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Family Friendly Plants

Plants and young children can co exist in your garden.  The following plants are all easy to grow and maintain and are available in most good garden centres.  They all have a reasonably long flowering period and can cope with being hit by the odd football. They should all survive in a children’s garden.  This page contains a summary of family friendly plants.  Please click on each heading to find out more details.

Low Maintenance Plants for a Children’s Garden.

 

Lavatera

Floral Friday – Family Friendly Shrubs – Lavatera

By on February 15, 2013

I have always loved Lavateras with their attractive and showy pink flowers.  If you have a large garden and want a summer flowering shrub then this is the plant for you.  Its common name is Mallow. If you do not have space for a 1.5 to 2 m shrub then there are now a number […]

 

cosmos family friendly plant

Cosmos – Family Friendly Plants

The Cosmos is the sort of flower that you may have seen in other people’s gardens and thought I would love to have that displaying in my garden.  It’s a lovely statuesque cottage garden flower, usually with very pretty pastel colours and feathery leaves. It is rather magical for toddlers as it grows to just […]

Floral Friday – Michaelmas Daisy – Family Friendly Plants

Bee on Aster A good late summer performer for the garden is the Aster or Michaelmas Daisy. So called because it has daisy-like flowers from pink, purple to blue and it flowers at the time of Michaelmas, on 29 September when in parts of Europe remember Archangel Michael. Its reliability and hardiness help to make […]

Floral Friday – Aquilegia – Family Friendly Plants

Aquilegia If you know this flower, other names for it are Columbine and Grandma Bonnets; you may be saying what so family friendly about it? It is a cottage garden plant with thin stems holding up the very pretty flower heads which could easily get knocked by a ball or trampled upon. I say yes […]

Floral Friday – Chives –  Plants for your Kids

By Lynda on October 12, 2012 in Aliums, children gardening, Childrens Gardening, Chives, Edible Flowers, Family Friendly Plants, Floral Friday, flowers, Growing with Kids

Chives It is its versatility that makes chives such a great plant to grow with your kids.  It is of course a culinary herb and part of the onion family, but its flowers are beautiful – a delicate ball of pinky, purple.    The child and family friendly properties of the chive plant Allium Schoenoprasum include […]

Floral Friday – Nasturtiums – Plants for your Kids

If you are not too sure what flowers to plant with your kids this is a good one to get going with.  It is an easy- grow annual.  Nasturtiums This plant’s family friendly features include:- Large seeds which are easy to sow. 8 Weeks from seed to flower. Short waiting time – Very child […]

Floral Friday: Edible Flowers – Calendula

Calendula officinalis Calendula officinalis is one of my top ten flower plants to grow with children.  Everyone thinks of a sunflower as a children’s flower.  The pot or English Marigold may not grow so tall, but it matches the sunflower’s beauty, petal pattern and gorgeous orange and yellow colours. Marigold – child friendly plant […]

Floral Friday: Edible Flowers – Courgette Flowers

Today I am introducing Floral Friday. A regular post every Friday on flowering plants to grow with your kids, and to have in your garden. All the plants featured will be ‘family friendly’. By this I mean they will either:-   Grow easily and be a ‘good doer’. May self –seed.  Will have a point […]

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Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue’

(Common name Crane’s-bill) Not to be confused with the summer bedding plant pelargonium which is often referred to as a geranium.

  • Key features  Perennial with lovely blue flowers.  Height 30cm spread 60cm.
  • Why family friendly  Star performer. Not usually eaten by slugs. Has a long flowering period.
  • Watch out   Would not be able to copy with persistent trampling.
  • Alternatives  Geranium x Oxonianum ‘Wargrave Pink’ or many of the other perennial geraniums.
 Geraniums

Lady’s Mantle

Alchemilla Mollis

  • Key features  Perennial with light green foliage and small yellow green flowers. Height 30cm spread 30cm.
  • Why family friendly  Long display period, good self-seeder and low grower for front of border.  Leaves look lovely with water droplets on them.
  • Alternatives  Alchemilla Conjuncta

Perennial Wallflower
Erysimum ‘Bowles’ Mauve’

  • Key features Perennial Bushy plant with mauve flowers and evergreen leaves.  Height to 75cm spread 45cm or more.
  • Why family friendly Flowers for up to 9 months. Evergreen leaves.
  • Watch out  Can become shrubby and may have to be replaced after a couple of years. Once the first flowers finish cut back the stems to produce a succession of flowers.
  • Alternatives  Erysimum ‘Fragrant Sunshine’
 Perennial Wallflower

Hebe ‘Mrs Winder’
Hebe
  • Key features A compact evergreen bush with mauve flowers and leaves edged in red. Height 50cm spread 50cm.
  • Why family friendly  All Hebes are attractive to bees and many butterflies.  Summer and winter interest and easy to grow.
  • Alternatives  Hebe ‘Red Edge’

Clematis ‘Bill Mackenzie’
Orange Peel Clematis (Common Name)

  • Key features  fast growing climber with yellow bell shaped flowers.
  • Why family friendly  Long flowering period, masses of flowers.  Large silky seedheads provide winter interest.
  • Watch out   Will need to be supported or tied in.  Will require pruning in early spring.
  • Alternatives  Clematis Orientalis ‘Golden Tiara’
 bill mackenzie

 

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