Cait's Garden

As much as I love perennials, a garden would not be complete or successful to me without a strong base of shrubbery. Flowers are fickle and very seasonal. Shrubs and evergreens form the backbone that make my yard look complete and lush. While my patio is surrounded by flowers, the back and sides of my yard are anchored with shrubs. Our ugly chain link fence (inherited, not built by us) is camouflaged along the back of the yard by a line of Arborvitae. In front of those are Golden Vicary Privets because I love their bright lemon-lime foliage, a Dwarf Burning Bush for its fall color, and then Bridal Veil Spirea, Wine and Roses Weigela, and Limelight and Pinky Winky Hydrangeas for flowers all summer. Along the sides of the yard are Honeysuckles, Pussy Willows, Lilacs, Black Chokeberry bushes, even more Hydrangeas (Annabelles and Limelights), some Rose of Sharon, and a Ruby Spice Summersweet.  The new trend is to mix small shrubs directly into perennial beds. Many of the new dwarf hybrids are custom-made for this. So far, I have added Buddleia, Caryopteris (Blue Mist), Rose of Sharon, and Hydrangeas into the flower garden, as well as the new Orange Rocket Barberry. I have been pleased with the way they’ve filled out and grounded my flower beds. In fact, gardeners who don’t want to deal with perennials could do quite nicely designing with nothing but shrubs.

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While snapping some photos of the garden for inspiration for this blog, I happened upon this shot which made me appreciate the variety I’ve got going on, both in shape and color. In the foreground, you can just see the top of some pink Pentsemmon (or Beardtongue), followed by the fun bottle-brush-shaped purple Stachys (or Betony), followed by the out of this world red pom-poms of Mars Midget Knautia, then the pure punch of the Orange Pixie Lily. Way in the fuzzy background, you can just make out lots of purple Rozanne Cranesbill and orange Butterfly Weed.

Once again, I am reminded to look at the big picture, not sweat the small stuff. And the big picture is a really neat variety of plants with a good mix of hot and cool colors. This was achieved much like some artists paint. You start with one color and find you need a hint of something else. So you look for another color on your palette. And so on and so on. Every year, I look at my garden, see what’s missing, what could be better, and I adjust. Sometimes, happy accidents occur, like the ones shown in this photo! My advice is to go out with your camera every few weeks in the summer and take photos of your yard. You may be surprised at what you’ve got, or inspired to add something new.

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Tomato Soup, Ruby Star, Coconut Lime, Pink Double Delight, Summer Sky, Sundown, Fragrant Angel, Fatal Attraction, After Midnight, Green Jewel, Mac ‘N’ Cheese, Paradoxa, Hot Papaya, Twilight. Colors of paint? Nope. Colors of coneflower! When I started my garden a decade ago, coneflowers came in two standard colors, purple and pink. Since then, a veritable explosion of new hybrids has occurred. It seems every color under the sun is available, and if it’s available, there’s a good chance I have it! Yes, it’s true. I’m just a girl who can’t say no to Echinacea. They really are a great flower. Sturdy, profuse blooming, able to tolerate the worst of our summer heat, and even food for birds. All this helps me justify the expense because these babies can cost a pretty penny at the garden center. Some people are addicted to clothes shopping; I am addicted to coneflowers. C’est la vie!

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I make no secret of the fact that I am a gardener due to my mom’s influence (and genes). This photo shows just the tiniest corner of her patio, but already a few great design ideas are present. She’s got season-long bloomers like Carefree Delight roses and Rozanne Cranesbill, mixed with the bright pop of Coreopsis and Lychnis, mixed with fabulous annuals (in the pot and on the trellis). She threw in a new shrub this year, the bright Golden Pillar Barberry (in the corner), which will grow to be 4 feet tall and only about 16 inches wide. This demonstrates a great new trend of mixing shrubs in with perennials. And let’s not forget the adorable baby bunny cement statue to add whimsy. Way to go, Mom!

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One of the pleasures of gardening is being able to show your garden to visitors. Sadly, not all visitors care as much about flowers as we do. But every now and then, you get a truly lovely compliment from a guest and it validates all your efforts. That happened to me this week. A visitor praised my garden for its variety. She said she enjoyed that it looked like a wildflower garden instead of something very structured. Since that is what I am hoping to achieve, that was high praise indeed. Sure, I plan some things. I consider plant height, sun/water needs, colors, and bloom time when I decide what and where to plant. I make sure something is blooming at all times in every section of my yard. But other than that, I buy flowers that please me and I don’t worry about whether they match anything else. I think that’s the secret to a true wildflower-look garden. Planned randomness!

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I can’t resist a new kind of salvia, so when I saw this beauty a couple years back, I snapped it up. Which is fortunate, as I’ve never seen it in the store again! (The fact that it shares the name of a Prince song is just a bonus that makes me laugh.) This plant is just as hardy as any salvia, but has unique “pom-pom” flower formations and rounder, curlier leaves than traditional salvia. Perhaps its rock star name refers to its looser, more free-flowing growing style. There is nothing rigid and upright about Purple Rain! This plant is just fun to own.

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I admit it, I am not a fan of daylilies. I have limited garden space and they have too big of a footprint. Plus, I’m not a fan of their messy, spidery foliage. Instead, I have successfully turned my focus to Asiatic and Oriental lilies (such as the adorable “Orange Pixie” shown at left, a dwarf Asiatic lilium now in bloom in my garden). I have several dwarf lilies in orange, red, pink, and white, as well as a 4-foot showstopper of an Oriental Lily called “Royal Sunset.” The benefit of these plants (other than the huge blooms, tropical colors, and heady fragrance) is their neat and compact foliage. They rise up on narrow but hardy stems from between their larger, messier garden mates, bloom fabulously, and then stay relatively incognito the rest of the summer. No matter how crowded your garden, believe me, you have room for these! I hope to add more next season.

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I added a dash of frugality to the pots of flowers by my front door. I splurged on some lovely, large geraniums and reddish colored leaves. But I was left with the feeling I needed a splash of yellow-green, too. Instead of going back to the nursery for sweet potato vines, I turned instead to my favorite perennial filler plant, Feverfew (see May blog entry), which is the same color. I have so many clumps of feverfew in my yard, it was easy to find a couple to use in my planters. They give the perfect dash of color, and when the season is over, I can put them back into my garden.

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“Red Baron” Grass (also called “Japanese Blood Grass”) is a fabulous, easy to grow ornamental perennial. Unlike large clump-forming grasses (such as Miscanthus and Fountain) which require much maintenance due to die-out in the middle, each blade of Red Baron Grass grows individually out of the soil, fresh, every year. So what you get is airy, elegant, foot-long blades of bright green grass tipped with red that become fiery red-gold in autumn. Fairly slow-growing (I started with a small clump and six years later, that clump is about  two feet wide), it’s easy to pull out unwanted stalks or to divide. It is, however, difficult to find in the store, so grab it when you see it, or ask a friend who has it to donate some!

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This perennial geranium was named the Perennial of the Year in 2008 and it’s deserving of that honor. Unlike old-fashioned cranesbill, which pretty much blooms once a season, Rozanne blooms from late May until frost. Best of all, it is very heat and sun tolerant. It grows in mound form to about 18 inches high and up to 3 feet wide, so leave some room for it. I have seven of these in my yard because they rock!

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