If you are lucky enough to have a stream running through your garden you can plant many colourful plants at the side.

Plants for a Streamside

• Primula Candelabra hybrids look special in spring and early summer. The flowers appear on the 18 inch stems in tiers of red, yellow and orange.
• Many Iris varieties are at home by the side of water. The Siberian Iris sibirica can be yellow, white, purple or blue and the sword shaped leaves grow well in moist soil. Iris laevigata flowers purple and can grow right at the margins with its feet in 3-4 inches of water.
• For soft greens, Alchemilla Mollis grows almost anywhere in my garden and Hostas also like a moist soil.
• Astilbe can be a fine herbaceous plant with fern like foliage and plumes of frothy flowers.
• For a bit of annual colour you could sow Mirabilis jalpa the Four o’clock flower growing to 3-4 feet tall with some Impatiens accent series for a lower grower.
• Bugle is good for ground cover Ajuga reptans Burgundy Glow for blue flowers and tricolured leaves. Persicaria superba has pink flowers later in the year and spreads well.
• For a tree in acid soil the Amelanchier is hard to beat with flowers, berries and coloured autumn leaves or the Spotted laurel and Black Pussy Willows both like a moist soil.

Other Tips for Gardening by a Stream

• Plants that prefer dryer conditions should be planted higher up the banking.
• Give plants enough space to develop, the moist and humid conditions will generally encourage lush growth.
• Beware fast flowing streams and those likely to over flow there banks lest they wash away your prize plants.
• Foliage and texture can be as important as colour but a bright splash (no pun intended) of yellow or bright white can be reflected by the water.

Harlow Carr Candelabra primula by the stream 2008.

Read more about Wild Iris on Gardeners Tips.