Plant trials – Achillea

One of the great things I get to do with  gardening is the chance to experiment with plants and test planting combinations before they ever hit the customers garden. This year I have planted many new perennials in  trial beds to see how they cope in different situations and how they look with other perennials – it’s great fun to see the results. I picked up several Achillea perennials in early spring, these are Achillea x millefolium ‘ Summer Fruits Salmon’, Achillea Fillipendula ‘ Gold Plate’ and Achillea ‘Terracotta’. All three have flowered for a very long period throughout the summer and I have been incredibly pleased with them. These are the results:  

Achillea ‘Summer Fruits Salmon’ with Geranium ‘Ballerina’ these have flowered very well. The Geranium flowered early, then had a second flowering period later to coincide with the Achillea.

                               

Next is Achillea ‘Terracotta’ which has had many shades of yellow through to bronze:

                               

And grown with the variegated ‘Phlox ‘Nora Leigh’ this has ensured colour through the year from spring:

                               

Finally: Achillea ‘Plate of Gold’ which is a very tall perennial and ideal for the back of a border. This one shows up particularly well against the stone wall and Cotoneaster.