The choice of plants for the roof garden should be well thought out. Robust plants that tolerate a lot of sun are particularly in demand here. Find out below which plants are suitable for the roof garden and what you should pay attention to when making your selection.

Shrubs, grasses and low plants create a meadow-like ambience

Extensive versus intensive green roofs

Green roofs come in different strengths, i.e. with different amounts of soil. With extensive green roofs, the layer of soil is only 5 to 24 cm thick; With intensive green roofs, the height of the soil layer is at least 25 cm and can be up to one meter thick. This allows the planting of almost all perennials, grasses, shrubs and even small trees. Therefore, the term roof garden is actually only used when it comes to intensive roof greening, since the choice of plants is very limited in the case of extensive roof greening. Sedum species, low-growing grasses and cushion plants are mainly cultivated here.

What to look out for when choosing plants for the roof garden

In principle, all plants can be grown on a roof garden, but you should pay attention to a few things when making your selection:

  • Pay attention to the location requirements of the plants
  • Do not plant overgrown plants
  • Make sure all plants are well hardy
  • Keep plants that are not hardy in the bucket
  • Plant plants that are as hardy as possible
  • Do not plant deep-rooted trees or shrubs, the strong roots of which could damage the root membrane and thus the roof
  • When growing vegetables, make sure you are good neighbors

Beautiful trees for the roof garden

If you would like natural shade on your roof garden, you can plant low-growing, shallow-rooted trees. These include:

  • crabapple
  • field maple
  • Cinnamon Maple
  • service pear
  • Copper Rock Pear
  • different birch species
  • yellowwood
  • Japanese Flower Dogwood
  • cornel
  • Japanese cornel
  • quince
  • hawthorn
  • Wing Spindle Shrub
  • gingko
  • Flower Ash

Ideas for combinations and choice of plants

Grasses are often planted on roof gardens: They are robust, easy to care for, usually very hardy and look very decorative. Plant a nice mix of ornamental grasses and flowering plants and shrubs on your roof garden. Roses also do well in roof gardens. With bamboo or Chinese reed you can create a beautiful, natural privacy screen and why not plant some strawberries or lettuce too? Create paths of mulch (€239.00) or gravel between the beds.

Category:

Garden design