Advice please

[pot shadley]

I have a mall front garden, about 10' x 5', which had an old buddleia, which I have removed as it was well passed its sell by date, I looking for something to replace it that is not too tall (4-5') has lots of flowers and can attract insects, bees, etc.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[WendyC]

Which way does the garden face? Is it shady or sunny? Where are you and what is the soil like? Too late now but buddleia can be pruned down to about a foot annually.

[pot shadley]

The garden faces south and is really sunny. We are located in Nottinghamshire. Not sure about the ground I have to say, although it;s not too difficult to dig over.

[Lumpy]

I agree with WendyC how about another buddleia? You can get them in quite a few colours and if you keep them pruned they will keep on flowering. I have 3, a pink, white and lilac, they all cost 1.99 each and with a bit of hacking here and there they only take up a bit of space.

[WendyC]

How about a range of Mediterranean herbs. It sounds like your soil is quite free draining or you could add in extra grit and mulch with gravel. Plants like lavender, Rosemary, thyme etc. One of my favourite group of shrubs are the choisya such as Aztec Pearl, although there are lots of different ones now. Evergreen, lovely white flowers in May/ June, aromatic foliage. Responds well to pruning. The yellow one, Sundance, is better in a bit of shade. I have it in my North facing front garden. Limit your colour palette in a small space, e.g blue, pink, white for a cool theme or yellow, red and orange for a hot theme.

[Jungle Jane]

I have a flowering currant,ribes sanguineum on my south facing fence,flowers early spring,extremely easy to take care of,as it flowers on new growth,you can really cut it back after flowering & stays green a long time. I get bees early in my garden because of this shrub,they spend a lot of time on it. Also it's never had a bug problem,in the 15 yrs I've been here,maybe because there are too many predatory insects including ladybirds

[Nurseygreen]

How about hydrangeas?

[pot shadley]

Thank you to all that replied. Much appreciated and has given me something to think about.

[WendyC]

How about hydrangeas?

Most of them are woodland plants preferring a little shade.

[Scarlet]

Most of them are woodland plants preferring a little shade.

And a lot of water. I love these for indoor flowers but I can't get them to thrive even planted in the shade they wilt during the day.

[BUFFS]

I had some cistus (cant spell) in a similar situation and they flowered their hearts out and have several flower colours...