Tagetes patula 'Aurora Yellow Fire’
Zones: Annual
Height/Spread: 6 to 12 inches tall and wide
Exposure: Full Sun
Bloom Time: Spring through mid-fall
Color: Yellow flower with red-orange center highlights
12. 'HERME' (also known as 'Hikarungenji')
13. ‘ANITA’
A favorite at Leu Gardens. Large, semidouble, light pink flowers, striped with carmine red. The shrub is compact but very vigorous and upright—a good garden plant.
11. ‘PINK PERFECTION’ (also known as C. rusticana ‘Otome’)
The grand lady of the Southern garden and a classic pink camellia for any garden. Long bloom season. Shrub is large (to 15 feet tall), open and upright. A must have if you like old-fashioned varieties.
10. ‘MADAME DE STREKALOFF’
Bright pink streaked in deep rose pink; upright gold stamens offer a crisp contrast to delicate cup-shaped flowers. Shrub has a handsome rounded form of medium height (8 to 10 feet).
9. ‘IMURA’
Robert Bowden says, “I’m a sucker for the graceful, fluid lines of this flower with its semidouble snow white, long, narrow petals that almost look like porcelain.” Branches are somewhat pendulous with long, narrow, glossy dark green leaves, finely serrated.
8. ‘GRAND SLAM’
Brilliant bright red flower with golden, upright stamens. Received an Award of Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society in 1975.
7. ‘SHOWTIME’
Clear light pink, semidouble flowers.
6. ‘BOUTONNIERE’
Cute little miniature flower with flowers shaded from deep red on the outside to pale pink and white-streaked petals at the center. Very slow-growing shrub.
5. ‘MATHOTIANA’
Perhaps the most elegant camellia at Leu Gardens. Flowers nearly defy description: 5-inch-wide cerise-red blossoms composed of full-bodied individual petals. Flowers remain on the plant for a very long time, eventually taking on a bluish cast on the edges. A bold and robust shrub with large leathery leaves and an open, strong branching habit.
4. ‘ALBA SUPERBA’
Medium-sized white, semidouble flowers on a very vigorous, upright shrub.
3. ‘MARCHIONESS OF EXETER’
Very profuse bloomer, very full and showy. The flower is a complete double with cupped individual petals, soft rose in color with just a hint of velvet red.2. ‘MRS. D.W. DAVIS’
Originated by D.W. Davis in the small north Florida town of Seffner, first bloomed in 1951. It easily has the largest flower buds of any camellia—often reaching the size of a golf ball. Blush pink flowers are very delicate, sometimes reaching 6 inches across.
1. ‘PROFESSOR SARGENT’
In Florida one of the first japonicas to bloom in fall. An excellent red camellia with densely petaled, compact blooms. The deep crimson flowers are globular with an incredible solid, compact, curved center with a dozen or so wide, slightly rumpled “guard” petals.
At Leu Gardens camellias are given enough space to reach their optimum size. ‘Professor Sargent’ is typically upright and grows 12 to 15 feet tall.
Dock Holiday Bench
$979
Vintage tropical boatwood ensures this will be a conversation piece in the garden. All the furnishings from EcoChic are handcrafted from Southeast Asian fishing boats. PS- there’s also Dock Holiday Chairs!
Available from EcoChic Lifestyles
Set of 5 Handcrafted Walnut Garden Tools
$290
You can bet these tools will be cherished and used for many seasons to come. Each tool is built using traditional blacksmithing techniques—pretty cool!
Available from Boxhill
Bird Feeder
$250
Designer Margaret Joplin was featured in our Autumn 2014 issue, and ever since we can’t stop thinking about these bird feeders. Their style is one that even the birds will appreciate!
Available from Design Collaborations
Save the Redwoods Seedling
$75
For almost 100 years, Save the Redwoods have been working to save and plant more Redwoods in California. You can help by donating, and a seedling will be planted.
Available from Save the Redwoods League
18” Wreath
$60
This leafless manzanita wreath (with lichen) is from the forest floor of the mountains of Washington State. Now you won’t have to go forage the perfect wreath yourself!
Available from Ravenna Gardens
Blue Coast Planter
$50
Each cork planter from Newd is assembled and painted by hand, making it a unique gift. We’ve seen them at Dwell on Design the past few years and have noticed that by the end of the day they barely have any planters left!
Available from Newd
Gift Membership to the Garden Conservancy
$50
The Garden Conservancy helps preserve and share gardens. Their Open Days Program celebrates gardens across the country and opens them up for tours—attending one is so fun and inspiring! There are many free or discounted events with membership.
Available from Garden Conservancy
Gift Subscription to Garden Design magazine
$45
Delivered four times per year, this design-and-photography-packed ‘bookazine’ has no advertisements, so your friend will enjoy 148 pages each season. Your friend will see inspiring gardens, learn about plants, and think about how thoughtful you are, four times a year!
Available from Garden Design magazine (that’s us!)
DECCO Más with Jucunda
$35
We first met Stabiles in Palm Springs, CA, for Modernism Week a few years back. We loved their setup—think of a food truck full of airplants and art! This fun wire air plant holder comes with a plant, so it’s a great hostess or office gift.
Available from Stabiles
Herb Garden Recipe Box and Cards
$34
Store all your treasured recipes in one botanically inspired space. Recipe cards and dividers are included, and you can tuck in all your favorite Kevin Lee Jacobs recipes you’ve printed from his blog.
Available from Rifle Paper Co.
Floral Pattern Arm Saver Gloves
$30
Who doesn’t want to feel pretty while in the garden? These gloves go up past the wrist to help save from scratches and soil getting inside. P.S. Womanswork also offers a pretty $3 gift box for the gloves!
Available from Womanswork
Gift Membership to Seed Savers Exchange
$25
This is the prefect find for that gardening friend who is hard to shop for. With the Seed Savers Exchange membership, you’re able to find/swap/buy seeds through a network of likeminded gardeners.
Available from Seed Savers Exchange
Gardenista: The Definitive Guide to Stylish Outdoor Spaces
$25
This book is brand new and inspiring! Featuring beautiful gardens, planting guides, and design ideas, it would look great sitting out on the coffee table, too.
Available from Amazon
Elephant Planter
$19
There are many planters from Potted around the Garden Design office, and these elephants will soon be part of the collection. Your modern, animal-loving friend will adore these.
Available from Potted
Hosta “Humpback Whale”
$19
Do you tend to pick plants based on their name? Why not have a humpback whale in your garden? This easy-care plant is good in Zones 4 through 10 and attracts hummingbirds. Know a hosta collector? They whale love you for this as a gift (get it?)!
Available from Avant Gardens
BP7100 Forged Dual Cut Bypass Pruner, 1
$19
Seen in the pages of Garden Design magazine, these pruners from Corona Tools are perfect for the weekend pruner.
Available from Amazon
Papaver sp. Tote Bag
$18, $22 $24
We love the art of Kellie Cox! She teaches art classes at Tudor Place, and her art is even on a recycling truck in Washington, DC. Now you can take botanical art to-go with this sturdy tote bag.
Available from Society6
Drawing Nature Hardcover Journal
$16
This nature journal by artist Jill Bliss would be great to start off 2017 with. Hot tip: If you’re on Instagram, follow her (@jill_bliss) for Pacific Northwest musings and inspiration.
Available from Buy Olympia
Wildflower Seed Balls DIY Kit
$16
Fun and simple: Pick the region, create your own seed balls, plant, and wait for the pollinators! Great project to do with the kiddos.
Available from Seedles
Lavender Hand and Body Lotion
$16
This lotion is everything for dry gardening hands. If you put together garden-inspired gift baskets, this should be a staple. Bonus: It’s cruelty free!
Available from Amazon
The Little Book of Bonsai by Kathy Hughes
$11
There’s something about the size and feel of this book, combined with all the useful tips and history of bonsai that makes it feel special. Have a friend who’s always interested in trying something new? They’ll love this!
Available from Amazon
Two highly fragrant Spencer varieties, ‘Oban Bay’, silvery blue, with ‘April In Paris’, cream flushed with lilac.
Filling the canning jars—cut flowers must go straight into water to stay fresh
Cut flowers are placed in canning jars and delivered in antique milk carriers—a Keating signature style that suits their old-fashioned charm.
A mix of blues, purples and creams is Sue’s favorite combination
cut flowers ready for sale
Sue Keating cutting flowers with Jackie Nunez
A midblue Cuthbertson
A red Spencer; the tendrils help the plant climb
The difference between flake and stripe types is subtle—but stripes tend to have a colored edge to their petals.
The lime-yellow flowers of L. chloranthus are small but profuse. This species does well in heat and looks spectacular with other Mediterranean plants
‘Fandango’, a flake type, comes in a mix of shades
Organic growing methods are preferred at Sweet Pea Gardens, so aphid-eating ladybugs are a vital part of the pest-control program.
Daughter Maggie Keating, aged 6, is a budding entrepreneur and loves to try her hand at making bouquets for sale, as well as lemonade.
The Keating family home in Surry, Maine, looking through copper trellises built by Sue’s husband, Patrick.
Always among the first bouquets to go is this mix of blue forget-me-nots, green Nicotiana langsdorffii and pink Lathyrus latifolius (everlasting pea).
Sue Keating in the doorway of her flower shop.
A blue-flowered strain of the same group, which Ken Druse developed.
A. caerulea, the Rocky Mountain columbine.
If isolated in the garden, species such as North American favorites Aquilegia canadensis, shown, from the East, and A. caerulea, the Rocky Mountain columbine, will remain true
The variety of columbine shapes and colors is astonishing even within a single group of hybrids. Shown here is delicate white Aquilegia vulgaris.
Druse’s strain of blended hybrids yields flowers in shades of pink, lavender and pure white.
A two-color hybrid that resembles A. formosa, the West Coast native, might possess some of its genes.
An early-blooming strain self-sows within a carpet of spring daffodils and blue Phlox divaricata.
Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Aureovariegata’, another selection of European species, has green leaves mottled yellow that fades to white and pristine white flowers. After blooming, cut the plant back for a flush of brilliant new foliage.
One color from the ‘McKana Hybrids’ mix.
Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) is native to the Southeast. Photo by: Thomas Hovland/Grant Heilman.
A native of ponds and water margins, this showy iris is also happy in containers under an inch or so of water.
This perennial grows 3 to 10 feet tall and can form large colonies. Birds love the seeds.
Flourishes all over the Southeast in the acid conditions of pine woodland. The pink-to-white flowers are strongly scented and are the first of the azaleas to bloom, starting in late March in upper Florida. It grows 10 to 12 feet tall.
A deciduous shrub of woodland edges that reaches 6 to 12 feet tall with glossy, dark green aromatic foliage. The bizarre dark red flowers with their many straplike petals are also fragrant. Garden cultivars are less likely to be aromatic.
This deciduous small tree grows up to 30 feet tall, but its leggy, upright habit is easily contained, and the showy white flowers, which appear over a long period, make it a good specimen shrub. The fall foliage turns burnished shades of mahogany and orange.
In spring, cascades of scented yellow flowers are one of the sights of the Southeast, from Virginia to Florida. A twining evergreen vine, jessamine is easy to grow.
The nodding, delicate flowers are borne on branched stems and vary in color from white to deep violet.
Scarlet tubular flowers are scattered along the ends of 3-foot stems. Attractive to hummingbirds.
A spiny shrub with unbranched green stems growing up to 20 feet. Vivid red flowers attract birds.
Hundreds of stems can form dense mounds. Red fruits are produced as well as flowers.
This slow-growing spiny cactus reaches 4 feet high and produces yellow flowers in April-May.
The showy white and pink striped flowers rise above neat rosettes of fleshy leaves.
Smooth, sensuous trunk, bright fall berries.
Fragrant flowers, purple currants, edible when dry.
This evergreen shrub has anemone-like fragrant flowers, glossy leaves and attractive peeling bark.
CALIFORNIA LILAC
Ceanothus in peak bloom in April in shades of blue (and the less common white) is an unforgettable sight, and there are many outstanding garden cultivars of the wild forms.
This open, spreading shrub grows to 12 feet in dry, well-drained soil. The large yellow flowers make showy masses from May to June.
Mimulus Calypso hybrid) Although not the pure species, this mimulus hybrid flower retains the distinctive shape and vivid speckling of its wild ancestor. It prefers sandy, gravelly soils in a sunny spot.
This showy lily bears up to 20 flowers per stem.
A perennial that bears rows of nodding white flowers above fernlike foliage.
This bizarre woodland plant prefers shade and damp, rich soil.
Likes plenty of sun and moist soil. The 30-inch flower spikes attract butterflies and hummingbirds.
A blaze of blue and white in spring, this tough but beautiful plant colonizes well-drained, alkaline soils.
A short-lived perennial that is easy to grow. It self-seeds and can colonize large areas.
CARDINAL FLOWER (Lobelia cardinalis) Likes plenty of sun and moist soil. The 30-inch flower spikes attract butterflies and hummingbirds<;/p>
Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis ‘Vulcan Red’) is native to Texas. Photo by: Clive Nichols/G.P.L.
Prickly pear cactus (Opuntia sp.) is native to the Southwest. Photo by: Andrea Jones.
,Rocky Mountain columbine (Aquilegia caerulea) is native to the Rocky Mountains. Photo by: Susan A. Roth.
Red trillium (Trillium erectum) is native to the Northeast. Photo bcasy: Rob Cardillo.
‘Winnifred Gilman’ Cleveland sage (Salvia clevelandii ‘Winnifred Gilman’) is native to California. Photo by: Mark Bolton/G.P.L.
Choose from hundreds of heirloom corn varieties. Photos by: D. Cavagnaro
LEFT: ‘Jarrahdale’. Photo by: D. Cavagnaro. RIGHT: ‘Red Kuri’. Photo by: D. Cavagnaro.,
LEFT: ‘Soldacki’. Photo by: Saxon Holt. RIGHT: ‘Russian Persimmon’. Photo by: Saxon Holt.
LEFT: ‘Eva Purple Ball’. Photo by: Rob Cardillo. RIGHT: ‘Yellow Ruffled’. Photo by: Saxon Holt.
Assorted heirloom tomatoes in an astounding range of colors, sizes and shapes. Photo by: D. Cavagnaro.
Yoshino cherry (P. x yedoensis). Photo by: D. Cavagnaro.
Double-flowered Higan cherry (Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis'). Photo by: Mark Turner.
Parkinsonia בDesert Museum’ (‘Desert Museum’ palo verde)
This thornless palo verde is a three-way cross between Parkinsonia microphylla, P. florida, and P. aculeata. Native bees are attracted to the bright yellow flowers that bloom throughout spring. The tree can reach 25 feet in height. For best results it needs full sun, well-drained soil, and a restrained hand with watering. Dr. Mark Dimmitt from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum was the first person to bring this plant to everyone’s attention.
Larrea tridentata (creosote bush)
Gass says that the native solitary bees evolved with the creosote bush. Foliage is especially aromatic after a rain. The shrub has an open habit, getting 6 feet high and 8 feet wide. Yellow spring flowers are followed by fuzzy seedpods. Full sun and well-drained soil; will grow fast and lush with more water. Native throughout the southwest.
Concoclinium greggii ‘Boothill’ (syn. Eupatorium greggii, Gregg’s mist flower)
Fuzzy lavender flowers are irresistible to queen butterflies. A good perennial groundcover that grows to 2 feet high and blooms from spring until late fall. Give it full sun or part shade and gravelly soil. Native to Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and northern Mexico.
Beloperone californica (syn. Justicia californica, chuparosa)
A shrub native to the Sonoran desert with succulent stems that grows approximately 4 feet high. Red tubular flowers that bloom from spring until fall are hummingbird magnets. It’s drought resistant but thrives when given a little extra water.Asclepias subulata (desert or rush milkweed)
This 4-foot perennial has creamy yellow flowers that pop up from spring through fall on upright, almost leafless, gray-green stems. The flowers attract butterflies, hawk moths, and tarantula hawks. Needs full sun and can handle reflected heat. Native to parts of California, Arizona, and New Mexico.
A Sense of Place: The Life and Work of Forrest Shreve
By Janice Emily Bowers (1988, The University of Arizona Press)
From $30 at Amazon
“Bowers is an amazing author,” Gass says. “I got a ton of good stuff out of that book. Other people might think it’s heavy because she doesn’t write with a lot of emotion, but she writes excellent descriptions.”
Gardening Success with Difficult Soils
By Scott Ogden (1992, Taylor Trade Publishing)
From $24 at Amazon
“A good book for someone who starts digging in this southwestern soil and says, “Man, this isn’t what it was like back in Iowa! What do I do now?’” Gass says. “Scott comes to people’s aid here.”
Yard Full of Sun: The Story of a Gardener’s Obsession That Got a Little Out of Hand
By Scott Calhoun (2005, Rio Nuevo Publishers)
From $23 at Amazon
Tucson-based Scott Calhoun writes about how to transition into desert landscaping for people who have moved here from other places and how to make these desert plants work in the garden.
Cool Plants for Hot Gardens
By Greg Starr (2009, Rio Nuevo Publishers)
From $23 at Amazon
Greg Starr owns Starr Nursery in Tucson, Arizona. “In the book, he does a great job of describing the plants he helped bring into the trade: how they can be utilized, what their care requirements are, and everything about them from A to Z,” Gass says.
Put the patio and tools to bed Wipe down patio furniture with mild soap and water, and store in the garage or garden shed. Scrub excess dirt from garden tools and oil the metal parts to prevent rust. Store tools in a cool, dry place. Disconnect hoses and drain for storage, and cover faucets and hose bibs with insulating material to keep them from freezing. Here are ten tools most used by the experts
Take stock
Make a list of what worked well in the garden, and what could use fine tuning. Is a key tree getting too big? Did design elements such as hardscaping and plant combinations work together effectively? Think ahead to next year’s projects, such as building a new path, patio or water feature. Find tips for creating an enticing garden .
Protect your pots In colder climates, wash and store ceramic and terra cotta pots in a cool, dry place where they won't freeze and crack. Sturdy metal, stone, fiberglass or plastic pots can be left out and used for fall and winter arrangements. Learn how to add cut stems to containers for high-reaching flair.
Think spring
By late winter, gardeners are eager for any sign of spring. Fall is the time to plant spring-blooming bulbs to fill bare spots in the perennial border, or along pathways where they can be seen up close. Plant scented flowers such as daffodils or hyacinth near your home's front entrance where the fragrance will be most enjoyed. Here are some suggestions for spring-blooming bulbs
Add sustainability
Incorporate eco-friendly practices into your fall cleanup routine. Instead of bagging fallen leaves to be hauled away, finely shred leaves with a mower and layer or work them into beds to enrich the soil. Add leftovers to the compost pile. Winterize compost by insulating with a thick layer of leaves or straw to trap the heat that is generated as organic matter breaks down. Cover with a permeable cloth to allow moisture in and to keep material from blowing away. Discover more tips for enriching your soil .
Support wildlife
Rather than cutting back all of your perennials now, leave plants with seed heads, such as coneflowers, asters and ornamental grasses to provide food for your feathered friends through the harshest months. Make sure your garden includes native trees and shrubs with late-season berries, such as hawthorn, viburnum and beautyberry for seasonal color as well as additional food for wildlife. Find trees and shrubs with berries .
Renovate beds
Now that the weather is cooler, it's a good time to divide and move perennials. Do this at least several weeks prior to your average first hard frost in order to give plants time to recover from transplant shock and establish new roots. Cover garden beds with several inches of mulch for extra winter protection. Get ideas for incorporating perennials .
Bargain hunt
Check out your local nursery for end-of-the-season bargains. More expensive trees and shrubs are often discounted so that nurseries don't have to carry extra inventory through the winter. Plant new specimens as soon as possible and keep them well-watered until they go into dormancy. Get expert plant picks for your fall garden .
Extend the season
If your yard doesn't already have one, install a fire pit or small portable fire bowl to take the chill off cool fall evenings. Place the fire pit on a patio or in a backyard area where there's already seating. Take time to gather around with family and friends to toast marshmallows and reminisce about summer. Find out more about fire pits .
Celebrate autumn
Replace tired-looking summer annuals with mums, ornamental kale and grasses. Arrange pumpkins and gourds around the yard and home, and decorate lamp posts and arbors with dried cornstalks. Cut branches of cotoneaster and beautyberry to adorn your dining room table for festive harvest dinners, or stick the branches into year-round outdoor containers for extra seasonal color. Get more ideas for dressing up the fall garden .
Eupatorium maculatum ‘Bartered Bride’. Photo by: Rob Cardillo.
E. purpureum ssp. maculatum, spotted Joe Pye weed. Photo by: Alan and Linda Detrick.
The gravel garden was originally planned as a heat sink to trap the warmth of the sun and radiate it back to plants that didn’t grow well in the shaded river valley. Here the yellow and orange tones of yarrow mingle with lavender, thyme and the burgundy globes of Allium sphaerocephalon. The soil mix is half crushed stone and half clayey loam. Most of the plants went in during the summer of the worst drought. Druse worked hard to get them established, before water-use restrictions were in place. A year later, he is finding that the garden will not need watering at all, thanks to the tolerance of the plants. That is, of course, unless the region experiences another serious drought. Photo by: Ken Druse.
One teaspoon of polymer crystals makes a generous bowlful of water-holding gel. After digging a planting hole, Druse mixes the hydrated crystals into the excavated soil and backfills deep around the plant. This helps new plants get established and cuts down on future watering. The crystals work well in containers, too. Photo by: Ken Druse.
The system of buried soaker hoses laid out in a new border before planting. Photo by: Ken Druse.
The 72-foot-long native stone wall around the gravel garden was built in a reverse question mark shape by Ken Druse’s neighbor, Chris Hagler. As the wall was being built, Druse inserted seedlings in tube socks of soil. He found this method helped to develop a good root system, which is vital to survival. Sempervivum (hens and chicks) and sedum flourish in dry nooks and crannies where other plants couldn’t survive. Other plants that do well are campanula, alpine dianthus and Phlox subulata. Photo by: Ken Druse.
Lilacs We don’t think of lilacs as being drought-tolerant, but have you ever noticed those 100-year-old stands of Syringa vulgaris by the roadside near old houses? These often grow on rock outcrops — sometimes right on and in old dry-laid stone walls.
Mulleins New ones seem to appear every year like ‘Jackie’ and ‘Helen Johnson’. But, these plants are not very permanent for me. I’ve had better luck with the strain ‘Southern Charm’, although it does not have the wonderful colors — cantaloupe to coffee-brown — of the flashy newcomers. Look for old-fashioned verbascum, too, and V. phoeniceum varieties. These biennials or short-lived perennials usually have to be started from seed, which can be sown outdoors, in situ. Verbascum enjoys the warm, dry conditions of a gravel garden.
Tulips If you want cool perennial tulips, grow species types, such as Tulipa kaufmanniana and T. tarda, among others. These plants are gorgeous, and with a built-in water-storage device, the bulb, they are drought-tolerant.
Sedum Sometimes known as “live forever.” There are some North American native sedum among many hardy species and varieties for the garden.
Sempervivum Known as hens and chicks, these succulents form rosettes of tight growth that become surrounded by baby plants as they grow—hence the name. They are monocarpic—they bloom and die, but by then chicks are making chicks of their own.
Mediterranean foxgloves, with tiny leaves and often brown flowers, can really take it dry, as their homeland is among rocky cliffs, fragrant brush and goats. That brush is often thyme, sage and lavender — small-leafed Mediterranean herbs that can take low moisture. In fact, if you use too much water with some, they will lose their fragrance.
Euphorbias (spurge) hold moisture, in the form of white latex, in their stems, and they can get along well between waterings. Many will grow in very poor soil or a rocky spot. Beware: Some people find the white sap in the stems irritating.
Dianthus (pinks) come from rocky regions of the world, such as alpine areas of the United States. Some form a tight bun of foliage with little, single, fragrant carnation-like flowers above the bun. Here’s a tip: The tinier the foliage and the more silvery the leaves, the more drought-tolerant the pinks will be.
Asters Nearly all will survive without extra water. Some, such as Aster tartaricus, are surprising. This plant tops out at 6 to 8 feet. It has large leaves and stout stalks. In September and October, mine produces dozens of magenta flowers (there are cultivars with “better” color). The plants spread a bit into a colony. My plants receive around six hours of direct sunlight, but, in spite of their height, I have never had to stake them. Since they settled in their first year, I have never watered them.
Sylphium, Helianthemum, Rudbeckia, Echinacea and Ratibida Like other meadow and moist-prairie plants, all these have daisy-like flowers and deep roots to help them through the tough times. Some of the sylphium, such as the wonderful prairie dock, spend years with few leaves showing as roots may go down 20 feet or more in search of moisture.
Achillea (yarrow) is another plant with tiny foliage. It will do poorly without hot, baking sun and deep but infrequent watering. Once established, plants that grow in poor soil in nature can take drought.
Annual sunflowers and sunflower relatives grew up in tall grass prairies of southern North America. The plants send down deep roots and are used to high winds and low rainfall—two elements that keep prairies prairies. Try also annual phlox and zinnias.
Portulaca is a succulent, actually a member of the same family as jade plant. Since the leaves hold moisture, this plant actually prefers drought.<\p>
Morning glory can wilt and come back time after time. These plants prefer water, but have you ever seen one growing in an old shoe—someone’s idea of a container? They can take drought.
Larkspur and nigella (love-in-a-mist) look very similar coming up from winter-sown seeds. The fine leaves look almost like dill. I have to warn, though, that if not deadheaded, nigella is a rampant self-sower, albeit easy to weed out.
Lilacs We don’t think of lilacs as being drought-tolerant, but have you ever noticed those 100-year-old stands of Syringa vulgaris by the roadside near old houses? These often grow on rock outcrops — sometimes right on and in old dry-laid stone walls.
Bearded iris ‘Thornbird’, despite its delicate appearance, is a good drought garden plant because it goes dormant during the arid summer months.
T. ‘COLUMBINE’
Although true blue isn’t in the tulip’s spectrum, purple is well-represented. And this 1929 Rembrandt type features the color purple in all its nuances, streaked over snow white. Staged when shock appeal is the best tool to break out of the doldrums, the drama of unfolding is part of a tulip’s titillation. With ‘Columbine’, the outer petals dramatically part to reveal more white within.
T. ‘ ORANGE FAVOURITE’ br > The ruffled petal edges as well as the fiery combination of orange with green blotches and a yellow base in the petals are the keeping qualities of this simmering 1930 introduction. Parrot tulips can be weak, so it was the strength of the bulb that also rendered it worthy. Plus, ‘Orange Favourite’ inherited a divine aroma reminiscent of freesias — the sort of antidote you crave in spring.
T. ‘ROYAL SOVEREIGN’ (‘CHARLES X’)
It was the short, stout, cup-shaped form inherent in the Rembrandts that won hearts in Holland as much as the streaks of color in each petal. Although the introduction date for this Rembrandt type is lost to history, its ruby rays against a brilliant yellow background were incentive for the preservation of this “golden oldie.”
T. ‘ZOMERSCHOON’
Because certain tulips are emblazoned with brush strokes of color, they were dubbed “Rembrandts” in 1925. Sparking Tulipmania, striped (or “broken”) tulips were the darlings of the Dutch, the most sought-after (and expensive) versions being those with strong contrast. This striped sensation in scarlet and white (often described as strawberry and cream) was originally introduced in 1620, later to be reclassified into the Rembrandts. Due to its disarming charm and strength, it’s still available on the tulip market.
T. ‘ TEMPLE’S FAVOURITE ’
Not only do the plus-size petals of this flaming starlet prove that big is beautiful when it comes to tulips, but the subtle nuances of color from mustard through to magenta with hints of purple render this Single Late tulip, first introduced in 1984, worthy of preservation. Part of its charm is the flared petals.
T. ‘ BLUE FLAG’
The oldest Double Late variety in cultivation, this light violet peony look-alike dates back to 1750 or before, and it remains a stunning example. With a tutu of petals and an extended staging, it became an instant sensation in the 18th century. Then why was it forsaken by the bulb industry? ‘Blue Flag’ ran aground commercially because it doesn’t propagate easily.
TULIPA ‘RED HUE’
The Viridifloras are superstars, distinctively marked with greenish flames. At some unknown juncture before 1700, this flamboyant late bloomer became part of the constellation. Although round is what we’ve come to associate with tulip blossoms, this one has pointed petals that unfold in pure green, then begin blushing after opening and progress to searing red. As Joop Zonneveld, curator of the Hortus Bulborum describes it, “every day you have a different flower in your garden.”
In the shadow of a church steeple lies the tulip collection of Hortus Bulborum in Limmen, Netherlands, where the tulip crop is rotated with other historic bulbs. Arranged alphabetically, 2,300 tulip varieties are planted every year for display to the public between April 6 and May 16. For information, go to www.hortus-bulborum.nl.
Possibly an aberrant form of the variegated A. americana. Also sold under the invalid and rather unwieldy name of A. americana ‘Marginata Aurea Monstrosa’. Planted in the ground, it will grow to two feet across and 18 inches tall, but will be somewhat smaller in a container. Very slow growing, so try to purchase a larger, older specimen. Hardy to 25 degrees F.
A solitary agave (it does not form offsets) recently discovered in Mexico, three to five feet tall and four to six feet wide. The chestnut brown marginal prickles contrasted against rich green leaves make it pleasing to view, especially in a location where there is backlighting. Hardy to 10 degrees F.
Some may prefer this as a container plant. Its short, stiff yucca-like leaves have sharp terminal spines that can provide some unpleasant surprises for the unwary gardener. The narrow foliage provides a great texture, contrasting with bolder foliaged plants, including other agaves. Grows to 18 inches wide. Hardy to 15 degrees F.
Since the 19th century, a popular garden plant in Southern California, with creamy golden stripes down the length of the foliage. Its thick guttered six- to eight-foot-long leaves make it a whopper of a specimen up to 12 feet across. Size can be greatly reduced if it’s kept in a container. As with many other variegated agaves, it needs protection from sun during the hottest part of the day, especially in desert areas. Hardy to Zone 8.
A dwarf agave best used in a container. If planted in the ground, it will form a clumping mound over three feet across. Noted for its wispy curled fibers that decorate the leaf margins. Hardy in Zones 9 to 10
One of the nicest agaves for the landscape. Its striking artichoke-like, blue-gray rosettes and clumping habit earn it a prominent spot in the garden. Grows two to three feet tall and three to four feet across. If kept dry, it will tolerate 15 degrees F.
A hybrid between A. gentryi, which is compact with rounded leaves and reddish (very sharp) spines, and A. montana, which is variable but generally has longer, narrower leaves. The two species overlap habitats in Mexico and can naturally hybridize. Shown here is the artistic leaf imprinting at the shoot apex’s bud cone.
The Queen Victoria agave is less than two feet across, perfect for a pot, with striking leaves edged in white. Very slow growing it can take 40 years to bloom. Purchase an older plant to enjoy its mature years. Hardy to 10 degrees F.
‘Lucky White' lantana and ‘Superbells Blue’ callibrachoa are a great combo to attract butterflies such as this one. Photo by: Jan Johnsen.
Crabapples are small-statured ornamental trees known for their fruit. The varieties that have persistent small crabapples, less than three-fourths inch in diameter, can feed birds into the winter. Some bird-friendly cultivars to consider include ‘Sargent’, ’Red Splendor’, and ‘Donald Wyman’. Photo by: Jan Johnsen.
Bees and butterflies love clustered mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum). It has pinkish-white, aromatic flowers surrounded by silver bracts. Blooms August - September. Photo by: Jan Johnsen.
Nothing can alter our mood as quickly as scent. This is because smell goes directly to the limbic section of the brain that controls stress levels, heart rate and blood pressure. Roses are both beautiful and therapeutic! Photo by: Jan Johnsen.
Multi-colored zinnias ‘sing’ in unison on a summer morning. Photo by: Jan Johnsen.
This stunning symphony of groundcovers and ferns is in Phyllis Warden’s garden in Bedford, NY. Red-leaved Perilla contrasts with white and green ‘Jack Frost’ Brunnera (Brunnera macrophylla ’Jack Frost), Japanese painted fern (Athyrium nipponicum pictum) and the lime colored bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis ‘Gold Heart’). Photo by: Jan Johnsen.
The orange and purple found in the ‘Magnus’ coneflower (Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’ ) looks great in the intense summer sun. Photo by: Jan Johnsen.
Low growing boxwood shaped as small globes make a neat and intriguing edge along a stone walk. Photo by: Jan Johnsen.
The yellow and green striped, bold foliage of ‘Bengal Tiger’ canna lilies, above, always steal the show. It contrasts nicely with the white flowers of the PG Hydrangea in the summer. Photo by: Jan Johnsen.
Château de Miromesnil is a historic French monument featuring a castle, chapel, and a century-old beech grove. The classic potager (kitchen garden) is surrounded by an old brick wall and includes a floriferous cutting garden, providing pleasure for the eyes as well as the taste buds. Photo by: Carex Tours.
Château de Miromesnil is a historic French monument featuring a castle, chapel, and a century-old beech grove. The classic potager (kitchen garden) is surrounded by an old brick wall and includes a floriferous cutting garden, providing pleasure for the eyes as well as the taste buds. Photo by: Carex Tours.
England’s renowned Sissinghurst Castle Gardens are the work of poet and writer Vita Sackville-West and her diplomat husband Harold Nicolson. In the 1930s, they fell in love with Sissinghurst Castle and began transforming it into a series of garden rooms and lush, romantic plantings. Photo by: Carex Tours.
Add music to your garden to turn it into the ultimate entertaining spot. In a space like this, wireless speakers that look like stones or blend into the foliage can be used to play your favorite tunes right from your smartphone. Photo by: Mariani Landscape Architecture.
While not an actual rug, the paving pattern on this patio designates the space in front of the fireplace as its own special area. Photo by: Mariani Landscape Architecture.
As night falls, the glow from the fire, as well as the light from the lanterns, will create a soft fanciful
This outdoor dining table is located near the grill and indoor kitchen for convenience. Floral arrangements and well laid out place settings take this gathering above and beyond the typical backyard BBQ. Photo by: Mariani Landscape Architecture.
A fire pit serves as a great spot to enjoy appetizers or post dinner drinks when entertaining outdoors. Pillows and throws make the space more comfortable and inviting. Photo by: Mariani Landscape Architecture.
CAPTAIN ROMANCE®
Going full circle is what the new callas strive to do as far as flower structure is concerned, and Captain Romance® does the perfect pirouette. The flagship of the Kapiteyn collection, this calla’s credentials include candy-pink blossoms overlaid with syrupy vermillion. But really, the process of unveiling each elongated cup is what holds us spellbound. And the beauty of this hybrid is that it blossoms over the long haul. In this instance, romance is recurring.
Found on every continent except Antarctica, orchids amaze with their diversity of forms and colors. See for yourself why these exotic beauties have inspired artists and photographers for centuries by attending the U.S. Botanic Garden’s annual Orchids in Focus exhibit. Photo by: U.S. Botanic Garden.
The secret to success in growing orchids indoors is choosing plants that are best suited to the growing environment. Most orchids will thrive when you expose them to adequate light, keep them cool at night, and avoid overwatering. Photo by: U.S. Botanic Garden.
In this newly planted bed, succulents benefit from well-amended, mounded soil. Photo by: Debra Lee Baldwin.
At my home, this outdoor countertop is a great location for succulents I prefer not to grow in the open garden. Photo by: Debra Lee Baldwin.
At the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, a shade structure protects non-native cacti from frost and scorching sun. Photo by: Debra Lee Baldwin.
Raindrops on an echeveria. Photo by: Debra Lee Baldwin.
In a container with pachyverias and echeverias are delicate-leaved green and yellow varieties of Sedum mexicanum, chartreuse Sedum ‘Angelina’ and Sempervivum arachnoideum (cobweb houseleek). Photo by: Debra Lee Baldwin.
Pumice is a volcanic rock with air pockets that absorb excess moisture and enhance aeration. Photo by: Debra Lee Baldwin.
Cotyledon buds, damaged by aphids, may not open. Photo by: Debra Lee Baldwin.
A map of the different garden types at Seaside Gardens. Photo by: Seaside Gardens.
The Grasslands at Seaside Gardens. Photo by: Seaside Gardens.
Excerpt and photographs reprinted with permission from THE COCKTAIL HOUR GARDEN by C.L. Fornari, copyright © 2016, published by St. Lynn’s Press.
Lighting selected plants and trees from below is a wonderful way to add drama to the garden. Trees with variegated foliage, such as this dappled willow (Salix ‘Hakuro Nishiki’), are especially well-suited for this theatrical lighting because the white leaves are already more visible at night. Photo by: C.L. Fornari.
One of most beautiful white flowers is Hibiscus ‘Blue River II’. Larger than a dinner plate, this stunning perennial is reminiscent of a full moon after dark. Photo by: C.L. Fornari.
Silver foliage calls attention to itself, so it can be tricky to place it so that it blends into the garden. One way of working silvers in effectively is to place them near other plants that are equally attention getting, such as these lilies. Photo by: C.L. Fornari.
If ever there was a plant designed for moonlight, it is Artemisia. Like many in this genus, ‘Valerie Finnis’ spreads but is far more restrained than her rambunctious cousins, ‘Silver King’ and ‘Silver Queen.’ Photo by: C.L. Fornari.
Dusty miller (Senecio cineraria) is a common annual that mixes in beautifully with many other plants. Try weaving its silver foliage in and among other colors, such as in this combination of Salvia ‘Vista Red and White’ and Persian shield (Strobilanthes dyeranus). Photo by: C.L. Fornari.
Words and dates were laser-cut into the steel rings to tell the tree’s story. Photo by: Patterson Webster.
Tree Rings, 2015. A sculpture by Patterson Webster. Photo by: Patterson Webster.
Excerpt and photographs reprinted from THE WATER-SAVING GARDEN by Pam Penick. Copyright © 2016 by Pam Penick. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
Mimic Coral Reefs and Lily Ponds
Massed in a rock garden, a colorful assortment of succulents can imitate an under-the-sea garden so convincingly that a clownfish might feel at home. This is a trick that only those in frost-free climates can pull off in in-ground gardens, but elsewhere you can use container plants and bring them indoors for winter. Look for clamshell-shaped paddle plant (Kalanchoe luciae); frilly echeverias, massed to resemble coral; many-armed squid and octopus agaves; and blue chalksticks (Senecio serpens) for soft-fingered anemones. Or make an ever-blooming, waterless lily pond by planting a bowl-shaped container with a handful of echeverias for the water lilies, mulched with blue glass for the water.
Mat-forming or creeping groundcovers with silver or blue-green foliage create the illusion of a limpid pool and make good lawn alternatives too. Try woolly stemodia (Stemodia lanata), with silvery green leaves; lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina), with pettable, fuzzy foliage; and silver carpet (Dymondia margaretae), whose silvery white leaves lie flat on the ground. For a meandering stream, choose a long-blooming, small-to-medium-sized perennial with blue or purple flowers, and mass it by the dozens in a winding ribbon. Good candidates include blue false indigo (Baptisia australis), ‘May Night’ salvia, and lavender.
With pendant limbs, weeping trees bring to mind the water-loving weeping willow, which grows along streams and ponds. What a trick, then, to use that drooping form to fool the mind into imagining a nearby creek or pool in a dry garden! Try weeping acacia (Acacia pendula), a dry-garden doppelgänger of the weeping willow; weeping yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria ‘Pendula’), whose stiffly draped, evergreen branches are bedecked with scarlet berries in winter; and weeping mulberry (Morus spp.), whose curtain-like branches sweep the ground.
Cascading plants create the illusion of a spilling waterfall, especially when planted atop walls, where their flowing habit can be shown off to greatest advantage. Choose creeping groundcovers like silver ponyfoot (Dichondra argentea); sprawling perennials like prostrate rosemary; and grassy clumpers like spaghetti-leaved Texas beargrass (Nolina texana). Many succulents, too, evoke falling water: the steady, moss-green drip of string-of-pearls (Senecio rowleyanus); the splashing effect of upturned leaves on string-of-fishhooks (Senecio radicans); and the rivulets of bottlebrush-textured burro’s tail sedum (Sedum morganianum).
Choose plants with an arching or vase-shaped form to introduce a fountain effect in a dry garden. Planted singly, rather than en masse, fountain-shaped plants gain power through contrast with other forms, like mounds, cones, or sprawling groundcovers. Try appropriately named fountain grass (Pennisetum spp.), prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis), and purple moor grass (Molinia spp.). Strappy yuccas, phormiums, and cordylines have “spraying” forms too.
Make Waves with Grasses
Mass grasses to create a sense of watery movement, especially on breezy days. For low ripples, try meadowy sedge (Carex spp.) or plains-native buffalograss (Bouteloua dactyloides). To conjure the illusion of billowing waves, use taller ornamental grasses: cloud-like bamboo muhly (Muhlenbergia dumosa), rosy love grass (Eragrostis spectabilis), and cotton candy-colored Gulf muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris).
Learn how to take the “rabbit's eye view” of perennial gardening, getting down to observe plants at ground level to gain an understanding of their lifecycles, longevity, and reproduction. Photo by: Noel Kingsbury.
Kingsbury aims at helping you understand the connections between perennials as wild plants in their natural environment and as garden plants, helping you select the right plants for your landscape. Photo by: Noel Kingsbury.
Get personal instruction from a world expert in perennial planting by enrolling in the online course Planting Design with Perennials, taught by international garden writer Dr. Noel Kingsbury. Photo by: Noel Kingsbury.
The sunny, nectar-rich flowers of Superbells Saffron calibrachoa contrast beautifully with the bronze foliage of the fuchsia and the broad, deep purple leaves of ‘Tropical Bronze Scarlet’ canna.
These vibrant colors of this container show off especially well against the broad, deep purple leaves of the ‘Tropical Bronze Scarlet’ canna. Alternatives include ‘Lucifer’ or ‘Red Futurity’ canna or another 18- to 24-inch-tall, upright plant with nectar-rich flowers, such as ‘Acapulco Red’ hummingbird mint or ‘Lady in Red’ Texas sage.
The primary spring interest in this collection comes from the dark foliage of ‘Gartenmeister Bonstedt’ fuchsia. Alternatives include ‘Thalia’ fuchsia or another 12- to 18-inch-tall, upright plant with bell-shaped or tubular flowers, such as ‘Dwarf Red’ flowering maple or ‘Ruby Glow’ starflower.
The red, tubular-shaped flowers of the cigar plant are especially intoxicating to hummingbirds. Alternatives include ‘Profusion Fire’ zinnia or ‘Vancouver Centennial’ zonal geranium.
‘Bonfire’ begonias feature delicate trumpet-shaped blooms and jagged red-edged leaves. Alternatives include Bonfire Choc Red begonia or another 6- to 8-inch-tall, low-mounded trailing plant with nectar-rich flowers, such as golden hardy fuchsia or ‘Summer Blaze’ verbena.
This Hummingbird Haven collection displays a bounty of beautiful blooms through early fall, providing an abundance of nectar for hummingbirds to feed on before they leave for the season. Excerpted from Container Theme Gardens (c) Nancy J. Ondra. Photos by: (c) Rob Cardillo. Used with permission of Storey Publishing.
This evergreen species has upward-facing, yellowish blossoms (unique among fuchsias) and eye-hadow-blue pollen, but the flowers are small, and the prostrate, creeping plants rarely reach more than 4 to 5 inches off the ground. Native to sandy banks on the New Zealand coast, this unusual fuchsia forms 2- to 4-foot-wide mats of heart-shaped leaves, and is a good candidate for a hanging basket. The flowers are sometimes followed by thumbnail-size pink fruits.
Sometimes called the candy fuchsia, this vigorous species, with long, pendulous multicolored flowers, can become a shrub in its native habitat. A fall and winter bloomer, it stores water in its roots and may drop its leaves during dormancy.
This small, spreading shrub is similar in habit to F. microphylla ssp. aprica, only with white flowers. Both subspecies have attractive, glossy green leaves.
This vigorous species can reach 24 feet in the wild, and about half that in cultivation, with a spread of 18 feet. This species is known for its large clusters of flowers up to 10 inches across. While resistant to fuchsia gall mite, F. paniculata hosts the pest; beware of placing it near susceptible varieties.
This little-leaved variety of the species has small pinkish red flowers, less than half an inch long. This is a good choice for pot culture; even small plants grown in small containers will still cover themselves in blooms.
Sometimes called the flame fuchsia for its bright orange-red flowers with chartreuse tips, this species (like many fuchsias) is a favorite of hummingbirds. A deciduous winter bloomer, it typically reaches 3 to 4 feet tall, and has tuberous roots that store water during dry seasons.
In its native Brazil, this beautiful evergreen can be a compact shrub or climb up to the tree canopy. In cultivation it reaches 6 to 12 feet, and is a good choice for topiary or hanging baskets. Unpruned it can be a scandent climber. Small flowers, less than an inch long, are abundant.
Fernwood Botanical Garden’s spring symposium will share unique approaches to creating sustainable and distinct garden settings. In this image, the Martin D. Gapshis Memorial Garden at Fernwood greets symposium visitors with its formal planting of lavenders, boxwoods, and trellis work with an espaliered pear and climbing roses. Photo by: Fernwood Botanical Garden.
"Dream Team's" Portland Garden Garden Design Calimesa, CA, The view from Ione and Emmott Chase’s home juxtaposes the drama of Mount Rainier’s snow-covered peak with the near landscape’s gentle swaths of Erica carnea, lawn, and old-fashioned Pfitzer juniper. Photo by: Marion Brenner.
1 "Dream Team's" Portland Garden Garden Design Calimesa, CA The rock garden features dwarf and alpine plants that would be lost in the expanses of the meadow garden. Throughout the property, Ione favored hardier plants — such as the Aquilegia vulgaris, Armeria maritima, and Erysimum sp. (dwarf wallflower), all shown here — that could take care of themselves when she and Emmott went to their Canadian cabin for two months each summer. Photo by: Marion Brenner.
Madrone trees underplanted with New Zealand flax line the path to the front door.
At night, lighting unites house and garden.
An olive tree provides Mediterranean flare, while the yellow, velvety flowers of kangaroo paw add a playful touch.
Wall seats allow plenty of space for sitting in the sun and enjoying aromatic plants like lavender and rosemary.
Tip: A friendship posy makes a beautiful and thoughtful gift. Use flowers and herbs that convey meaning and a message, including coral rose for longevity, freesia for innocence, stock for lasting beauty, narcissus for cheerfulness, rosemary for remembrance, and lavender for luck. Photo by: Teresa Sabankaya.
Tip: For an ultramodern look, angle in flowers so that all of the stems go to one side of the vase, says Cylinder. Stick to a monochromatic palette, and keep flowers grouped by type for a sleek look that works with any type of flower. Photo by: Carly Cylinder.
Tip: For an ephemeral pop of color, Chapman suggests adding a bright orchid bloom to your arrangement. To create this tiny jewel box garden, insert the orchid stem into a water tube. Place a begonia and fern, still in their original grow pots, inside the box. Tuck in a few air plants and, finally, the tubed orchid bloom. This beautiful arrangement takes only minutes to assemble. Excerpted from The Plant Recipe Book by Baylor Chapman (Artisan Books, Copyright © 2014). Arrangement by: Sophie de Lignerolles. Photo by: Paige Green.
Grow a tasty culinary garden with tips from the head gardener of the legendary French Laundry restaurant shared in the Early Spring issue of Garden Design magazine. Photo by: Meg Smith.
A handy list of colorful ephemerals in the Early Spring issue of Garden Design magazine will help you renew your spring garden. Photo by: Dana Gallagher.
Whether you have a large collection of bud vases or are just starting out, bring them out of hiding, group them, let them mingle, and enjoy your eclectic collection, as showcased in the Early Spring issue of Garden Design magazine. Photo by: Pia Clodi.
Bearded irises are just too good to overlook with their mind-boggling array of colors and color combos and hybridized new comers unfurling in the Early Spring issue of Garden Design magazine. Photo by: Ngoc Minh Ngo.
The gnarled trunk of a specimen olive tree planted on a raised mound emerges from a meadow of lavender and yucca in a Mediterranean garden in the Bay Area showcased in the Early Spring issue of Garden Design magazine. Photo by: Claire Takacs.
The gnarled trunk of a specimen olive tree planted on a raised mound emerges from a meadow of lavender and yucca in a Mediterranean garden in the Bay Area showcased in the Early Spring issue of Garden Design magazine. Photo by: Claire Takacs.
The gnarled trunk of a specimen olive tree planted on a raised mound emerges from a meadow of lavender and yucca in a Mediterranean garden in the Bay Area showcased in the Early Spring issue of Garden Design magazine. Photo by: Claire Takacs.
The water feature is a Hall-Behrens original, centered around a craggy stone she chose because it reminds her of the scholars’ rocks used in Chinese gardens. A tall, rusty-metal screen with perforated panels serves as backdrop to the black powder-coated pond built of steel.
Woodwardia unigemmata (Oriental chain fern) is a quintessential Hall-Behrens plant, chosen for its large, long, textural fronds, as well as the bronze-red shading of its new growth.
Hall-Behrens built pathways of crunchy gravel for permeability and a casual aesthetic. She used the larger ?-inch size because it looks “beachy” and stays put better. The steel edging repeats the steel aesthetic elsewhere in the garden, and keeps both gravel and the larger Mexican pebbles in place.
A matte-black pot holding Tradescantia pallida ‘Purple Heart’ paired with gray-green Melianthus major, outlined in compact hedges of bristly Corokia cotoneaster, fragrant Trachelospermum jasminoides (star jasmine), Pieris ‘Cavatine’, and masses of Oxalis triangularis to echo the purple of the Tradescantia.
Oversized terracotta pots on steel stands, planted with Astelia ‘Red Edge’ and begonias, flank the back steps.
The rusty-steel fence has perforated panels for transparency, and is softened by plantings of variegated Miscanthus ‘Cosmopolitan’ and M. ‘Cabaret’. “The balance of plants to hardscape is important to me,” says Hall-Behrens. “I want the finished space to feel inviting—with living spaces surrounded by lush plantings.”
A hedge of Taxus baccata var. fastigiata and clumps of variegated Symphytum x uplandicum ‘Axminster Gold’ (Russian comfrey) flank a hut for garden viewing. Covered, cushioned, and crafted of zinc-coated steel, it was built by a friend, the only structure in the garden that Hall-Behrens didn’t design herself.
A black-and-green color scheme unifies the plantings. Hall-Behrens repeats colored foliage plants like Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ (black mondo grass) and Choisya ternata ‘Goldfingers’ for contrast. Layers of evergreen hedging lend coherence to the scene, from the Vaccinium moupinense at the base of the Metapanax delavayi tree (left foreground) to the Euonymus ‘Green Spire’ along the back fence line
Hall-Behrens loves the feel of walking among tall plants, and using a mix of contrasting foliage colors and textures. A stone-studded gravel pathway edged in steel leads through columnar Italian cypress, splays of hardy Musa basjoo (Japanese banana), and sweeps of Hakonechloa macra ‘All Gold’.
An inviting patio outside Lauren Hall-Behrens’ back door is surfaced with concrete pavers. Sleek, comfy couches she designed using black powder-coated aluminum and cushions covered with Sunbrella fabric in canvas coal furnish the space. The arbor-like structure outlines the patio, extending the home’s architecture into the garden
JMMDS designed this ipe deck, which sits in the one sunny spot in the garden, as an extension of the upper deck and steps of the same material. The design of the table, also by JMMDS, was intended to echo the round steel water element near it. “Every detail matters in a small space like this,” notes Messervy.
The north-facing living wall at the home’s front entry is planted with shade-tolerant perennials. Plants include ferns, such as Polystichum acrostichoides and Dryopteris erythrosora ‘Brilliance’; and groundcovers, such as Cornus canadensis, Epimedium x rubrum, Gaultheria procumbens, and Polygonatum humile. The wall, built and installed by g_space and Philly Green Wall & Roof, is a modular stainless-steel system of panels made up of 6-inch-deep angled troughs manufactured by Green Living Technologies International.
The seed heads of Chasmanthium latifolium (northern sea oats) provide texture to the garden almost year-round. This is one of many shade-tolerant native plants JMMDS incorporated throughout the property.
This tranquil meditation hut, designed by Wolf Architects, Inc., overlooks plantings like liriope, creeping Jenny, hellebore, ginger, Clethra alnifolia, and ferns, and is in earshot of the calming sounds of water. Water from the hand rill falls into this circular steel pool in front of the meditation hut and then flows into a curving rill to recirculate over a fountain of stones.
This steel water element functions as a bubbler, a soothing feature for the owners to enjoy. From here, water circulates to the hand rill along the steps, and to the larger pool at the meditation hut. The curves of the hand rill and steel edging were precisely planned; Messervy explains that they had to “connect to each other and visually sing back and forth.” Steel work fabricated and installed by artist Peter Andruchow and sculptor Richard Duca.
A stairway of weathering steel and permeable pea gravel equipped with a “hand rill” (a hand rail that functions as a water rill) was designed to link upper and lower gardens and maximize the space between the home and the neighbor’s fence. The stairway is fl anked by plants tolerant of fi ltered light: Aruncus dioicus (goat’s beard), Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’, Lamium spp., and Aster divaricatus (white wood aster).
For this home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Julie Moir Messervy Design Studio (JMMDS) fitted the entryway with pervious paving. The verdant green wall, planters on either side of the garage, and plantings above the entrance create a welcoming and relaxed ambiance that fits the home’s modernity. House designed by Wolf Architects, Inc.
These six large-scale pieces of public art will be on display amidst beds of roses at the 2016 Chicago Flower and Garden show. Photo by: (Top left, clockwise) ‘Chicago Peace Tree’ by Nicole Beck, ‘Looking Up’ by Michael Young, ‘Facilitated Spark’ by Dusty Folwarczny, ‘Night in Tunisia’ by Ron Gard, ‘The Turtle, The World, The Garden and Bullwinkle’ by Mike Helbing, and ‘Dream Seeker’ by Shencheng Xu.
The mysteriously colored Weeks Roses varietal ‘Cinco de Mayo’ rose with its blending of smoked lavender and rusty red-orange color will be on display among more than 1,200 roses at the 2016 Chicago Flower and Garden Show at Navy Pier, March 12-20. Photo by: Weeks Roses.
Roses from the popular Downtown Abbey Collection by Weeks Roses will be on display at the 2016 Chicago Flower and Garden Show with three varieties including the 2016 introduction ‘Pretty Lady Rose’ (pictured) and two new 2017 introductions ‘Violet’s Pride’ and ‘Edith’s Darling’ which are currently available only in limited supplies, and only at specialty Independent Garden Centers. Photo by: Weeks Roses.
These six large-scale pieces of public art will be on display amidst beds of roses at the 2016 Chicago Flower and Garden show. Photo by: (Top left, clockwise) ‘Chicago Peace Tree’ by Nicole Beck, ‘Looking Up’ by Michael Young, ‘Facilitated Spark’ by Dusty Folwarczny, ‘Night in Tunisia’ by Ron Gard, ‘The Turtle, The World, The Garden and Bullwinkle’ by Mike Helbing, and ‘Dream Seeker’ by Shencheng Xu.
The entry court, as viewed from inside, shows the dimension of time a garden can offer a modern house with a mix of antique paving materials and stone containers, and plants that evoke historic landscapes: olive trees, clipped hedges, topiary shrubs.
In the sitting garden, much like an indoor room, the carpet of cobbles defines the gathering zone where the owners and their friends enjoy cocktails before dinner. The controlled, neutral palette allows several materials—old and new stones, mid-century tubular bronze chairs with cord seats—to join in harmony. The Walter Lamb chairs are from Modern One, the limestone table is from Charme d’Antan, and the oak sculpture is from Roark Modern.
Beside the swimming pool, polished Dalle de France limestone from Exquisite Surfaces meets tumbled Del Rio gravel. Round, glazed vintage garden stools act as small tables or extra seats among the crisp rectangular, recycled-wood loungers by Carlos Motta.
Simple contrasts spark garden interest: in a front-court vignette, Shrader edged a seventeenth-century stone water trough, once used for livestock, with elegant, sheared boxwoods and ‘Blue Glow’ agaves. Filling the entry with the welcome sound of water, the trough features a bronze spigot from La Maison Francaise Antiques, Inc that’s a replica of an old French fountain spout.
The built-in banquette’s concrete base is the color of the house but is smooth-finished, with a limestone cap that’s wide enough to hold drinks. Shrader also designed the wood-block table in teak to match the home’s trim. Prunus caroliniana ‘Compacta’ (compact Carolina cherry laurel) hedge forms a screen behind the built-in lounge. The radial growth pattern of the Dracaena draco (dragon tree) adds drama.
To keep the garden from feeling crowded, Scott Shrader tucked a lounge into a corner, leaving strolling space around an olive tree. Black porcelain tiles and a dark quartz finish keep the modern pool simple
Aloe thraskii (tree aloe) appear in the sitting garden; boxwood globes echo the shapes of the agaves. Bits of seashells mixed into the home’s stucco and gravel link the house to its grounds.
In the cobbled entry court, Aloe barberae (tree aloe) rise from a stone pot nestled among ‘Blue Glow’ agaves
Coloring structures in the garden, a trend Susan Cohan says hails from Europe, create a vibrant background for setting off plants in the garden. Photo by: Susan Cohan, APLD.
A tapestry of agaves, jade, aloes, barrel cactus, and variegated elephant bush beckons visitors down a stone-lined path in this enchanting succulent garden. Photo by: San Diego Horticultural Society.
During the 2016 spring garden tour, hosted by the San Diego Horticultural Society, tour nine residential gardens showcasing the divergence of San Diego horticulture, including this secluded paradise with a breath-taking display of palms, bamboo, Mediterranean plants, and fruit trees. Photo by: Barbara Raub.
Colorful succulents and bromeliads thrive in this Hawaiian-inspired hilltop garden. An imported teakwood wall, a koi pond, numerous rare plants, and exotic statuary are some of the other highlights of this artful garden. Photo by: San Diego Horticultural Society.
Nestled among eucalyptus and pine trees, this East Del Mar garden was once bordered by lawn. Faced with the challenge of reducing water usage by 35%, the owner is transitioning to a lawn-free, drought-tolerant landscape. Photo by: San Diego Horticultural Society.
A diminutive member of the iris family, only 4 to 6 inches tall, Iris cristata forms mats of slender interlocking rhizomes on the soil surface, often in limestone-rich habitats. As with many irises, this one requires good drainage. Dainty lavender flowers with a yellow beard emerge in April and last into May. Zones 4 to 8.
With bright-pink buds morphing into sky-blue tubular flowers dangling from 1- to 2-foot stems, Mertensia virginica is one of the showiest spring ephemerals. Often found along moist stream banks and wooded floodplains, Virginia bluebells can also occur on loamy upland sites. Though the plants have a substantial look, the show is brief, emerging in March and vanishing in May. Zones 3 to 8.
Also called fawn lily and dog-tooth violet, Erythronium americanum forms low-growing colonies of brown-speckled foliage topped by yellow flowers with recurved petals. Emerging from underground corms, plants with twin leaves will flower; those with single leaves are sterile, though they should flower in subsequent years. A similar species, E. albidum has white flowers. Zones 3 to 9.
A prolifically blooming wildflower native to much of the Southeast and Midwest, Stylophorum diphyllum is a poppy relative, with 3-inch, crepe-paper-textured flowers and distinctively lobed blue-green foliage. Hairy-looking pods can drop a multitude of seeds, which are carried off and “planted” by ants, which relish a fatty appendage on the seeds called an elaiosome. Zones 4 to 8.
Longer blooming than many spring wildflowers, Aquilegia canadensis can flower into July, after which it dies back to a thick underground stem. Naturally occurring in a range of habitats — from gravelly slopes to rich deciduous forests across the eastern half of North America — columbine’s long-spurred, pendulous red and yellow flowers make it a good hummingbird plant. Zones 3 to 9.
Perched like laundry on a line, the quirky flowers of Dicentra ucullaria dangle from arching stems above mounds of blue-green ferny foliage. Just below ground, this ephemeral’s small fistlike clusters of pinkish bulblets will break apart and reproduce to form large colonies in woodlands from Nova Scotia to Kansas. Zones 3 to 8.
The white-petaled blossoms of Sanguinaria canadensis pop above the leaf litter and unfurl early, a supportive leaf wrapped around each delicate stem like a shawl. Once the flowers are finished, the gray-green leaves overtop them to shield the developing seedpods. When cut, the gnarly rhizomes exude a red juice, used by Native Americans for face paint and medicinal purposes. Zones 3 to 8.
Also called by the quaint names whippoorwill flower, toadshade and wake-robin, Trillium cuneatum is a long-lived member of the lily family, with its parts in threes (petals, sepals, leaves). The deep-maroon flowers rest atop foliage mottled dark green and gray-green, and are sweetly scented. Other trillium species have faintly foul aromas, all targeted to insects like gnats, which are the pollinators. Zones 5 to 9.
A relative of cyclamen with the same swept-back petals, Dodecatheon meadia occurs across the eastern half of the U.S.—from New York to Texas—in glades, wooded slopes and prairies. The 1-foot flower stalks emerge from ground-hugging rosettes of oblong leaves. Typically the blooms are white in the Southeast and pinkish in the western parts of its range. Zones 4 to 8.
“El Patio Fuente,” one of 20 magnificent display gardens at the 2016 Northwest Flower & Garden Show, celebrates the influence of early Spanish settlers with a classic Spanish Mission-style courtyard that serves as an elegant transition between indoor and outdoor rooms. Photo by: Northwest Flower & Garden Show.
“The Tiny Tetons” emphasizes visual depth in the garden by creating varying elevations of boulders, specimen tree, and drought-resistant wild flowers and grasses. Photo by: Northwest Flower & Garden Show.
Inspired by the city of Seattle, “A Room with a Garden View” features a conservatory room with a meandering bluestone pathway, a “beach” made of crushed granite, and an unusual pergola constructed of wooden pegs. Photo by: Northwest Flower & Garden Show.
The symposium will be held at the Woodstock Inn & Resort in Vermont, which is beautiful in spring. Photo by: Woodstock Inn & Resort.
Stefani Bittner with The Homestead Design Collective will be one of the speakers discussing edible gardening, with her presentation on the low-water edible garden.
In the presentation “Lose Your Lawn! Water-Wise Design Strategies,” Nicole Woodling Douglas with Douglas Landscape Design will share her tips for creating a lawn-free garden. Photo by: San Francisco Flower & Garden Show.
Kate Frey with Kate Frey Sustainable Gardens will offer a presentation on creating a bee-friendly garden. Photo by: San Francisco Flower & Garden Show
Billy Krimmel with Restoration Landscaping Co. will discuss restoring urban ecosystems through landscaping in one of several new Mini-Courses offered at the 2016 San Francisco Flower & Garden Show, taking place March 16-20 at the San Mateo County Event Center. Photo by: San Francisco Flower & Garden Show.
To harvest rainwater, some of the gardens feature attractive catchment designs that resemble meandering creeks. Photo by: Philip Oakley Otto.
To harvest rainwater, some of the gardens feature attractive catchment designs that resemble meandering creeks. Photo by: Philip Oakley Otto.
A variety of garden styles and sizes are represented on the tour, including container gardens and lawn-free succulent gardens. Photo by: Philip Oakley Otto.
“California is home to more than 6,000 species of plants, many of which have flowers gorgeous enough to rival the rose,” says tour coordinator Margaret Oakley Otto. Photo by: Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour
A vertical garden of assorted begonias and air plants.
The pool is a focus for pots.
A formal layout of gravel and sandstone provides structure for the everchanging planting
small backyard, white roses, barberry hedge
Katherine Tracey will offer tips for using both hardy and tender succulents in northeastern gardens. Photo by: Paul Clancy.
Marta McDowell's lecture "The Pen and the Trowel: Authors, Their Gardens and Mine" explores famous writers who share a passion for gardening. Photo by: Marco Ricca.
Quill Teal-Sullivan will present “Finding My Way: Working Helena’s Gardens at Meadowburn Farm,” the first in a series of three inspirational lectures offered by Wave Hill this year. Photo by: Eric Hsu.
Plant selections by Tim Pollak inspiring a colorful plant palette with the 2016 Pantone Color Institute colors of the year. Photos by: (Clockwise from top left) Ball Seed, Sakata Ornamentals, Ball Horticultural Company, Proven Winners.
A subtle depiction of the 2016 Pantone Color Institute colors of the year in pale pink and pale blue on display at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Photo by: Chicago Botanic Garden.
A popular color combination of orange and buff were demonstrated in the Heritage Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Photo by: Chicago Botanic Garden.
Highlighting the features of flowering plants that show up at night or plants that emit fragrances after the sun goes down are two ideas Tim Pollak hopes to encourage during his seminar at the 2016 Chicago Flower & Garden Show. Photos by: Chicago Botanic Garden.
A monochromatic approach to garden design makes marsala the star with big color impact from the Chicago Botanic Garden’s outdoor displays highlighting the 2015 Pantone Color Institute color of the year. Photos by: Chicago Botanic Garden.
A single container at the Chicago Botanic Garden captures Tim Pollak’s advice for emphasizing varying textures in design. Photo by: Chicago Botanic Garden.
Throughout the Chicago Botanic Garden, Tim Pollak has found creative ways to integrate herbs and vegetables with flowers which accentuate each plant’s foliage features. Photos by: Chicago Botanic Garden.
Coprosma repens ‘Rainbow Surprise’ sits near a sunny window in an antique marble saucer. Photo by: Rob Cardillo.
Santolina chamaecyparissus (left and middle) and golden S. virens ‘Lemon Fizz’ (right). Photo by: Rob Cardillo.
A subtle blending of sizzling orange and yellow tones shines forth from large ruffly, ripply blooms perched on stiff, 3-foot-tall stems.
A poetry-inspiring field of Oriental poppies, with a salmon-colored form making its presence known among a large planting of glowing orange-red selections. The plump seedpods at the rear serve as an eloquent reminder of their intriguing though fleeting nature. Photo by: Roger Foley.
Fritz explains this as “one of the best early double whites, with a classic, pure form. It has a really clean, crisp look, and performs reliably from year to year.”
Developed by David Culp, creator of the gardens at Brandywine Cottage, these are among the most versatile for designers. The many distinct formsinclude single, double, and anemone, with a full range of solid, bicolor, and speckled hues.
This series was bred for taller stature, exceptional vigor and outward-facing fl owers. Deeply speckled blooms of Conny are shown o to their best advantage when planted in drifts.
Blush-white blooms have burgundy veining and picotee edging that look as though they were painted on with brushstrokes. Fritz remarks: “This is one of the fi rst variet05 ies to bloom in my garden.”
Part of the Winter Jewels™ series, the lotus-like fl owers create a tropical look. Fritz fi nds the bright-yellow color “cheerful, like da odils; they stand out on a cloudy day.”
The ruffly, pink flowers are especially eye-catching in a deeply shaded area. Pair with Onyx Odyssey hellebore or Muscari aucheri ‘Blue Magic’ (grape hyacinth).
Raspberry-mauve double blooms of this regal selection by Dan Hinkley are complemented by reddish new growth. Dramatic nodding flowers are best seen when planted on a hillside or steep slope so that they can be viewed from below.
“This is the variety that people gravitate to the most in our display gardens,” notes Fritz. “It’s close to a true black and is stunning when paired with Galanthus (snowdrops).” Part of the Winter Jewels™ series.
Developed by noted plantsman John Elsley, the introduction of this hand-pollinated strain is widely credited for the start of the hellebore craze. Colors range from white, yellow, pink, maroon, to near-black.
Symmetrical pointed petals of this creamy double form are generously speckled with burgundy. “The heavy spotting pattern creates a particularly mesmerizing e ect in a garden border, even from a distance,” enthuses Fritz.
Introduced by Dan Hinkley, this is regarded as one of the best yellow forms. Deepburgundy fl ecking towards the center of the fl owers makes this a striking companion to‘Kingston Cardinal’.
Single-petaled flowers are a muted apple-green edged with burgundy. Mass in drifts and pair with Fritillaria persica (Persian lily) or ‘Black Hero’ tulips to accentuate the picotee rim.
Soft-pink fl owers are streaked with darker rose and infused with a hint of chartreuse. Combine with Primula ‘Green Lace’ (primrose), Pulmonaria (spotted lungwort), and Helleborus foetidus (stinking hellebore).
One of the many striking named varieties in the Winter Jewels™ series by Ernie and Marietta O’Byrne of Northwest Garden Nursery, the soft-pink double fl owers are infused with shades of crimson.Fritz fi nds thesimultaneous veining, spotting, and edgingto be “particularly intriguing.”
“I am partial to any of the doublefl owered forms, as the blooms last longer,” says Fritz. “The clear lavender-pink color makes this a great companion to a wide range of spring ephemerals, such as early-blooming minor bulbs and forget-me-nots.”
This Heronswood introduction has deep-maroon stems that emerge from the ground in early spring, offering a welcome color even before the fl owers appear. The red-tinged new foliage unfurls to reveal nodding burgundy flowers with a shiny, darker crimson reverse.
Part of the Winter Thriller™ series introduced by Chris Hansen of Great Garden Plants, the oversized, velvety-crimson fl owers are widely regarded as the truest red. Darkmahogany foliage that fades to dark green is a perfect complement to the striking blooms.
a fireplace of apache cloud legerstone and slate provides a stage for Lisa, carmen and Mickey to make s’mores as their dog, sugar, relaxes. opposite,
outside the home’s dining room, a concrete fire element with an ipe bench takes the chill o cool nights while the nearby fountain adds its soothing soundtrack. opposite, right: near the spa, colored concrete pavers (poured in place), planted with asparagus fern and dwarf new Zealand flax, bring the garden closer to the lounging patio.
near the spa, colored concrete pavers (poured in place), planted with asparagus fern and dwarf new Zealand flax, bring the garden closer to the lounging patio.
Nearby, the sound of water sluicing down a curved granite wall strikes a cooling note. Leading past the fountain, concrete pavers were interplanted with dwarf mondo grass, now joined by baby’s tears. To the right, a toddler-friendly sandbox, where Carmen holds play dates, is nestled among bird’s-nest ferns and kentia palms. A rack on the adjacent fence turns surfoards into outdoor ornament.
Mickey asked for an outdoor kitchen, where he could grill in the courtyard adjacent to the indoor kitchen. The Kenji dining table and benches are a green product crafted of paper-based material and cellulose fibers infused with resin.
The private front patio, sheltered from the street by the grassy berm and the silver boughs of an acacia, is furnished for year-round use with synthetic rattan armchairs.
among places carl created for loafing, Lisa and daughter carmen like to read beneath the front garden’s magnolia and carob trees preserved from the previous landscaping. around their bench, against a backdrop of the new Zealand native, Cassinia leptophylla, are silver Astelia, Berkeley sedge, gray lavender and ‘pumpkin pie’ african daisies (detail opposite).
Wanting outdoor living spaces all around their new Southern California house, Mickey and Lisa Morera, parents of an active 2-year-old, asked landscape designer Debora Carl for help. In the front garden, Carl added privacy with a 2-foot-high berm planted with yucca, New Zealand flax, a dragon tree, Senecio mandraliscae and Mexican feather grass. Opposite: For structural interest, Carl turned a simple metal container into a sculpture.
blasen Landscape architecture turned this steeply sloped lot into a graphic urban garden that is also fun for kids.
The curving bronze wall in this garden by Lutsko Associates performs double duty as a water feature and a room divider.
Scott Lewis anchored his garden by transforming an existing artist’s studio into a focal point by concealing the shingled walls behind ivy-covered steel trellises.
This 4-foot-diameter garden sculpture was created with various colors of stone stacked and woven together in a spherical pattern. “The sphere is about as universal of a shape as it gets. There's a primal response to it, some fascination I can't really describe,” says stone artisan Devin Devine. Photo by: Devin Devine.
“Cafe lighting with old style cafe string lights is popular in both modern and informal designs integrated with the outdoor lighting,” says Stringer. “Clients want control on their iPhone, iPad, along with irrigation controls on the iPad.”
Gardens in 2016 will include new designs for harvesting rainwater, such as this catchment pond that functions both as a water feature and auxiliary water source. Design by Tom Mannion. Photo by: Roger Foley.
Sustainable residential gardens with aesthetically-pleasing stormwater management solutions are on the radar in 2016. This soft scape rain garden with recycled concrete pavers has downspouts from an upper roof, and a rain chain down into bio-retention cells with the (contained) equisetum grass. Photo by: Banyon Tree Design Studio, Lisa Port APLD.
The outdoor experience is shifting from simple dining areas to ‘chat groups’ with areas designed solely for relaxing and conversation. Design Susan Cohan, APLD. Photo by: Susan Cohan, APLD.
The use of composites and hardwoods will offer more flexible design options, such as this horizontal fence screen whose width, gap, material and frames are customizable for individualizing outdoor spaces. Photo by: Cheri Stringer APLD, Owner TLC Gardens.
Containers are trending toward creative manifestations using herbs and veggies treated as foliage. Photo by: Helen Battersby.
Vegetable gardening indoors is becoming more popular with compact and increasingly ornamental cultivars such as the tiny, heart-shaped cherry tomato called ‘Sweet Valentine’. Photo by: Helen Battersby.
My nephew eats all of his share of the zuchhini bread. Photo: Katie Mendelson.
From Morning Glory Farm and the Family That Feeds an Island. Photo: Alison Shaw.
From Morning Glory Farm and the Family that Feeds an Island. Photo: Alison Shaw.
Morning Glory Zucchini Bread, from Morning Glory Farm and the Family that Feeds an Island.
Garden experts from throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom will share their knowledge in 100 hours of presentations at the 2016 Northwest Flower & Garden Show. Photo by: Northwest Flower & Garden Show.
Known as a global landmark, the creative journey of the High Line is unveiled in a first-hand, behind-the-scenes account from its designer’s viewpoint. With previously unpublished archival drawings, hundreds of illustrations and images of construction, the architecture and composition of the park is deconstructed in a visually compelling masterpiece.
A comprehensive guide to creating a shade garden suited to the changing climate. Details and advice about designing the garden, watering without stressing limited resources, pruning, preparing soil, and knowing the many flowers and greenery that prefer shade make this a manual covering all aspects of the gardening process with the climate in mind.
From one of the most imaginative and romantic public gardens in America comes an incredibly down-to-earth guide filled with innovative planting techniques and ideas. The artful gardens at Chanticleer are shared visually through exquisite photographs and insightful lessons such as how to use hardscape materials in a fresh way, how to achieve the perfect union between plant and site, and other exciting how-to’s that bring the special magic of Chanticleer to life.
Enjoy a beautifully illustrated tour of outstanding public and private gardens within a wide variety of designs, regions, and habitats throughout the country. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the Conservancy shares eight gardens it has helped preserve and 43 of the more than 3,000 private gardens that have been opened to the public through its Open Days program.
A tribute to Piet Oudolf, the evolution of Oudolf as a designer is traced through his journey from nurseryman to horticultural superstar. Hummelo is an intimate look at Oudolf’s personal garden with lush photography, essays that highlight important techniques and rare glimpses of Oudolf’s daily life that have led to his outstanding career.
Drawing from her 40 years in the landscape design business, Jan Johnsen shares her unique approach to creating inviting outdoor spaces. Learning to find the ‘power spot’ in a landscape and how to use ‘the most auspicious direction’ in the garden, Johnsen weaves ancient traditions and modern ideas for a new way to create spaces outdoors that enhance wellbeing.
Take a photographic journey to a dozen private gardens in the most splendid light of day. Photographer Stacy Bass shares a spectacular collection of over 200 images captured at daybreak showcasing the diversity of grand estate landscapes and modest gardens in the Northeast. Hand-drawn bird’s eye view sketches of each property and stories of how each garden came to fruition offer endless inspiration.
Large ceramic frog pitcher, $95. Photo: Michael Kraus.
Elements from various warm climates, like this Mediterranean 19th-century oil pot, seem both exotic and perfectly in context.
Orchids bloom generously in the Carribean. Here a terra-cotta tub is used as a cachepot to elevate, and propitiously frame, a happy pair.
Leading from the beach to the house is a coral stone rill framed by sculptural Cassia corymbosa underplanted with variegated mondo grass.
The dining loggia overlooks a courtyard with a fountain.
A weaver bird building a nest at the Nkorho Bush Lodge, Sabi Sands, South Africa. Photo credit: Tim Ellis.
A community of weaver bird nests in Namibia. Photo credit: Mark Abel.
A weaver bird at Alamana Camp, Tanzania. Photo credit: George Lamson
Weaver bird nests in Jinja, Uganda. Photo credit: Nicola Swann
A weaver bird checks on chicks in the nest, Camp Okavango, Botswana. Photo credit: George Lamson.
Weaving a nest in South Africa. Photo credit: Mark Shobbrook
"Arbre Carnivore" from Sea and Land by J.W. Buel (1889)/Wikimedia Commons
Larryleachia perlatum could easily be a stunt double for Neville's Mimbulus mimbletonia. Photo by: Blossfeldiana/Flickr
Mermaid's wineglass (Acetabularia mediterranea), is an algae that lives in sub-tropical waters. Photo: Albert Kok/Wikimedia Commons
Illustration from Anonymous 15th century manuscript Tacuinum Sanitatus/Wikimedia Commons
A student's indoor garden at Plattel's seminar in New York, created with calla lily, purple anemone, sweet peas, paperwhites, French tulips, and kiwi vine lattice. Photo by Cal Crary, courtesy of New York Flower School.
Plattel's brilliantly colored bouquet includes Aranda orchids, red miniature anthurium, seeded eucalyptus, and Dutch tulips. Photo by Cal Crary, courtesy of New York Flower School.
Rob Plattel shows seminar students at Flower School New York how to employ normally unused parts of plants to support an arrangement.
Key members of the Garden Design team. From left: editor in chief Thad Orr, publisher Jim Peterson, social media director Dayna Springfield and director of communications Khara Dizmon. Photo by: The Horticult
Thad Orr, Garden Design Editor in Chief
For the behind-the-scenes scoop, we caught up with the magazine’s editor in chief Thad Orr for a brief Q&A.
Van Gogh's "A Wheatfield, with Cypresses," courtesy of The National Gallery
One final tip: occasional rain should not hurt the above-described cushions, but I store mine inside during days of steady rain under the bed in our guest bedroom. Now, go forth and enjoy those outdoor fireside chats with friends and family this autumn!
The last roses of the season. Photo by Marianne Majerus/MMGI
Many plants hold up quite well to a light frost, rebounding as the sun melts is away. Pictured: Heuchera ‘Chocolate Ruffles’. Photo by Andrew Lawon/MMGI.
Hamamelis x intermedia 'Aphrodite' is a show-stopper, with exceptionally large burnt-orange flowers that bloom profusely in late winter. Photo by Janet Loughrey.
Chinese witch hazel (H. mollis), the most fragrant of all species, has buttery yellow petals and clear yellow fall foliage. Photo by Janet Loughrey.
Hamamelis mollis (left), H. x intermedia "Orange Beauty" (right) Photo by Janet Loughrey.
Photo by Janet Loughrey
The chateau's stables, kitchens and chapel serve as galleries for nature-inspired art, such as this installation that uses plants gathered from the grounds of the chateau. Photo by: Lorraine Flanigan.
Carre et Rond, created by Yu Kongjian, is a ribbon of red that flows through the Chinese garden, part of the permanent installations in the chateau's Parc du Goualoup. Photo by: Lorraine Flanigan.
Hand-woven willow Baobab trees bow in greeting in Leon Kluge's African Kitchen garden. Photo by: Lorraine Flanigan.
In the Dyer's Garden, skeins of indigo blue, madder red and broom yellow hang above the plants that lend them their vibrantly natural colors. Photo by: Lorraine Flanigan.
On the grounds of the historic Chateau de Chaumont-Sur-Loire, you'll find swathes of blue-flowered borders and magnificent ancient trees. Photo by: Lorraine Flanigan.
Small, graceful, single, pale-pink flowers flutter on 3-foot stems, ushering in the Oriental poppy season. Hybridized in 1924 by Martin Viette, who started Viette Farm and Nursery in Fishersville, Virginia, now owned by his son André and grandson Mark, where all of the poppies on these pages were photographed.
A lateblooming, glowing deep orange, with dark interior blotches on 28-inch stems.
Large ruffled orange flowers with feathered creamy white centers call attention to themselves on 3-foot stems.
An immaculate (unspotted) medium pink confection developed in Germany. Stems are 24 to 30 inches tall.
Brilliant, fiery red flowers with frilly fringed edges and black centers above 30- to 36-inch stems tempt admirers to take a closer look.
Large, ruffled flowers of white and blush pink open to 6 inches across on 24- to 30-inch stems. Blooms from the middle to the end of the poppy season.
Three-foot stems proudly bear huge, luscious, bright raspberry-rose blooms with crepe-paper petals and black blotches.
Striking icy white touched with palest lavender, contrasts sharply with the black basal spots and clutch of purplish black stamens. Stems reach 28 inches tall.
A long-time favorite cultivar with crinkly petals of soft salmon-pink fluttering on 24- to 30-inch stems.
A subtle blending of sizzling orange and yellow tones shines forth from large ruffly, ripply blooms perched on stiff, 3-foot-tall stems.
A poetry-inspiring field of Oriental poppies, with a salmon-colored form making its presence known among a large planting of glowing orange-red selections. The plump seedpods at the rear serve as an eloquent reminder of their intriguing though fleeting nature.
A pair of Phoenix palms plays their classic symmetrical role in this update of the Persian paradise garden designed by Sanchez & Maddux in Palm Beach.
Trios of Veitchia palms frame a gathering spot.
A skyward view of a Pseudophoenix<./em> species at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden in Coral Gables, Florida, captures fruit and swollen trunk. Palms attract interest whether viewed from below, lit at night, shadowed on the ground, silhouetted against sky or refl ected in water.
Using a rich mix of palm species and elemental stonework, Raymond Jungles created a rainforest atmosphere around a spa in Panama.
Green crownshafts of royal palms , (Roystonea) make a vivid transition from sturdy trunk to feathery leaves.
Versatile and hardy to 15 degrees Fahrenheit, a mature pindo palm brings compelling elegance to this residential garden. Even when this species is a young, trunkless plant, its arching, blue-green fronds work beautifully in a container or as a slow-growing foliage element.
A cold-hardy Chinese windmill palm (Trachycarpus fortunei), its leaf bases removed to expose a ringed trunk, erupts in spring bloom. In this chic urban space, a palm creates a serene vertical element while its crown casts light, animated shade.
Water-wise Mexican blue palms (Brahea armata) thrive in a planter, casting their refl ection into the pool below.
Designer Brandon Tyson’s pick of a pindo palm (Butia capitata) creates a swaying blue note amid grasses and shrubs.
The bold architecture of a palmetto leaf transmits light and color.
Unparalleled as avenue trees and tropical staples, palms have been invaluable to garden designers since ancient Persia. Now designers within and beyond the tropics are using them in fresh ways. Here a classic double row of royal palms (Roystonea oleracea) creates drama in this Hawaiian landscape.
Brilliant azure blue, half-dollar-size flower heads perch on sturdy one- to two-foot stems — a rare color for alliums and great in combination with yellow and pink. Blooms in June and July. A native of Asia, blue globe onion is an heirloom bulb, introduced in 1830. Naturalizes in the garden in a welcome, not weedy, way. Zone 5.
Dainty nodding onion (sometimes called lady’s leek) is a summer-blooming North American wildflower, native to dry open woods and meadows. The flower stalks, a foot tall or more, have a distinctive crook at the end, so the one- to two-inch umbels of pale pink or white flowers hang downward. Leaf blades are slender and flattened rather than tubular, forming a soft grassy clump. Zone 5.
Hundreds of purplish flowers are packed into perfect baseball- size globes, blooming from late spring to early summer. A classic ornamental onion. Sturdy stems are two to three feet tall. Straplike leaves conveniently disappear as flowering begins. A great cut flower, it can last three weeks in a vase. Zone 4.
Claretcolored, golf-ball-size clusters of flowers, tightly packed and egg-shaped, nod and sway kinetically atop thin two- to three-foot stalks in late summer. Drumstick allium makes a good companion for shorter perennials, or as a see-through front-ofthe- border plant. Zone 4.
West Coast native with loose, half-dollar-size clusters of lavender-pink flowers, blooming May to July on foot-tall stalks. Though misleadingly named one-leaf onion, each bulb produces two to three leaves. Found in the wild in grasslands that are damp during the spring, this allium is more moisturetolerant than most. Be prepared for it to spread and naturalize. Zone 5.
A tall hybrid with frostywhite, six-inch snowballs of flowers perched on ramrodstraight, three-foot stalks in late spring to early summer. Low-growing foliage doesn’t die back during flowering, making a green groundcover under the blooms. Zone 4.
Volleyball-size heads of silvery amethyst burst into bloom in summer on two-foot stalks — startling, sculptural and sparkling. Star of Persia adds drama when emerging through lowgrowing perennials. Flower heads dry well, like fireworks frozen in time. Zone 5.
Both beautiful and edible, chives are at home in the border or the kitchen. Clumps of grassy, tubular, tasty leaves are topped by tufty heads of pinkish-purple flowers. Popular with pollinators, but not with mammal pests like deer. Summer blooming and nearly evergreen. Zone 5.
Floral Materials Include: Amaryllis, tulip, lisianthus, ilex, ranunculus, spray roses, astilbe, sweetgum, “Peppermint” roses, snapdragon, and a single peony. Photo by: Sullivan Owen.
Floral Materials Include: Dahlias, peony, ranunculus, cosmos, viburnum berry, wild clematis, magnolia foliage. Photo by: Sullivan Owen.
The composition of this arrangement by Jill Rizzo at Studio Choo shows off her technique of arranging inward-facing blooms. Photo by: Jill Rizzo/Studio Choo.
Floral Materials Include: Cafe au lait dahlia, garden rose, anemone, clematis, hydrangea, hellebore, plum and pistachio foliage. Photo by: Jill Rizzo/Studio Choo.
Floral Materials Include: Calcynia, thistle, cafe o lait dahlia, antique hydrangea, poppy pod, fern, allium, tuberose, Queen Anne’s lace, yarrow, astilbe. Photo by: David Sampson.
Floral Materials Include: Fern, astilbe, tree peony, astrantia, scabiosa, garden roses, allium, and sedum. Photo by: David Sampson.
Behind green glass panels, a serene world awaits visitors. Japanese maples and weeping giant redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum ‘Pendulum’, a rather whimsical mutation of a giant redwood) thrive in the 166-someodd days of rain each year. The clean-lined handsome furniture is from Denmark’s Cane-line. Photo by: Janis Nicolay
The stucco wall adds to the year-round evergreen of this Vancouver, B.C., garden, designed by Kari Renaud of Watermark Gardens, and hides the neighbor’s hedge. The spilling sounds of the fountain help mute the sounds of the city street just steps away. Photo by: Janis Nicolay
The L-shaped courtyard packs a lot of living area into a small space. A low, poured-concrete wall just right of the wall-mounted fountain allows for extra seating, and the dining set (from Design Within Reach) hints at romantic dinners under the stars. Photo by: Jason Liske/Redwood Design
LA recently renovated Joseph Eichler house in Palo Alto offers views of this garden, designed by Bernard Trainor, from every room, including the master suite seen here. The black screen behind the dining terrace is a nod to Japanese garden design. Photo by: Jason Liske/Redwood Design
This view just off the patio clearly shows how the carefully placed plants mirror the natural landscape of the sweeping foothills beyond. A xeriscape plant palette of soaptree yucca (Yucca elata) and santolina, wooly thyme and red hot poker is set in a bed of crushed local stone, inset with beds of crushed red lava rock. Photo by: Steve Gunther
Sleek custom-made Brown Jordan furniture under a stand of Russian olive trees (Elaeagnus angustifolia) invites lingering. Photo by: Steve Gunther
Fire meets water with a Dale Chihuly chandelier suspended over an indoor reflecting pool at this Santa Fe garden designed by Edith Katz. The shallow basin continues outside, wrapping the atrium for a magical effect. Guests pass the artful installation of crushed gravel planted with Hesperaloe and sage on their way to the front door edged in a red metal frame the color of a high-desert sunset. Photo by: Steve Gunther
Calendula petals can be used fresh or dried in natural spa recipes. Photo by: Courtney Goetz.
Herbs that will freeze well: basil, parsley, lemon verbena, and mint. Photos by: Courtney Goetz. Photos by: Courtney Goetz.
Good air circulation and no direct sunlight is important to preserving your drying herbs. Photo by: Courtney Goetz.
Dactylorhiza fuchsii (spotted orchid) can spread to form huge colonies in suitable conditions. The yellow is Ranunculus acris (buttercup); to the right is Centaurea nigra (lesser knapweed).
Dactylorhiza fuchsii (spotted orchid) can spread to form huge colonies in suitable conditions. The yellow is Ranunculus acris (buttercup); to the right is Centaurea nigra (lesser knapweed). A stone-block path leads through the meadow in early summer, with a number of the yellow daisy and buttercup species that play an important part of these habitats as nectar, pollen, and seed sources for wildlife. The purple is mostly Dactylorhiza fuchsii (spotted orchid). Parts of the meadow also contain heirloom daffodil varieties, mostly Narcissus ‘Princeps’, planted in the 1900s.
dCow parsley alongside orange-and yellow-flowered Welsh poppies in a border. These are two examples of self-seeding plants that, in some cases, need management to prevent them from spreading too enthusiastically. Neither, however, takes up too much space and they are easily pulled out. Allowing in wild species creates a subtle, almost subconscious link to the surrounding
Blue-flowered Camassia quamash, the camas of damp prairies in the U.S., has become a popular plant in British gardens, blooming year after year and slowly increasing. Other species include Trifolium pratense, Ranunculus acris, and Dactylorhiza fuchsii. This area, with a few surviving apple trees, acts as a transition between the more intensely planted gardens and wilder meadows.
This border is the core of the garden, with a framework of shrubs—many with yellow foliage: Euonymus fortunei ‘Silver Queen’, Spiraea japonica ‘Gold Mound’, Ligustrum x vicaryii, Ulmus minor ssp. sarniensis ‘Dicksonii’. The purple is mostly Hesperis matronalis, plus Allium christophii, and leaves of Cotinus coggygria Rubrifolius Group.
Allium hollandicum and its darker form, ‘Purple Sensation’, with forget-me-not, and the yellow Meconopsis cambrica (Welsh poppy), a shortlived perennial which seeds freely. Shrubs Rosa x odorata ‘Mutabilis’ and the evergreen Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald ‘n’ Gold’ provide structure. The frothy white is Anthriscus sylvestris (cow parsley).
The blue here is Myosotis sylvatica (forget-me-not) which flowers profusely in late spring. The spots of yellow-green are Euphorbia characias ssp. wulfenii, the scattered white is Anthriscus sylvestris (cow parsley).
Plants being tested in the container arrangement include pink-blooming Persicaria microcephala ‘Red Dragon’, purple Geranium maderense, strapleaved Astelia chathamica, Hosta ‘Remember Me’, yellow-leaved Iris pseudacorus ‘Variegata’, Papaver commutatum, Erigeron karvinskianus, as well as smaller Echeveria and Sempervivum species.
Plants being tested in the container arrangement include pink-blooming Persicaria microcephala ‘Red Dragon’, purple Geranium maderense, strapleaved Astelia chathamica, Hosta ‘Remember Me’, yellow-leaved Iris pseudacorus ‘Variegata’, Papaver commutatum, Erigeron karvinskianus, as well as smaller Echeveria and Sempervivum species.
Allium hollandicum ‘Purple Sensation’ is the deepest in tone of the drumstick allium species—which are wild garlics from central Asia, and therefore ideal for hot, dry climates, but seem very tolerant of cooler and wetter locales too.
Aquilegia ‘Kansas’ flowers for about a month in early summer. It grows 32 inches high, and its fl owers fl oat above clumps of attractive divided foliage. Aquilegia species grow well interspersed amongst later-fl owering, larger perennials, and in many gardens will self-seed.
Papaver commutatum is known as the ladybird poppy. This cheerful annual provides several weeks of dramatic color on 2-foot stems. Easily grown by direct sowing in the ground, seedlings may also be container- grown and carefully planted in a border come spring.
Autumn Delight Wreath from Creekside Farms
Grown, designed, and artfully made on a 20 acre farm in California’s Monterey County, this preserved wreath mixes dried herbs, fresh bay, and fall leaves. Accents of straw flowers, yarrow, faux berries, lily heads, and bell caps combine for a wreath that’s full of color and texture.
From $74 for 20”
To order: http://www.creeksidefarms.com
(831) 674-1234
Twigs, Leaves + Berries Autumn Wreath from J. Potter Blooms
The straight-from-the-wild form of this wreath creates an artful autumn presentation. Twigs and leaves in lime green, orange, rust and burgundy, combined with accents of berries, small flowers and succulents nestle in an exaggerated shape for a wreath that makes an impact.
From $95 for 30”
To order: http://www.etsy.com
Cornhusk Collection from Pottery Barn
Add a fresh look to your seasonal decor with the soft color scheme of this handmade twig and cornhusk wreath. Its classically sophisticated silhouette with a substantial 30” scale inspires the holiday spirit.
From $149 for 30”
To order:
www.potterybarn.com
(888) 779-5176
One of the most-striking and long-lasting cut flowers isn’t even a flower. The foliage of ‘Crane Red’ ornamental kale forms a tight cluster, rose veined with a rosy-purple center, at the end of a long, sturdy stem, looking like an oversize rose blossom. The Crane Series (which comes in several colors, including bicolor and white) was bred specifically for cutting, taking the popular cool-season annual kale to new heights, up to 2 feet tall, with heads up to 7 inches wide.
Hot-pink leaves with ruffled, variegated borders edged with a thin line of light green make Solenostemon ‘Pink Chaos’ look like an explosion of neon paisley. Grows 6 to 18 inches tall. Can be perennial in Zones 10 to 11, but elsewhere is an annual.
Solenostemon 'Chocolate Mint' is a rich coleus with mahogany velvet leaves edged in chartreuse.
Osteospermum Summertime Series
From German grower Dümmen comes a cornucopia of fruit-inspired African daisies, with tasty names like Blueberry and Cranberry. Purple and fuchsia petals have an iridescent look, with dark violet-blue centers. Typically used as an annual.
Nicotiana 'Babybella'
Masses of wine-red flowers on airy three-foot stems nod in the slightest breeze. A classy flowering tobacco from Floranova, more compact than its ‘Tinkerbell’ cousin. Annual.
New Guinea Impatiens
One of 22 varieties in the Celebrette Series, ‘Coral Light’ has a kickin’ combination of large coral flowers hovering over dark-edged foliage midstriped with a blaze of more coral. Needs some shade, but laughs at heat and humidity. Grows 8 to 10 inches tall and 10 to 12 inches wide. Annual.
Cosmos bipinnatus Double Click 'Rose Bonbon'
This brand-new version of an old-fashioned annual flower gets high marks for pure romance. Part of the mixed-color Double Click series of double cosmos from Thompson & Morgan, this pretty-in-pink form is the first single color to be released. Rosy pom-pom blooms sit atop sturdy 2- to 3-foot stems. Like other cosmos, ‘Rose Bonbon’ is an easy-to-grow, long-lasting cut flower.
Beefsteak Plant 'Blazin' Lime'
A cultivar of Iresine herbstii, which is also disturbingly called chicken gizzard and bloodleaf, ‘Blazin’ Lime’ is the new sister to the popular ‘Blazin’ Rose’. Sports lime-green leaves with cream-yellow veining on fuchsia-pink stems. Puts on the best show in light shade. Heat tolerant. Grows 1 to 2 feet tall. Annual.
An award-winning collection of Canterbury bells (Campanula medium), the Champion Series includes pink, light blue, white and lavender. Though the species is biennial, this series can be grown from seed as an annual, blooming the first year, with upward-facing bell-shaped flowers more than an inch long. Each plant can have up to 10 stems, 2 to 4 feet tall.
Your typical sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is one huge flower on a towering stalk—not exactly vase material. But breeders have selected a host of cultivars that produce multiple smaller flowers on shorter, branching stems, perfect for cutting. ‘Jade’ is a unique color—pale green—which goes with everything in a bouquet. Each 4-to-5-foot plant produces loads of 4-to-5-inch flowers.
A bit quirky but totally cute, the ruffled, often semidouble flowers of Viola Angel Amber Kiss are very un-viola-like. Ruddy orange with a yellow center and rose-colored reverse on the wings. Each flower seems to have its own personality. Plants are 6 to 8 inches across; flowers are about an inch wide.
See more violas
Begonia 'Black Taffeta'
Big, black, star-shaped, textured leaves with a red reverse on this Terra Nova introduction give it high drama in the shade garden in summer and in a container in a bright room. Pink flowers chase away winter doldrums. It's hardy in Zones 10-11.
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