A gaura hedge in the making

It’s a plant factory. Gaura madness. Yet another one of the indispensible tribe.

Some people find gaura to be a tricky plant as it often needs staking.

But in our thin, very free draining soil, it’s rarely a problem.

And it adds a sort of flimsly whimsy height and interest to a spot.

Here it is in the step garden, a spot of colour. Not too bossy or showy. Rather useful when you want to make it look like you are merely extending the meadow look in a rural garden.

I love it. And glory be, it grows well from seed.

So I am making hundreds of little gaura plants which will eventually form two hedges high on the oak bank above the courtyard.

Nothing else grows here, so it might as well be a drought tolerant, unfussy perennial.

And I will interweave it with grasses just as I do here in the step garden.

It’s funny how simplified ones palette becomes. I seem to be sticking to just the grasses, the gaura and the sage. And santolinas. But they didn’t enjoy this wet summer and need a hard prune.

The gauras, get cut back in spring, or just given a tidy and off they go again. My kind of plant.