Plants for purpose: Plants for acidic soil

Camellias are such beautiful shrubs to have in the garden and this variety is no exception. It’s an extremely hardy evergreen with shiny bright leaves and seems to be one of the most popular and easy to grow.

Its flowers are multi-petalled crimson in a ruffled, peony shape, appearing late winter and continuing into early spring. The narrow upright habit makes it ideal for growing in a large patio container.

Second is another wonderfully easy medium size shrub to grow. The beautiful shaped dark red flowers that bloom in late May to early June will fade to a deep pink if planted in a very sunny spot. Its dense habit makes it great for hedging or screening.

This evergreen compact shrub gets its common name from the masses of white bell-shaped flowers that appear late spring hanging off small tassel-like stems.

This variety also has beautiful silver variegated leaves edged silvery-white combined with bright flame red foliage, making this acid loving plant the ultimate spring showstopper!

I know this shrub is a fruiting crop but it’s a great plant to include in flower borders with other acid loving ornamentals. Not only does it have pretty white flowers in spring, but the leaves turn gorgeous red-yellow shades before falling in the autumn. Plus you get the added bonus of tasty, healthy fruit in the summer!

Next is a plant that’s a great low growing evergreen ground cover for acidic soils. The leaves give off a pleasant scent when crushed and turn shades of red during the winter months.

The small, bell shaped white or pinkish colour flowers that are characteristic of many acidic loving plants turn into red berries from late autumn.

Oh, the joy of seeing a Japanese maple in all its autumn finery. They are real fire crackers, with some varieties showing bright crimson leaves in autumn/winter but also in spring.

Then, on some cultivats such as ‘Sumi-nagashi’, the leaves change colour again in summer to a deep maroon red.

Growing well in full sun, this enhances the vivid red leaf colour, but do remember to place it out of direction of strong winds.

This is a great choice if your soil is only slightly acidic and you don’t have an overly large garden. The gorgeous dark purple-red flowers appear at a younger age than most other magnolias and will flower through the summer into early autumn.

They appreciate moist soil, so adding a layer of leaf mould or well-rotted manure to the soil around the base of the tree in spring will help the tree stay healthy and happy.

When you’ve got leaves as lovely as this plant has who needs flowers? This undemanding shiny leaved evergreen shrub grows in neat shape making it a great addition to an architectural garden.

The lance-shaped leaves are mottled with cream and pink, with striking colouring.

Next is another easy going, undemanding evergreen plant with strap like arching green leaves and dark maroon coloured stems with bright violet flowers late summer to mid-autumn.

Not only will it grow well in acid soil, but it will also tolerate being grown in a dry shady position. There aren’t many flowering plants that will cope with all those setbacks, making it a great plant to add to that difficult part of the garden.

No list of plants for acidic soil would be complete without talking about heathers; dwarf, bushy evergreen shrubs that love full sun and acidic soil.  This series come in a wide range of bright reds, pinks and whites and are very low maintenance; just lightly clip the lower stalks after flowering