Fast Growing Plants

Anemone japonica (Anemone x hybrida) - Japanese anemone (windflower)  P

Late summer - autumn flowering erect perennial, height to about 2-4ft depending on variety, spread indefinite. Pretty, simple flowers for an informal shady border (not keen on lots of sun). Available in white and pinks. Recommended - "Honorine Jobert", white, probably the best. "Bressingham Glow", pink.

Echinacea - Coneflower

Tall upright flowering plants that tend to do their thing in mid to late summer, various heights from about 20 inches to 4 feet and colours from pinks to purples to orange and red.

Euphorbia characias wulfenii  P

Bluish green leaves to about 4ft tall. Particularly bright green-yellow "flower" heads in spring. Well known and deservedly so. Reputed to emit a coffee scent.

Buy Euphorbia wulfenii

Gunnera manicata - Giant rhubarb  P

The common name sums it up very well, although this one is from the South American jungles and inedible. The leaves are enormous, up to 6ft across borne on prickly stalks to 8ft long. It is really a bog plant and needs moist conditions, if you think you might be able to accommodate its requirements and size, then little else will get the same WOW! effect, I love them. Also notable in that it dies back totally in winter (protect the base of the crown with a thick manure mulch) and so all of this fabulous growth happens from ground level each season. To 8ft tall and 10-12ft across.

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Miscanthus sinensis P

Large noble grasses and impressive with it. Available as many different named hybrids, many good ones, particularly "Siberfeder" syn. silver feather and "Cosmopolitan", "zebrinus" is a horizontally striped version with yellow bands on mid green leaves.  Grow alone or as a part of a border. Flower panicles good for floral art (or hitting friends / siblings - depending on age). 4ft to 9ft when in flower.

Grass Miscanthus sinensis

Phormium tenax - New Zealand Flax  P

These seem to be one of the "in" plants of the moment. Great evergreen fans of sword-shaped leaves up to 10ft long in green, purple or many variegated varieties. These plants will grow large! up to 10-12ft across. Flower spikes up to 12ft tall in the "weird and striking" rather than "pretty" category. I have a feeling these will be to the late 90's and early noughties (!) what pampas grass was to the 70's.

On a different note, the Maoris of New Zealand were using these to weave all kinds of things before anyone got the idea of planting them in the garden and showing off about it. "I always liked them actually, they just became trendy afterwards"

The ordinary green one is the best, and Phormiums actually prefer clay!

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Romneya coulteri - Tree poppy. S / P

A subshrubby perennial rather than a true shrub. Grown  for attractive glaucous foliage and large fragrant showy white flowers that are up to 5" across of ruffled white petals with a large group of prominent yellow stamens in the middle. Needs some protection, shelter from strong cold winds and grow against a sunny wall if at all possible. Sometimes difficult to establish, but once way should be fine. Height to 3-8ft depending on how happy it is, spread depends on how far you'll let it sucker as it goes. Sounds difficult, but actually is magnificent.

Buy Romneya / tree poppy

Red Hot Poker - Kniphofia  P

Long thin strap-like leaves and spikes of flowers that go from yellow at the bottom to red at the top - hence the name. To 5 feet tall, should flower from the second year on, you might be lucky in he first year.

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Rudbeckia - Black eyed Susan  P

Long lasting large blooms on tall stems for the end of summer and autumn. Bright yellow or a range of other autumnal tints through orange to red

Rudbeckia Goldsturm - Black-Eyed Susan

(Buddleja if you want to be pretentious, sorry RHS) Medium to large shrub, fast growing (stand well back) covered in fragrant purple cone-shaped inflorescences 4"-12" long in summer that are in turn frequently covered in butterflies. Flowers of different varieties come in shades from white through lilac to quite dark purple with pinks too. There's also an orange flowered variety  B. globosa with golf-ball sized and shaped inflorescences. The star of the group for my money is Buddleia alternifolia, though not as tough or quick as davidii.

Evergreen shrub, blue flowers in spring, small mid green leaves about 1-3" long. To 6m (20ft) high and wide, though easily kept in check by pruning. Variety "repens" frequently sold - creeping  blueblossom, height and spread from about 1-2.5m (3-8ft).

Buy Ceanothus

Lavatera - Mallow  S

There are annual and perennial varieties, all are fast growing, this describes the perennials. Woody shrub with masses of pink flowers about 3" across over long period in summer. Semi-evergreen, to about 6ft wide and tall given the space, unfussy about position but do better in sun. "Barnsley", pale almost white flowers aging to mid pink. "Bredon Springs", dusky pink, "Rosea", rose pink. Short lived but easy to propagate in early summer.

Actually a tree if left to its own devices that will go to 50ft +, if it's happy. However, don't be too alarmed. What you need to do is treat it as a coppice stool. Let the plant get established for one or two years and then in Feb / March you cut it down to about 4-6" above ground level. This encourages it to throw out new shoots from just below the cut point. The plant will then provide you with lots of very attractive glaucous blue/green juvenile foliage that can grow up to 6ft from ground level in a season. It's also reputed to keep midges and mosquitoes at bay, so plant it near the patio.

A very beautiful foliage plant, excellent against rather dull fences and as a contrast to other leaf colours and shapes. Tends to be a bit fussy about position. Likes to be well drained so incorporate lots of sharp sand and / or pea shingle when planting it and only plant in full sunshine, otherwise 6ft growth a year becomes 6mm.

Buy Eucalyptus gunnii

Prunus laurocerasus - Cherry laurel  S

Large dense, bushy evergreen shrub. Long glossy leaves to about 6" long, dark green above, lighter below. Fragrant white flowers produced in spring. With the (quite deserved) decline of x Cupressocyparis lleylandii as a hedging plant, laurels should be the ideal replacement. They are dense and fast growing, but respond better to trimming and don't just proceed skywards indefinitely.

 Whereas conifers rarely if ever grow from brown wood, even old established laurels will respond to a severe pruning by producing fresh green growth from mature brown wood that hasn't seen direct sunlight for years. Within a year or so, you will be rewarded with a new curtain of attractive foliage.

Don't trim with shears though, the large leaves don't look good when they start to turn brown at the edges after being chopped through. A smaller variety "Otto Luyken" grows to about 3ft tall and wide and is suitable for inclusion in a border.

Tough and hardy, a single plant may be grown as an informal wind-break or at the back of a large border where the dark green leaves set off other foliage and flowers admirably.

Climbers

Spring flowering twining deciduous climber with masses of simple 4-petalled flowers in white to shades of pink depending on variety. Not really suitable for a wall, better in 3-dimensions, growing through an old tree, over an out-building, pergola etc. Will go to 25-30ft if unpruned. "rubens", rose-pink, "grandiflora", large white scented, "Mayleen", deep pink, bronze foliage.

Clematis tangutica - C

Similar in growth habit to C. montana, but flowering in late summer and autumn with small bell-shaped 4 - petalled flowers in all shades of yellow from pale to deep and through to orange depending on variety. Some of the loveliest yellows available are found here. Foliage finely dissected and fern-like, can have a glaucous tinge in some types.

Many available varieties - Bill Mackenzie probably the best

How to plant climbers and place support wires