Which plant in your garden have you found to be the most useful?

Has to be the common primrose, not the brightly coloured ones, but the pale buttery yellow, I find it flowers early in the year and is so pretty quite often find it flowering through the the year too.

Eupatorium purpureum (Joe Pye Weed) is my most useful plant. We have a large garden so being suited to prairies it needs no staking or maintenance. It's late flowering and adds plenty of interest to the border when everything else is going over. Provides plenty ofnectar for wildlife and good for cutting as well.

Its Primroses for me too, I love them and have lots they just brighten up the garden for a few weeks after a dull dark Winter. I have a mix of Cowslips, Primrose(pale yellow) and Oxlips I much prefer the Primrose to the other two.

All perennials- but perhaps the best are the cranesbill geraniums- got so many different ones and just love them. I Chelsea chop them all the time so all are in flower all along Summer.

Oh I thought you meant USEFUL and I was hard pressed to decide between the mint, the rosemary, the sage, the chives, the thyme, the tarragon or the parsley

I'm sitting having my and looking at possibly the most useful plant in my garden.
It's Rhododendron Pink Pearl and I had it in a pot in the patio at our last house, brought it here 29 years ago and planted it in the shady border and it has done this every year ever since

Golden hop, covers fence in no time but dies back in winter. Also perennial geraniums, wonderful ground cover.

I thought "useful" too and was going to say beetroot which always does well here .And the local climbing beans (Tarbes). We even have colorado beetles on the potatoes - it's a battle.
But for flowers, definitely santolina, which has thrived in spite of the extreme weather conditions we get. Mixed borders hardly exist here, all in pots, only things like rosemary santolina, lavender survive in open beds. Geraniums in pots are the favourite.

Sorry for the thread title confusion. I meant 'useful' as in keeping the garden looking halfway decent for the most length of time.

I agree about the primroses. Approximately 44 years ago we (DH, 18 month old DD and I) went on a picnic deep in the Oxfordshire countryside. We did the, now unthinkable, thing of digging up a couple of primrose plants and putting them in the garden. Would definitely never do such a thing these days! They 'took' and we've been blessed with primroses very year since.

We've got cowslips too and, yes, they were acquired in the same way. No one told you not to do it back then!

Longest length... Not 'most'. Sigh!

You are not the only one jingl.
i once stopped the car,got out my handy trowel and took a small piece from a swathe of purple hardy geraniums growing on a bank near Ulverston.

I have subdivided them many times since then and given lots away too. They aren't out yet or I would post a pic.
MrA was mortified as he claimed I was visible from a nearby laboratory and the scientists were looking at me.
He still refers to it occasionally, 30 years on.

You could say it was conservation ja.

I have too, many a time. I imagine that, like me, you'd make sure you took some from an arey where there are 1000s, and you just take a little clump here and there...

Also divided and given away so many to friends- and received some back in return too. (very different to nicking some very carefully planted in a park or public amenity though).

My dad brought us a daphné taken from the wild here in Switzerland, for our Midlands garden. It was my prize possession for about 20 years- but one year it died. Never had another one since. They grow wild here and I just love to see them in bloom in the snow, and the smell is wonderful.

Once we visited the grounds of my bil's business and the gardener had dug up all the day lilies from the beds- to weed and replant later. My bil was quite annoyed that I took a little clump ... but now about 40 years and 4 gardens later- I've still got several good clumps, and have given much to neighbours and friends- and some has even found its way back to the UK and bil's garden. Still a family joke today.

I just love wild meadow daisies- and intend to go and get a few clumps for our field- again will take from an area where they are so plentiful and take a few bits here and there discreetly. Yes conservation I'd say.

I thought of several and then popped outside for a minute and realised that I'd completely forgotten the Lantana Camera. It flowers almost all year round, the flowers are multicoloured and some years it seems more pink than yellow and sometimes a deep orange. I usually take it for granted but I cut it right back this year, (more of an Algarve attack than a Chelsea Chop!) and it has only just started flowering again. I hope it will do as well as last year and double its size by the Autumn.

If the photograph posts it was taken on December 24 last year.

Oh good.
jingle did you have good weather in Porto?

I have a neighbour who has a large lantana and it always surprises me as we live in a very cold area and lots of snow in winter.

dustyangel Yes! We were so lucky. Three days of warm sunshine. I love Porto! I want to be there now!!!!

Geums. They come into flower well before the roses are out and look spectacular for ages. Currently, Mrs Bradshaw is making an exhibition of herself alongside geum rivale 'Leonard's Variety'. By the time they die down, the climbing rose will be in full flower to take over the show. Also Erysium Bowles Mauve, which just flowers it's head off right through the summer.

Any tips jingl- where did you stay?

I love Geums. I'm building up quite a collection of the 'Cocktail series'

If I replied in 2 weeks, it would probably be another one- and 2 weeks later another- and 1 months ago something else!

Love the primroses, the pale natural yellow ones- and also the cowslips. There are tons in the passage next to the Church and I did take a few little clumps over the years.

At the moment, it is the peonies, both herbaceous and the tree ones- the dark crimson with yellow centre I brought over from UK is massive and the flowers ginormous. The other 2 I planted about 4 years ago I actually flowering for the first time- pale pink.

Next month will probably be the phlox in several colours- much Chelseya chop tomorrow.

I love Pieris, specially Forest Flame for it's bright red spring foliage. It's also evergreen and needs no care whatsoever.
I felt so lucky to have inherited a couple of healthy specimens with this house after leaving some behind with the previous house.

I'd vote for Heucheras, in their infinite variety, because they just keep on giving. Current favourite is Caramel, which has looked good enough to eat right through winter.