Green Giants and Garden Gems: The Guide to 10 Plants, Shrubs & Trees Beginning with G
Your definitive guide to the best plants, shrubs, and trees starting with G. Explore hardy Geraniums, dainty Gauras, ancient Ginkgos, and more for UK gardens.
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Gardening in Britain is more than just a hobby; it’s a national obsession. From the grand, sweeping landscapes designed by Capability Brown to the cheerful window boxes brightening up a city flat, we love to make things grow. And every great garden is built on a great alphabet of plants. Today, we’re digging into the letter ‘G’ – a letter that gives us some of the most glorious, gorgeous, and sometimes downright giant plants you can pop in your patch.
Whether you’ve got acres to play with or a tiny balcony, the ‘G’ list has something for you. We’ll wander through colourful flowers that seem to last forever, meet ancient trees that were around when dinosaurs roamed, and even face up to a plant so massive it’s nicknamed the “giant rhubarb.” We’re going to cover everything you need to know: how to choose them, how to grow them, and how to help them thrive in our famously unpredictable British weather. So, grab a cuppa, put your feet up, and let’s get started on our journey through the great green world of ‘G’.
1. Geranium (Crane’s Bill)
First up is a true garden hero: the hardy Geranium, often called the Crane’s Bill. Now, don’t get this mixed up with the brightly coloured bedding plants you see everywhere in summer – those are technically Pelargoniums. We’re talking about the true Geraniums, the tough, reliable, and beautiful perennials that are the backbone of many a British border.
Meet the Humble Geranium
If you want a plant that works hard for its spot in the garden, look no further. Hardy Geraniums are troopers. They form lovely, leafy mounds and produce a seemingly endless supply of flowers from late spring right through to the first frosts. Their flowers are usually simple, open-faced cups with five petals, coming in shades of blue, pink, purple, and white.
The name “Crane’s Bill” comes from the shape of their seed pods. After the flower fades, the pod grows into a long, beak-like shape that looks just like a crane’s head. When the seeds are ready, this “beak” springs open and flings them away from the parent plant. It’s a clever bit of engineering!
What Makes It Special?
The real magic of the Geranium is its sheer versatility. There’s a Geranium for almost every situation.
- For sunny spots: Geranium sanguineum (the bloody crane’s-bill) is a fantastic choice. It loves the sun and produces dazzling magenta flowers. It’s a native British wildflower, so it’s perfectly happy in our climate.
- For shady corners: Geranium phaeum (the dusky crane’s-bill) is your friend. It thrives in shade and has unusual, dark maroon flowers that nod downwards.
- For ground cover: Geranium macrorrhizum is a champion. It forms a dense carpet of fragrant leaves that weeds find almost impossible to penetrate. Plus, it’s happy in sun or shade.
- For star power: Geranium ‘Rozanne’ is a modern superstar. It was crowned the RHS Plant of the Centenary in 2013, and for good reason. It flowers its socks off from May to November with beautiful violet-blue flowers with a white centre. It just doesn’t know when to quit.
The leaves are often just as lovely as the flowers. They’re typically divided into lobes, a bit like a hand with fingers, and many varieties have leaves that turn fiery shades of red and orange in the autumn. Some even have scented foliage, releasing a lovely aroma when you brush past them.
Growing in a British Garden
This is the easy part. Most hardy Geraniums are incredibly unfussy. They’re not particularly bothered about soil type, as long as it isn’t a bog or a desert. They’ll grow in clay, loam, or sandy soil.
Planting is simple:
- Dig a hole that’s a bit wider than the pot the plant came in.
- Pop the plant in so the top of its root ball is level with the soil surface.
- Fill the soil back in around it, give it a firm press with your hands, and water it well.
That’s pretty much it. They’ll happily grow in borders, under shrubs, in rock gardens, or even in pots. They are perfect for that relaxed, cottage-garden feel that we Brits do so well.
Care and Common Pitfalls
The best thing about Geraniums is how little they ask for in return. They are generally pest and disease-free. Slugs and snails might have a little nibble on new leaves, but they usually leave established plants alone.
The most important job is what’s known as the “Chelsea Chop.” After their first big flush of flowers in early summer (around the time of the Chelsea Flower Show in late May), many Geraniums can start to look a bit tired and floppy. The solution is to be brave and cut the whole plant back, leaves and all, right down to the base.
It feels brutal, but trust us. Within a couple of weeks, a fresh mound of healthy new leaves will appear, and soon after, a whole new wave of flowers that will last you through the rest of the summer. It’s a simple trick that keeps them looking their best.
The only real pitfall is planting a sun-loving variety in deep shade, or vice-versa. It won’t die, but it won’t flower very well. Just check the plant label before you buy, and you can’t go wrong.
2. Ginkgo Biloba (Maidenhair Tree)
From a humble border plant to a living fossil. The Ginkgo Biloba is one of the oldest species of tree on the planet. Fossils of its distinctive leaves have been found that are over 270 million years old. That means Ginkgos were around long before the dinosaurs!
Meet the Ancient Ginkgo
The Ginkgo is a truly unique tree. It’s a deciduous tree, meaning it loses its leaves in winter, but it’s not related to other broadleaf trees like oaks or maples. It’s in a division all of its own, with no living relatives. It’s a survivor from a forgotten world.
Originally from China, it was thought to be extinct in the wild for centuries, only surviving because monks cultivated it in their temple gardens. Today, it’s planted in cities all over the world, including many here in the UK, because it’s incredibly tough and tolerant of pollution.
Its common name, the Maidenhair Tree, comes from its leaves. They are a beautiful fan shape, with delicate veins, and look very similar to the fronds of a maidenhair fern.
What Makes It Special?
The standout feature of the Ginkgo is its autumn colour. In a good year, the leaves turn the most incredible, luminous, butter-yellow. It’s a pure, clear yellow that seems to glow, especially when the sun hits it. For a few weeks, the tree is a golden beacon. Then, quite suddenly, all the leaves drop at once, creating a beautiful golden carpet around the base of the tree.
Ginkgos are also dioecious, which means they come in male and female forms. This is important because the female trees produce fruits that, while considered a delicacy in some parts of Asia, have a rather unfortunate smell when they start to rot – often compared to rancid butter or vomit. For this reason, most Ginkgos sold in nurseries for garden use are male clones.
Growing in a British Garden
Ginkgos are slow growers, especially when they’re young, so you need a bit of patience. But they are incredibly resilient and will eventually grow into a magnificent, tall, conical tree.
They need a sunny spot to do well and produce the best autumn colour. They’re not fussy about soil, coping with anything from sand to heavy clay, as long as it’s not permanently waterlogged.
When planting a young Ginkgo tree, make sure you give it plenty of space to grow. While it might look like a skinny stick for the first few years, it will one day be a large tree. Think of it as a gift to future generations.
Because they are so slow-growing and have a narrow shape when young, they can be a good choice for smaller urban gardens where you want a tree but don’t have massive amounts of space. There are also dwarf varieties available, like ‘Mariken’, which grows into a small, rounded shrub.
Care and Common Pitfalls
Here’s the good news: Ginkgos are virtually maintenance-free. They don’t need pruning unless you want to remove a dead or awkwardly placed branch. They are also remarkably free from pests and diseases – their ancient lineage seems to have made them resistant to most modern bugs.
The main pitfall is impatience. You plant a Ginkgo for the long term. It won’t give you a huge, shady canopy in five years. It will, however, reward your patience with decades, and even centuries, of beauty. The other potential issue is accidentally planting a female tree if you’re not keen on the smelly fruit, but as mentioned, nurseries almost exclusively sell male trees, so this is unlikely to be a problem.
3. Gaillardia (Blanket Flower)
Next, let’s turn up the heat with Gaillardia, the Blanket Flower. This cheerful perennial brings a burst of hot, sunny colour to the garden, looking like a miniature sunset on a stem. It’s a member of the daisy family, originally from the hot, dry prairies of North America.
The flowers are the main event. They have a prominent central cone, usually a deep reddish-brown, surrounded by ray-like petals in sizzling shades of red, orange, and yellow. Often, the petals are bicoloured, tipped with yellow and fiery red at the base, giving them a distinctive, blanket-like pattern – hence the name.
What Makes It Special?
Its incredible toughness and non-stop flowering make Gaillardia a garden champion. Once it gets going in early summer, it will produce a constant stream of bright, bold flowers right through until the autumn frosts. It genuinely doesn’t know when to stop.
Because it comes from such a harsh environment, it’s exceptionally drought-tolerant and thrives on a bit of neglect. This makes it a perfect choice for those tricky, sun-baked spots where other plants might crisp up. It’s brilliant for gravel gardens, hot borders, or pots on a sunny patio. Plus, bees and butterflies absolutely adore it.
Growing in a British Garden
Like the Genista we’ll meet later, the golden rule for Gaillardia is full sun and excellent drainage. It absolutely hates sitting in cold, wet soil, especially during a British winter. Heavy, soggy clay is its worst enemy.
If you have heavy soil, it’s essential to improve the drainage by digging in plenty of grit before planting. Growing it in a raised bed or a container is an even better way to guarantee it won’t get waterlogged. Don’t enrich the soil with lots of compost or manure; Gaillardia flowers best in poorer soils. Too much richness will just lead to floppy stems and fewer flowers.
Care and Common Pitfalls
The main pitfall is winter wet. If your Gaillardia doesn’t return in the spring, it has almost certainly rotted. Good drainage is everything.
To keep the flowers coming all summer, you need to deadhead regularly. As soon as a flower starts to fade, snip the stem off right back at the base. This stops the plant from putting energy into making seeds and encourages it to produce more flowers instead.
Gaillardias can be quite short-lived perennials, often flowering themselves to exhaustion after two or three years. But they are easy to grow from seed, and you can take cuttings from the base in the spring to make new plants for free. Giving the plant a hard chop back in late summer can also help it overwinter more successfully.
4. Gaura Lindheimeri (Bee Blossom)
After the fiery colours of Gaillardia, let’s move to something delicate and graceful. Gaura is a beautiful perennial that brings a light, airy, and wild feel to the garden.
Meet the Dainty Gaura
Gaura lindheimeri is a plant that dances. It produces long, slender, wiry stems that are topped with small, butterfly-like flowers. The stems sway and move in the slightest breeze, creating a lovely sense of movement in the garden.
The flowers are usually white or pink and appear in clouds from early summer right through to autumn. The most popular variety is probably ‘Whirling Butterflies’, which has pure white flowers that really do look like a cloud of butterflies hovering over the border.
The plant forms a clump of leaves at the base, and the tall, wiry flower stems rise up from there, reaching a height of about 1 metre (3 feet).
What Makes It Special?
Its long flowering season and graceful movement are what make Gaura a must-have. It’s a brilliant “filler” plant in a border. Because its stems are so thin and airy, you can see through it to the plants behind, so it doesn’t create a solid block of colour. Instead, it adds a soft, see-through veil of flowers that links other plants together.
It works wonderfully in a cottage garden, a gravel garden, or a modern, prairie-style planting scheme. It’s also very attractive to bees and, you guessed it, butterflies, which is where it gets its common name, Bee Blossom.
Growing in a British Garden
Gaura is a sun-lover and needs a spot with well-drained soil. This is really important. It originally comes from the prairies of North America and it hates sitting in cold, wet soil during a British winter. Heavy clay soil can be a killer for Gaura.
If you have heavy soil, you can improve the drainage by digging in lots of grit and organic matter before planting. Or, even better, grow it in a raised bed or a large pot where you have more control over the soil conditions.
It’s a great plant for a sunny, sheltered border where it can bake in the sun all summer. It is fairly drought-tolerant once it gets its roots down, making it a good choice for a low-maintenance garden.
Care and Common Pitfalls
The main pitfall, as we’ve said, is winter wet. If your Gaura fails to reappear in spring, it’s almost certainly because its roots have rotted in the cold, damp soil. Good drainage is the key to success.
In terms of care, it’s very low-maintenance. You don’t need to feed it much – too much fertiliser will just produce lots of soft, floppy leaves and fewer flowers.
Pruning is simple. In late autumn, you can cut the long flower stems back by about half. This helps to stop the wind from rocking the plant and loosening its roots during winter. Then, in late spring, when you see new shoots emerging from the base, you can cut the old stems right back to the ground. Some people prefer to leave the old stems on all winter for a bit of structure and cut them back in spring. Either way works fine.
5. Garrya Elliptica (Silk Tassel Bush)
Now for a fantastic winter shrub. When most of the garden is asleep, the Garrya elliptica puts on a stunning show.
Meet the Tassel Bush
Garrya elliptica is an evergreen shrub that comes from the west coast of the USA. It has leathery, dark green, slightly wavy-edged leaves, which makes it a handsome foliage plant all year round.
But its moment of glory is in the middle of winter. From December to February, the male plants produce incredibly long, silvery-grey catkins that hang down like decorative tassels. On a mature shrub, these tassels can be over 20cm (8 inches) long. They look particularly beautiful on a frosty morning when they’re edged with ice crystals.
What Makes It Special?
It’s all about the winter interest. There aren’t many shrubs that look their absolute best in the depths of January, but this is one of them. The catkins, which are the male flowers, are elegant and unusual. They bring a bit of drama and movement to the garden at a time when not much else is happening.
It’s an excellent choice for a wall shrub. Trained against a sunny wall or fence, it will be protected from the worst of the winter winds and will produce the most impressive display of tassels.
Like the Ginkgo, Garrya is dioecious, with male and female plants. It’s the male plants that have the spectacular long catkins. The female plants have much shorter, less impressive catkins, which are followed by small, purple-brown fruits. The most commonly sold variety is ‘James Roof’, which is a male clone known for its exceptionally long and abundant tassels.
Growing in a British Garden
The Silk Tassel Bush needs a well-drained soil and a reasonably sheltered spot. It’s pretty tough, but harsh, cold winds can scorch its evergreen leaves. That’s why it’s often grown against a wall, which gives it both shelter and a bit of extra warmth. It will grow in sun or partial shade.
It’s a fairly large shrub, eventually reaching up to 4 metres (13 feet) in height and spread, so give it room. When planting, dig in some good compost to get it off to a good start, and make sure it doesn’t dry out in its first year.
Care and Common Pitfalls
Garrya is another low-maintenance winner. Once it’s established, it’s very drought-tolerant.
The only pruning needed is a light trim after it has finished flowering in late spring. You can shorten any shoots that are growing out of place and remove any dead or damaged branches. If you’re growing it against a wall, you’ll need to tie in the new shoots each year to keep it neat. Don’t prune it in autumn or winter, or you’ll cut off the developing catkins.
The main pitfall is buying an unnamed seedling rather than a named male variety like ‘James Roof’. You might end up with a female plant, or a male with disappointing short tassels. It’s worth seeking out a good named clone to guarantee that spectacular winter show.
6. Gladiolus (Sword Lily)
Let’s bring a splash of bold, upright colour to the summer garden with the Gladiolus. These are the tall, dramatic flower spikes that are a mainstay of the cut flower industry.
Meet the Glamorous Gladiolus
Gladioli grow from underground corms, which are similar to bulbs. In spring, you plant the corms, and they send up tall, sword-like leaves – which is where the name comes from, as gladius is the Latin word for sword.
Then, in mid to late summer, the main event happens. A tall, sturdy stem shoots up from the centre of the leaves and opens into a magnificent spire of large, trumpet-shaped flowers. They come in almost every colour imaginable, from pure white and soft pastels to vibrant yellows, oranges, reds, and deep purples. Some are even bi-coloured or have ruffled edges.
What Makes It Special?
Their strong vertical accent and vibrant colours make them brilliant for adding height and drama to a summer border. A few clumps of Gladioli dotted through a border can lift the whole design and create exciting pops of colour.
They are, of course, absolutely fantastic for cutting. A vase of Gladioli is a truly impressive sight. If you cut the spike when the first couple of flowers at the bottom are open, the rest will open up indoors over the next week or so.
There are two main types you’ll come across:
- Large-flowered hybrids: These are the big, bold, flashy ones, growing up to 1.5 metres (5 feet) tall. They are the ones you see in flower shops.
- Gladiolus byzantinus: This is a much hardier and more delicate species. It’s smaller, has beautiful magenta-pink flowers, and is tough enough to be left in the ground all year round in most parts of the UK. It’s a great choice for a more natural, less formal look.
Growing in a British Garden
The large-flowered hybrid Gladioli need a bit of special treatment in our climate. They are not fully hardy, so the corms need to be lifted and stored over winter.
Here’s the annual routine:
- Plant the corms in spring, from March to May. Choose a sunny, sheltered spot with well-drained soil.
- Plant them quite deep, about 15cm (6 inches), and about 15cm apart. Planting them deep helps to anchor the tall stems.
- As the tall flower spikes grow, they will probably need staking to stop them from flopping over, especially in a windy spot. A bamboo cane for each spike is ideal.
- After they have flowered, leave the foliage to die back naturally. This feeds the corm for next year’s show.
- Once the foliage has turned yellow and withered, carefully dig up the corms. This is usually around October or November.
- Clean the soil off them, let them dry for a week or two, and then store them in a cool, dark, frost-free place (like a shed or garage) in a paper bag or a tray of dry sand until it’s time to plant them again next spring.
The hardier Gladiolus byzantinus can just be planted in a sunny, well-drained spot and left to its own devices. It will multiply and come back year after year.
Care and Common Pitfalls
The main pitfall is the winter cold. If you leave the tender hybrid corms in the ground, a hard frost will likely turn them to mush. So, lifting and storing is essential.
Another common problem is thrips, which are tiny insects that can mottle the leaves and flowers. You can often prevent this by buying fresh, healthy corms each year or by being vigilant and spraying with a suitable insecticide if you spot them.
Staking is also important for the tall varieties. There’s nothing more frustrating than seeing your beautiful flower spikes snapped in half by a summer gale.
7. Geum (Avens)
Geums are another group of cheerful, hardworking perennials that have become hugely popular in recent years, thanks to the introduction of some fantastic new varieties.
Meet the Cheerful Geum
Geums are members of the rose family, and you can see the resemblance in their flowers. They produce a flurry of small, bowl-shaped or ruffled flowers on slender, branching stems held above a neat clump of leaves.
They flower for an incredibly long time, often starting in late spring and, with a bit of care, continuing right through the summer. They come in a wonderful range of warm colours – fiery oranges, sunny yellows, rich reds, and soft creams and pinks.
The leaves form a low mound of fuzzy, slightly crinkled foliage that is often semi-evergreen, providing a bit of ground cover through the winter.
What Makes It Special?
Their vibrant, warm colours and long flowering period make them invaluable in the garden. They are brilliant for the front or middle of a border, where their bright flowers can light up the scene.
They are perfect for cottage gardens, mixing beautifully with other perennials like Geraniums, Salvias, and Astrantias. Their wiry stems mean they also add a nice bit of movement.
Some of the most popular modern varieties include:
- ‘Totally Tangerine’: A real star performer. It grows a bit taller than most Geums and produces an astonishing number of bright apricot-orange flowers from May to October. It just never stops.
- ‘Mrs J. Bradshaw’: An old favourite with striking scarlet-red, semi-double flowers.
- ‘Mai Tai’: A more subtle variety with beautiful, frilly flowers that start off a peachy-apricot colour and fade to pale pink.
Growing in a British Garden
Geums are generally easy to grow. They like a soil that is reasonably moist but also well-drained. They don’t like to be baked dry in summer, nor do they want to sit in a bog in winter. A good, fertile loam in a sunny or partially shaded spot is perfect.
They are fully hardy and will come back reliably each year. Planting is the same as for any other perennial – dig a hole, pop it in, backfill, and water well. They look best planted in small groups or drifts of three or five.
Care and Common Pitfalls
To get the best from your Geums, the most important job is deadheading. Once a flower stem has finished blooming, cut it right back to the base of the plant. This will encourage the plant to produce more and more flower stems and will keep the display going all summer. If you let them set seed, they will think their job is done and stop flowering.
Geums can be prone to a fungal disease called powdery mildew in hot, dry weather, which shows up as a white, dusty coating on the leaves. You can help prevent this by making sure they don’t dry out completely and by ensuring there’s good air circulation around the plants.
The only other thing to know is that they can be quite short-lived perennials. After three or four years, the clump can become woody and less vigorous. The easy solution is to lift the plant in the spring, divide it into smaller pieces, and replant the fresh, young bits from the outside of the clump. This will give them a new lease of life.
8. Genista (Broom)
For a tough, sun-loving shrub that smothers itself in flowers, you can’t beat a Genista, or Broom.
Meet the Sunny Genista
Genistas are part of a larger group of plants often called Brooms, which also includes Cytisus and Spartium. They are typically shrubs with lots of slender, arching, green stems. In fact, the stems are so green that they can photosynthesise, which means the leaves are often very small and sparse.
Their moment of glory is in late spring and early summer when the whole shrub is covered in masses of small, pea-like flowers. The most common colour is a brilliant, dazzling yellow, which is incredibly cheerful on a sunny day.
A classic example is Genista lydia, the Lydian broom, which forms a low, sprawling mound and is perfect for the front of a sunny border or cascading over a wall.
What Makes It Special?
It’s the sheer profusion of flowers and their toughness. A Broom in full flower is an incredible sight – a fountain of gold. They are also incredibly resilient plants. They thrive in poor, dry, sandy soils where many other shrubs would struggle.
This makes them a fantastic choice for a difficult, sunny spot in the garden. They are great for gravel gardens, hot, sunny banks, or coastal gardens where they can cope with the salty winds. They are also very attractive to bees.
Growing in a British Garden
The golden rule for growing Genista is sun and sharp drainage. They absolutely must have a spot in full sun. They also hate heavy, wet soil. If you have clay soil, you’ll need to add a lot of grit to improve the drainage, or grow them in a raised bed.
They have deep tap roots, which helps them find water in dry conditions, but it also means they don’t like being moved once they are established. So, choose your spot carefully.
Don’t add any rich compost or fertiliser when you plant them. They flower best in poor soil. If the soil is too rich, you’ll get lots of green growth and not many flowers.
Care and Common Pitfalls
Brooms have a reputation for getting leggy and woody. The secret to keeping them compact and bushy is to prune them every year immediately after they have finished flowering.
Using shears or secateurs, trim back all the stems that have just flowered by about half to two-thirds. The important thing is to make sure you are only cutting into the green, leafy growth. Don’t cut back into the old, brown, woody part of the stems at the base of the plant, as it won’t regrow from there.
This regular trim will encourage the plant to produce lots of new shoots, which will carry next year’s flowers, and will stop it from becoming a tangled, woody mess.
The biggest pitfall is not pruning them. A neglected Broom will quickly become bare at the base with all the flowers on the ends of long, straggly stems. And once it gets to that stage, it’s very hard to rescue it. So, that annual haircut is essential.
9. Galanthus (Snowdrop)
No list of ‘G’ plants for a British garden would be complete without the Snowdrop. It’s the tiny, delicate, yet incredibly tough flower that signals the very beginning of the end of winter.
Meet the Brave Snowdrop
Galanthus nivalis is our native Snowdrop. It’s a small bulbous perennial that pushes its way up through the cold, often frozen, soil in January and February. Each bulb produces a couple of slender, grey-green leaves and a single, nodding flower.
The flower is a little jewel. It has three pure white outer petals that arch outwards, and three smaller inner petals that are marked with a little green V-shape. On a mild, sunny day, the outer petals will open up, but in the cold, they close back together to protect the inner parts of the flower.
What Makes It Special?
It’s the symbol of hope. Seeing the first Snowdrops appear is a magical moment. It’s a promise that spring is on its way. They are a sign of nature’s resilience, flowering in the harshest time of the year.
Carpets of Snowdrops in a woodland or a churchyard are one of the great sights of the British winter garden. They look best when they are planted in large numbers, creating a drift of white that shimmers in the low winter sun.
There is a huge community of Snowdrop collectors, known as galanthophiles, who collect and swap rare and unusual varieties. Some rare Snowdrop bulbs have been known to sell for hundreds of pounds each!
What to Grow in a British Garden
Snowdrops are woodland plants, so they like a spot that is damp and shady in the summer (when they are dormant) but gets a bit more light in the winter (when the trees have lost their leaves). Under a deciduous tree or among shrubs is the perfect place.
The absolute best way to establish Snowdrops is to plant them “in the green.” This means buying and planting them in late spring, just after they have finished flowering, when they still have their leaves. You can buy them as dry bulbs in the autumn, but they can be tricky to get going. Planting them in the green is much more reliable.
Plant the small clumps at the same depth they were growing at before, and give them a good water. Then just leave them to it. They will slowly multiply over the years to form a beautiful carpet.
Care and Common Pitfalls
Snowdrops are incredibly easy. Once you’ve got them established in the right spot, you can just forget about them. They need no feeding, pruning, or protection.
The main pitfall is letting the bulbs dry out. This is why buying dry bulbs in autumn can be a bit of a gamble. If they’ve been sitting on a shelf for too long, they may have dried out completely. Planting in the green avoids this problem.
The other thing to remember is not to be too tidy. Don’t cut off the leaves after they have flowered. Let them die back naturally. The leaves are busy photosynthesising and sending food back down to the bulb for next year’s flower. If you cut them off too early, you’ll weaken the bulb.
10. Grevillea (Spider Flower)
Finally, let’s travel down under for our last ‘G’. Grevilleas are fascinating evergreen shrubs from Australia that can bring a wonderfully exotic touch to a British garden.
Meet the Exotic Grevillea
Grevilleas are known for their extraordinary flowers. They don’t have petals in the traditional sense. Instead, they have a long tube, called a perianth, which splits open to reveal a long, prominent style. The result is a spidery, claw-like flower that looks very unusual and intricate.
They come in a range of fiery colours – reds, oranges, yellows, and pinks – and are a magnet for nectar-loving birds. In their native Australia, they are a vital food source for honeyeaters.
The foliage is also a key feature. It is often very fine and needle-like, a bit like a rosemary or a conifer, which helps the plant to conserve water. This spiky foliage provides a great contrast in texture to other, broader-leaved shrubs.
What Makes It Special?
It’s the unique, exotic flowers and the year-round foliage texture. A Grevillea in flower is a real talking point. The flowers are so different from anything else we typically grow in our gardens.
Because they are evergreen, they provide structure and interest all year round. The fine, needle-like leaves of many varieties are very tactile and look great when edged with frost in winter.
There are some surprisingly hardy varieties that can be grown outside in the milder parts of the UK. Grevillea victoriae is one of the toughest, with grey-green leaves and clusters of rusty-red flowers. Grevillea rosmarinifolia is another good choice, with rosemary-like leaves and pinkish-red flowers. The low-growing Grevillea ‘Canberra Gem’ is also popular and reliable.
Growing in a British Garden
This is a plant for a hot, dry, sunny spot with very well-drained soil. Think of the Australian outback. They hate winter wet and will not survive in heavy, waterlogged clay.
A south-facing wall, a gravel garden, or a raised bed in the sunniest part of your garden is the ideal location. They are also excellent plants for pots, which means you can give them the perfect free-draining compost and move them into a greenhouse or porch for extra protection in a very cold winter.
One very important thing to know is that Grevilleas are part of the Protea family, and they have evolved to grow in soils that are very low in phosphorus. Standard multi-purpose fertilisers and composts can actually be toxic to them. You should use an ericaceous compost (the kind you use for rhododendrons) and only feed them with a special low-phosphorus fertiliser, or better still, don’t feed them at all.
Care and Common Pitfalls
The biggest pitfall is planting them in the wrong place. Cold, wet soil will kill a Grevillea faster than anything. Sun and sharp drainage are non-negotiable.
The second pitfall is feeding them with the wrong type of fertiliser. Remember, low phosphorus is essential.
Pruning should be done after flowering. Give them a light trim all over to encourage bushy growth and more flowers. Like the Genista, don’t cut back into old, bare wood.
In a very cold winter, a hardy Grevillea might appreciate a bit of protection. A fleece jacket or a covering of bracken around the base can help it through the worst of the weather, especially when it’s young.
A Garden Full of G’s
So there we have it. Ten glorious ‘G’s, each bringing something completely different to the garden. From the reliable, hardworking Geranium to the dramatic, show-stopping Gunnera; from the ancient, golden Ginkgo to the delicate, dancing Gaura.
Whether you want year-round structure, vibrant summer colour, or a hopeful sign that spring is on its way, there’s a plant beginning with ‘G’ that’s perfect for the job. Gardening is all about experimenting and finding the plants that you love and that love the little patch of Britain you call your own. Hopefully, this has given you a bit of inspiration to go out and get growing. Happy gardening!
Further Reading
For more expert advice and inspiration, we highly recommend these trusted British resources:
- The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS): The ultimate authority on all things gardening in the UK. Their website is a treasure trove of reliable plant information and growing advice.
- BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine: A fantastic resource full of practical tips, seasonal advice, and beautiful garden inspiration.
- The National Trust: Discover beautiful gardens to visit across the UK and learn about the plants that grow in them.
- The Woodland Trust: The UK’s largest woodland conservation charity, with excellent information on native trees and shrubs.
