Recommend some plants for a rockery

NIMAN

I dug out a couple of hefty trees from an area of my garden,and have also dug an area to turn into a planted area.

I'm looking for recommendations for plants or bushes to put in.

Looking for a varied selection, with as much colour as possible.

The areas about 20ft x 5ft

looksee

Is it a rockery, or a herbaceous border, or a shrub border you are looking for?
Which direction does it face (how much sun does it get)?

NIMAN

I would call it more a shrub border.

I must check the sun it gets tomorrow. I know it gets a lot of late afternoon and evening sun, but not sure about midday-ish onwards. House may block it.

NIMAN

So it seemed to get the sun for most of the day, ideal I suppose.

Now, any recommendations?

Lumen

Got a pic of the area to show it in context?

looksee

A shrub bed in full sun gives you loads of options, and while its understandable that you would like just a list of plants to choose from, there are almost too many! So you need to give a bit more thought to what you are trying to achieve.

First you will probably have to improve the soil a bit, having taken trees out. I would also be a bit inclined to leave it until growth starts to see if there are any briers, ivy, bindweed, or other perennial nuisance weeds that will be hard to get out once you have planted.

Then you need to decide what height and width you can allow/would like your biggest shrubs to achieve, this depends on the size of the border. If your structural planting is too big it will crowd out the rest of the plants, if it is too small it will look bitty and boring. So how big is the border - back to front width being most significant.

What is behind the border, are you working up to a hedge, or a fence or a wall? A pic would be good, as Lumen says.

Do you want 'designed' or 'cottage garden'?

How much attention do you want to give it, regular pottering or leave it and let it get on with it? The second one isn't entirely an option, you will have to do some work, but there are still things like pruning you would have to consider.

I prefer to build a bed by buying a few plants then filling in gaps with annuals or bulbs or the easy bits you see in the supermarket, then as I see more plants that I really like, and see spaces that they would suit, I evict some of the the temporaries and gradually fill with things I really like. It gives me an excuse to visit garden centres! Or you may wish to use the system that tv gardeners use - go and buy a load of plants all at once and do instant gardening!

Sorry, I know this isn't a list of plants but there is so much choice that you need to know what you are aiming for.

Lumen

Don't forget to manage the available light, taking into account aspect and height.

Lots of colourful plants love the sun, and you only have so much of it!

Also, if the bed is away from a boundary, try and keep enough space around the planting so that you can see through it, around it, or under it, or else your garden will look smaller.

macraignil

I've heard that one strategy for picking plants for the garden is to go to a garden centre each month of the year and get something that looks good at that time so after a year or more of this you should have some plants to look good at all times of the year. Started making a playlist of shrubs in my garden if you want suggestions from what is after flowering so far this year.