AT BBC Gardeners’ World Live in Birmingham, Alan Titchmarsh started on the subject of clay. Those with clay soil often despair that they’re unable to dig it in really wet weather when it becomes so sticky and gluey it resembles a quagmire, while at the first sign of hot weather it goes as hard as rock and even the strongest gardener won’t be able to get a fork into it. Of course, you can improve heavy clay soil by digging in as much well-rotted organic matter as you can and adding plenty of gritty horticultural sand to help drainage. Clay soil doesn’t drain easily and tends to become waterlogged in persistent wet weather. Alan, however, says clay isn’t all bad and that as a general rule don’t try to fight the conditions, but make the most of plants that are happy growing in your type of soil. Clay particles hold in nutrients, so the more clay and humus there is in the soil, the more nutrients it can hold. This means that clay is actually among the most fertile of soils. He says: “Willows love damp earth and clay. Salix daphnoides (Violet Willow) can be grown like dogwood. Chop it down in February and it will grow new stems, providing winter colour and foliage in spring. It’s fast- growing and will reach 8ft in each season.” Other great shrubs Alan recommends for clay include Viburnum ‘Pragense’, a rounded evergreen type with narrow, textured leaves and clusters of pink buds which open to white flowers in late spring. Euphorbias, spiraeas, rodgersias and, of course, roses, will all thrive in clay soil. “There’s the wonderful Rosa rugosa – the flowers look like crepe paper, don’t get mildew or blackspot, make waist-high informal hedges and have hips following the flowers,” Alan adds. Other plants which do well in clay soils include Choisya ternata (Mexican orange blossom), Hydrangea paniculata, Kerria japonica, Mahonia x media ‘Charity’ and Weigela ‘Kosteriana Variegata’. While clay may be one problem, shade is another, but there are plants which will survive the most inhospitable situations. Hostas love shade and you can buy copper collars to place around them to prevent slugs and snails chomping their way through the young shoots. Another exotic-looking plant which loves shade and needs relatively little maintenance, says Alan, is the fatsia, with its bold, glossy leaves. If the frost catches it, just chop off the damaged leaves and strong new growth should soon appear. If you have dry shade, look no further than Acanthus mollis, commonly known as bear’s breech, a perennial which will cope well with drought and poor soils. “It’s an architectural beauty with towering, stiff spikes of purple-hooded, white or pink flowers above good, glossy green leaves,” Alan adds. Some bamboos will also thrive in shade, but make sure if you have limited space you buy the clump-forming varieties rather than those which spread rampantly and are then extremely difficult to dig up. Phyllostachys nigra, black bamboo, which reaches a height of 5m (16ft), is a brilliant clump-forming type – with arching canes which turn black after a couple of years – and looks wonderful in a modern, minimalist setting. It can also be grown in large containers if they are not allowed to dry out, but needs some direct sunlight to ripen the canes fully. Blue bamboo, Himalayacalamus hookerianus ‘Himalaya Blue’, which grows to 6m, is perfect for smaller gardens, adding tall interest to shady areas, with its blue-green stems. Look carefully and you will find a wider range of all-weather plants than you first thought. | 
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