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Having a smaller plot doesn’t mean you can’t have a fabulous garden...
Having a smaller garden doesn’t mean you can’t have a fabulous and colourful outdoor space that thrives all year round. So what are the best plants for small gardens? Make the most of every inch by pinpointing the perfect plants for each area – no matter what the conditions, there’s one that will love it. Here we take a look at the best long-flowering perennials, evergreen shrubs, climbers, bulbs and small trees/large shrubs for a small garden.
Abundant blue flowers are produced continuously from May to September above elegant deeply divided mid-green leaves – features that won it Plant of the Century at the 2013 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It’s happy both in sun or shade.
Flowering for months on long elegant stems, this low-maintenance, colourful bloomer for a sunny border is short-lived but worth replacing. It thrives even in poor soil and is best positioned in full sun.
Long stems carry blooms of bright pumpkin-orange flowers, which last from spring to autumn, above good scalloped foliage. Place it in a sunny spot.
This compact, year-round beauty produces new, fiery red foliage in spring followed by clusters of white in midsummer, before colouring up to bronze red in winter. It grows well in sun or shade.
Despite its glamorous appearance, this easy-to-grow tropical-looking plant is as tough as old boots and happy in sun or shade.
Plant this taller variety of sweet box – with deep-purple ornamental stems bearing heavily scented flowers from December to February – near your back door to best appreciate the amazing perfume. It’s happy in shade.
This versatile, evergreen, self-clinging climber is perfect for a north-facing shady wall, just like the more familiar Hydrangea petiolaris. Masses of tiny creamy-white flowers are carried in dainty clusters from late summer into autumn.
With beautiful crimped, evergreen foliage, this ivy is quite a vigorous grower, but if it gets out of hand, just hack away unwanted stems in spring.
Initially this woody evergreen will need support. Its glossy dark green leaves turn bronze in winter while summer sees clusters of starry white, fragrant flowers. It’s fairly frost hardy, flourishing in full sun but will grow on a shady wall, producing slightly less bloom.
Strident dwarf iris with large blue flowers and a yellow band is an early (Jan-Feb), long-flowering iris with a good scent that looks great in a pot.
This classic green and ivory tulip will grow in shade, returning for at least four years. It’s wonderful among ferns in containers.
Breathtaking brilliant-pink flowers are produced in autumn when much else is over. Nerines do extremely well in pots.
Masses of tiny yellow flowers appear on this all-season, deciduous tree before the leaves shoot. Bright red, cherry-like edible fruits follow against an impressive display of reddish-purple autumn foliage. Older trees develop beautiful bark in shades of orangey brown.
This pretty ornamental pear tree is the first to come into flower in spring, and last to lose its leaves in the autumn, when foliage turns bright orangey red. A small tree is ideal for screening in a small garden, and tolerates urban pollution, thriving in a wide range of soils.
Beautiful year-round, buds burst from bare branches in March in a flurry of white stars, as the leaves emerge in shades of copper. Edible berries ripen from blue-black to a rosy red in June, to be followed by wonderful autumn foliage in brilliant orange and red.
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