Although SeeHow began life many years ago as a drawing board ‘aid memoire’ to help me quickly see when plants would flower, it soon became my go-to tool for understanding the entire lifecycle of each plant. With this came an appreciation of the importance of plant structure and foliage types – how these evolve over the calendar year establishing the character of each plant. These elements are mostly green.

Dahlias and other plants - Warsaw Botanical Gardens, Poland

Seehow is the only plant guide to show this process. Just now, here in Warsaw, the dominant colour in the parks and gardens actually is green – it’s the time of year. Many trees are only just beginning to show autumnal colours (although they are changing fast), so they still form a mixed green upper canopy in the streets and parks. Deciduous limes are common, along with maple, poplar, willow and various conifers too.

Park with lake - willows, maples, poplars and prostrate cotoneaster in foreground

Forming the ‘mid-storey’, smaller trees, woody shrubs and evergreen hedging are common in many gardens and sometimes in the wider avenues too, separating footpaths from road edges. Some of these plants have berries – reds, oranges and yellows – tiny points of colour. The compact Ginkgo biloba ‘Troll’ is a popular small tree here, still with dark green leaves at the moment, that will turn butter yellow over the next 6 to 8 weeks. Yew hedges, rhododendrons, cotoneasters in various forms and hydrangeas are also common, often mixed with a range of deciduous woody shrubs such as Forsythia and Philadelphus – still with leaves at the moment of writing, that add to the density of the mainly-green surroundings.

Yew berries - beautiful small berries with poisonous seeds inside

At ground level, hostas are a popular choice. They are often planted in large beds of different types, which gives more impact when in flower (now past) but essentially, they are grown for their reliable and attractive year-round foliage. They are often planted with with ferns and evergreen hedging that also cope well with shade. In addition, a variety of grasses such as pennisetum are also grown where the beds are open to some sunshine.

Pennisetum - one of many grasses growing well

Although there are still some flowers to be seen, many gardens are communal in the urban areas, so evergreen plants / perennials are the preferred choice, partly to reduce maintenance, but also because the density of the tall buildings means lots of shade. This becomes even more of an issue at this time of year as days become shorter and the shadows grow longer. In the older residential areas the private gardens tend to be modest and typically they have high hedges or walls for privacy, which create additional shade, affecting what will grow happily. However, on my last walk I noticed anemones, rudbeckia and Ligularia dendata in flower in one woodland garden.

These are taller perennials and can hold their own in the shady communal gardens areas amongst the hostas, ferns and grasses. Hydrangeas are also commonly grown where the there is more sunshine – along the garden edges, in courtyards and in more open borders. They are hardy plants and will grow in any soil type and provide rather beautiful and intricate flowers. In SeeHow we do not have any Hydrangeas, but we hope to include them in the future. Hydrangea arborescens, paniculata and macrophylla are the types grown here, but often with white, very pale green or soft pink flowers that suit the autumnal time of year.

Regarding hardy flowering plant options for this time of year, I visited the Warsaw Botanical Gardens to see what was still in flower there – mid-autumn. The walk towards the main entrance passes one of the external planted borders - facing south and wide open to the sunshine. I was last there in late springtime when it was in full flower and full of wildlife too – particularly butterflies, but also bees and other insects, as well as the occasional red squirrel!. This bed mixes a range of large grasses as well as plenty of mid-to-tall flowering perennials, many that are included in the SeeHow manual. But what was especially pleasing was seeing how many of these plants were still flowering 4 months later – and still attracting butterflies, bees and even the odd colourful dragonfly.

Colourful dragonfly resting on large hosta leaf

Once inside, the first area to catch the eye is the rose garden. The beds are arranged in straight lines forming a square with concentric paths. There were still plenty of roses in flower although they do now look past their best. I was pleased to see the apricot-coloured David Austin rose, ‘Graham Thomas’ still in flower – one of six roses included in SeeHow. Beyond the rose garden is the most colourful of the formal areas, containing many flowering plants also commonly grown in the UK. There were many dahlias - too many varieties to count - still catching the eye! There were also many of the usual hardy plants – verbena, salvias, rudbeckia, hydrangeas, echinacea, anemones, helianthus etc still with flowers. It was good to see clumps of colchicums pushing their way through the green wall of hydrangeas, ferns and geraniums and also, the smaller autumn-flowering Cyclamen hederifolium growing in containers.

Colchicum pushing past brunnera, geranium and hydrangea foliage

My visit was a colourful reminder that all of these plants, being reasonably hardy, will grow happily across much of Europe. They simply need the right local environment, as do all plants, which generally means some sunshine. This becomes clear when looking upwards at the private balconies throughout Warsaw, often full of colourful flowers hanging over the railings. For many people, where their outside space is limited, such as on a balcony, there is a preference for longer-lasting plants that will provide colourful flowers outside their windows. Whereas at ground level, where the open areas are often small and shaded by ever-taller buildings and garden walls and often squeezed between parking spaces, the right shade-loving plants can offer attractive long-lasting low-maintenance ground cover with a wide variety of foliage options. They may even offer small moments of colour, but overall, they are mostly green.

The above Text and all Photographs are copyright of Wincenty (Wicek) Sosna. Please contact SeeHow for permission to reproduce in any way, in part or as the complete text.

Mostly Green

Late September

Brown Only