Ten favourite: robust plants
If your garden – like ours – is a place where the whole family enjoys spending time, then it might need to cope with a bit of wear and tear. Footballs being kicked into the flowerbeds, dogs racing across the lawn to say hi to the neighbour’s cat, toddlers eager to help out with some rogue deadheading… great for fun, less great for a perfectly maintained and manicured border!
Luckily, we’re big fans of a slightly wilder, more natural style of garden, that’s welcoming for all the family to play in. And one of our favourite ways of achieving that is by using robust plants, that can withstand the odd boot from a football or trampling from the dog (or toddler!)
These are ten of our favourites, perfect to include in your planting plan if you want some tough but attractive plants.
Erigeron karvinskianus
We are just obsessed with this lovely daisy-like flower, perfect for filling cracks in paving, spilling out of a stone wall, or just growing at the front of a flower bed. Flowering for months on end (often from February all the way through to November) this is such a hard working plant, that is also cheerfully robust, and won’t mind being trodden on or knocked. It’s a prolific self seeder, so once you have it in one spot, expect to find it popping up elsewhere too. It’s really easy to weed out seedlings if you don’t want to see it appearing throughout the garden (but, really, when it’s this cheerful, why wouldn’t you?!)
Read more about how to grow and care for Erigeron in our plant guide.
2. Vinca minor
Vinca can have a bit of a reputation as a rather bog-standard and thuggy amenity plant, as it will grow just about anywhere and put up with pretty much anything. However, this makes it an excellent plant for tricky spots, or for growing alongside other thuggish plants. We use it as a ground cover growing underneath our raspberry plants, where it can really hold its own. (Bonus points as it doesn’t mind being trodden on. ) Vinca minor ‘Alba’ is a lovely variety, with white flowers rather than the usual purple ones. Glossy evergreen leaves stay in place year round, and the flowers appear in the summer months. It’s a very fast grower, so do cut it back regularly to make sure it doesn’t take over…
Read more about vinca in our plant guide
3. Polystichum setiferum
Most ferns are reliably robust, happy with the occasional knock and growing back quickly if they ever do get a bit damaged. Poystichum setiferum is our absolute favourite and a go to in our planting plans. It’s an evergreen, so looks good year-round, with elegant fronds and a bright green colour. Good for a shaded spot.
It also looks great growing alongside lots of the other plants in this list. Ferns paired with Erigeron is one of our favourite combinations!
Read more about growing Polystichum setiferum in the plant guide
4. Pachysandra terminalis
Sure, it’s never going to win an award for most exciting plant, but pachysandra is a robust, reliable, evergreen groundcover that can take almost anything you can throw at it!
Glossy green leaves are covered with a low carpet of white flowers in the Summer. It’s not fussy about location, soil type or light levels, and will happily grow in anything from full sun to full shade. Perfect for a spot where not much else will do well.
5. Alchemilla mollis
With soft green leaves and bright, lime green flowers, Alchemilla mollis is a garden classic. It’s the perfect groundcover for the front of a bed and is irresistible when rain droplets sit in the folds of just emerging leaves. Like a lot of low-growing plants, it’s not overly delicate, and won’t mind being trampled by a dog, or whacked with a football. It’s happy in full sun to part shade, and with almost any soil types. It’s deciduous, so will die back each Autumn and reappear the following Spring.
Read more in our Alchemilla mollis plant guide
6. Stachys byzantina
Another low-growing groundcover, that looks great growing alongside Alchemilla mollis, Stachys byzantina is known by the common name Lamb’s ears, for its fluffy, silvery grey leaves that look a little like the ears of a lamb.
The fresh Spring leaves are enticingly strokable, and it’s a popular plant with children. This is a plant that does well in a sunny spot with well-draining soil (we find that Welsh weather can be a little wet for ours at times) but in a spot where it is happy, it can cope with all sorts of trampling or overly-enthusiastic stroking!
7. Hardy geraniums
Surely one of the most reliable plants in the garden, hardy geraniums object to almost nothing! Super low-maintenance, incredibly reliable and with a long flowering season, hardy geraniums are a stalwart in garden planting schemes. There are many different varieties, Geranium ‘Roxanne’ (pictured right) is a particularly long-flowering one, with purple flowers held above a mound of soft, mid-green leaves.
Read more: hardy geranium plant guide
8. Anemone x hybrida
For late Summer splendour, you can’t beat the charm of Anemone x hybrida. The delicate looking flowers, that appear from August onwards, belie a very robust and sturdy plant, with thick stems and strong leaves that don’t get damaged easily.
Our favourite varieties are ‘Honorine Jobert’ which has white flowers with a yellow centre and ‘September Charm’ which has a pale pink flower. Perfect for a spot in full sun to part shade, they grow more than a metre tall, so are a good choice for the back of a border, or behind a low wall in a front garden…
Read more: Anemone x hybrida plant guide
9. Fatsia japonica
One of the hardiest of all the garden shrubs, a sturdy fatsia isn’t bothered by much going on around it.
A useful, utilitarian plant, with huge, glossy, evergreen leaves that bring a jungle feeling to the garden. Fatsia are popular in smaller urban gardens and courtyards, and they can grow well in pots — just remember to keep well watered during the summer months. Perfect for a shady spot.
10. Nepeta
Often known as cat mint, Nepeta is a reliable long-flowering groundcover, with purple or blue flowers. It’s low maintenance, needing just a chop back once a year, to encourage longer flowering.
Super robust, it can take being rolled on repeatedly by a cat, as well as whatever else you might throw at it!
