But this is not at all what I wanted to talk about, its the all too common phrase you find on most plant lables and in books and magazines 'requires fertile well drained soil'.
Since I am gardening on heavy clay actually worrying about this would have left me with a rose garden bare of all other plants.
But, I don't worry about it too much and guess what, plants are far more resiliant then given credit for. Ok, they grow somewhat slower then they would otherwise, but since I pack them in quite close, I think that's an advantage rather then a problem.
So the conclution is that you need to experiment, if there's a plant you like, buy a small one and try it out, in most cases it will succeeed rather well. Yes, even the notorious Japanese Maple does very well in clay soil.
Below is an image of one of my favourites - Acer Palmatum 'Kamagata' growing in, yes, heavy clay soil, in it's third year.
