole about ?20cms deep and insert a length of plastic piping

slightly longer than the hole for irrigation. Then plant next to the

pipe as usual. The water should then go to the roots. Pat.

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