Plants for alkaline soil

[Susie]

Can someone please recommend plants that thrive in alkaline soil?

Many thanks.

Susie x

[Tursiops2]

Native or ornamental? Trees, shrubs or perennials? Sunny or shady?
There's plenty to choose from, a good book is "Right Plant, Right Place" by Nicola Ferguson.
T2

[smartie]

And two further questions - how alkaline are we looking at? Have you tested the Ph? - and damp or dry?

[Gaina]

Last time I was on the BBC website their gardening section had a great plant selector for all kinds of soil and positions of garden. You might find something useful there

[smartie]

Yes, you probably will. If you want to do some independent browsing, this site is quite good

Perennial Plants and Flowers which will grow in Alkaline Soil

The RHS plant selector, which I think is available to non-members, is also very useful (if a bit slow to work). You can enter all sorts of characteristics of where you want it to grow and what type of plant (say a hardy native plant with summer flowers to grow in full sun in alkaline soil) and it will give you some options.

[nightshade]

Try the postcode guide The Postcode Plants Database - Natural History Museum
The RHS do a cultivated postcode guide I believe

[Susie]

Many thanks for the replies.

In answer to your questions, I tested the soil this morning and the indicator came out as dark green as was possible, so I guess at around 7.5.

I didn't have one specific spot in mind where I want to put plants as I am still planting up lots of areas of the front and back gardens. I don't need any more trees, but I am looking for shrubs and perennials for sun and shade and also those that get some rain and others that are very dry. I don't have anywhere damp in the garden apart from the small bog garden and pond I made, which are already fully planted.

Many thanks for the links provided, they are excellent.

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by Susie

Many thanks for the replies.

In answer to your questions, I tested the soil this morning and the indicator came out as dark green as was possible, so I guess at around 7.5.

I didn't have one specific spot in mind where I want to put plants as I am still planting up lots of areas of the front and back gardens. I don't need any more trees, but I am looking for shrubs and perennials for sun and shade and also those that get some rain and others that are very dry. I don't have anywhere damp in the garden apart from the small bog garden and pond I made, which are already fully planted.

Many thanks for the links provided, they are excellent.

Well for most practical purposes 7.5 is only slightly on the alkali side of neutral. So long as you avoid ericacious plants, and unless you are selecting something unusual then you are unlikely to have any major problems with most plants that are commercially available. However - soil ph can vary quite significantly in quite a short distance depending on how it has been managed - deep digging, left fallow, waterlogged etc.

A good way to assess what grows well on your local soil is to look in other people's gardens - if it works there it'll probably work for you. You can also, to some degree follow family types so if one species of plant works then there's a good chance that it's near relatives will work as well.

CM

[honeybee]

What sort of soil do you have, we are limestone here so have an alkaline soil, probably one of the easiests, most stuff thrives. I dug some eracaious soil in for the fox gloves which seem to be doing well.

[Susie]

I have clay here but there is alot of chalk around this area as I am on the edge of the north downs.

I have noticed that certain plants I have put in aren't very happy, such as the sweet box, whereas other things are romping away, like the scabious.