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Fast Growing Plants Summary
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Name |
Notes and varieties |
category |
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Anemone japonica (Anemone x hybrida)
Japanese anemone (windflower)
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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.
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Perennial |
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Buddleia davidii
Butterfly
bush
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Medium to large shrub, 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.
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Shrub |
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Ceanothus thyrsiflorus
Blueblossom
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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).
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Shrub |
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Clematis
montana and tangutica
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C. montana
- 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.
C. tangutica
- 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.
Foliage finely dissected and fern-like. Many available varieties "Bill
McKenzie" probably the best.
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Climber |
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Eucalyptus gunnii
Cider Gum
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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 do is you 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.
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Tree
/ shrub |
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Lavatera
Mallow
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Woody shrub or perennial
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.
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Shrub
/ woody perennial |
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Prunus
laurocerasus
Cherry
laurel
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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.
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.
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Shrub |
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