Van Bourgondien

Mix It Up!

Almost everyone agrees that spring is one of the most beautiful seasons in the garden. But I've often wondered why so many people associate gardens and gardening only with spring. What about the beautiful daylilies, Asian and Oriental lilies, butterfly bushes and hydrangeas of summer? Who could ignore the sedums, daisies and dahlias of fall? Even winter has its charms in a well-planned garden, when evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs and the dried flower heads of ornamental grasses, coneflowers and black-eyes Susans wave in the chilly breeze, attracting the beautiful birds of winter: chickadees, downy woodpeckers, cardinals, house finches and so many more.

In fact, with a little planning, you can have a four-season garden that will be your special sanctuary all year long, and the envy of all your neighbors. It takes trees, shrubs, vines, bulbs, perennials, biennials, annuals/tropicals and all your surroundings... house, garage, patio, deck, pool, driveway, arbors and every thing else in your property to make a garden. How to do it? Mix it up!

Start with winter. With the leaves off the trees and few spots of color to distract your eyes, you can see exactly where your present landscape plan needs fine-tuning. Do you have enough “bones” -- evergreen trees and shrubs, ornamental structures (fountain, birdbath, pond, arbor, gazebo) and “hardscape” (patio, deck, paths, swimming pool, driveway) to please the eye and fulfill your family's needs?

You can hire a garden designer to help you make the changes you would like to see, or you can make them yourself. If you opt to design your own new garden, it can be a fun project for the whole family. Take photographs and enlarge them on a photocopier. Then, put tracing paper on top of each photo and sketch in the colors and shapes you would like to see there. Look at the color of your house, roof, siding, front door, and shutters or other trim. Remember to make sure you are choosing colors that will complement your home's exterior, and that the shapes you are choosing will not obscure windows or doors.

Think about your lifestyle. Do you have only weekends to work in the garden? Do you have small children and need to accommodate a swing set or sandbox? If you like to entertain, is your patio or deck big enough and is there a place to barbeque? Do you long for the privacy of high hedges or want your neighbors to enjoy your garden too? When do you usually go on vacation and for how long? The answers to these and other lifestyle questions will determine the size of your plantings and how elaborate the design.

Once you decide exactly what you want, you can get down to the fun part of choosing plants... this is where your creativity can shine. Just as there is a succession of bloom in a four-season garden, there is a timetable for planting. Spring-blooming bulbs must be planted the previous fall. (Tip: Rather than lining up bulbs like soldiers in straight lines, plant them in clusters, like bouquets.) Spring is fine for planting most annuals, biennials, perennials, trees and shrubs; just make sure new plants are irrigated sufficiently during hot dry spells during their first season... longer for trees and shrubs. Early fall is an excellent time to plant trees, shrubs, biennials and perennials such as hosta, hardy geranium, daylily, peony, phlox and many more. Most plants go into a period of dormancy (or at least slower growth) during the winter, unless you are gardening in zone 10 in southern California and south Florida. Because of this dormant or slow growth period, all planting should be finished at least four weeks before your first frost date. If you are not sure of this date in your area, contact the Cooperative Extension office in your county; see the “blue” pages under the County Government heading in your local phone directory.

Your color scheme is easy to follow through the seasons. If your heart is set on rose pink near your front door, there are daffodils, tulips and allium bulbs that will fill the bill in spring (Tip: Interplant bulbs with perennials whose leaves will hide the withering bulb foliage that must be left in place for several weeks after flowering to store energy for next year's bloom.); daylilies, coreopsis and phlox that will bloom in the summer and butterfly bushes, dahlias and ornamental kale to take you through the fall. Tie on (waterproof) rose pink velvet ribbons to decorate the railing of your front steps during the winter, and you have accomplished your goal.

As for height, shape and texture, these are relatively easy to accomplish as well. Vines, trees and shrubs lead the eye upwards and give an extra dimension to your garden.

If you have room for it, the “Dinosaur” tree, known as the dawn redwood, Metasequoia glybtostroboides, is a survivor from the distant past that would add great height and nobility to your garden. Though this tree was thought to be extinct... known only to scientists by its presence in 60 million year old fossils -- a Chinese carpenter found three living trees in Southern China in 1941. Eventually, seeds harvested from these trees were sent to Boston, MA in 1947 and propagated. Fifty-year-old specimens can be seen in botanical gardens around and world, and young trees are now readily available for home gardeners. The dawn redwood grows very quickly when it is young, up to 70 feet tall in the first 15-20 years. It is magnificent, with a very attractive reddish brown trunk after only a decade or less. It is deciduous, which means that its green needles turn bronzy-red and drop to the ground in the fall. Fresh new green growth emerges in spring. This tree makes a prominent statement in gardens that are large enough to showcase its rugged beauty.

Another way to gain height in your garden is to plant vines. They can be trained on existing structures such as a garage, a fence or a porch overhang, or on arbors or other supports. One of the most beautiful ways to use clematis vines, for instance, is to let them climb through shrubs or small trees. Imagine an early-blooming clematis such as the exquisite rose-colored 'Rosemoor' climbing through the white butterfly bush, Buddleia 'White Profusion'. The clematis blooms heavily in May and sporadically until September; the butterfly bush begins producing its huge, fragrant white lilac-like blooms in July and continues through frost. What a magnificent combination! With clematis and butterfly bushes in so many luscious colors, it is easy to combine them in other ways for even more punch.

Other vines to try include honeysuckle, wisteria, and trumpet vines. Depending on your color scheme, one of these two honeysuckle vines... otherwise known as hummingbird magnets -- will fill the bill. Mandarine honeysuckle, Lonicera 'Manderin', has attractive young stems and leaves, produces bright orange flowers in May and re-blooms through the summer on 18 feet tall and 3-4 feet wide plants. A lovely Dutch honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymen 'Serotina', produces its two-toned pink and purple flowers from June to August on plants that reach 9 feet tall and 3-4 feet wide.

Wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) and trumpet vine (Campsis spp.) need strong support and a gardener who is not afraid to cut back vigorous growth when the plants are finished flowering. Given these two requirements, these vines will provide years of enjoyment. Wisteria can be grown as an 18 feet tall vine on a strong support or as a tree-like standard. Both will enchant you when they produce their fragrant, lilac-blue hanging flowers in May. Yellow trumpet vine (Campsis flava) and orange trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) produce two inches long tubular flowers all summer. Grow these charmers on sturdy fences, arbors or other strong supports.

Shrubs to fit your garden plan would definitely include hydrangeas. They fill medium sized spaces admirably with a solid-seeming green presence. Then, when they burst into bloom in mid-summer, they give the illusion of billowing, cushy opulence. Reliably hardy and producing gorgeous flowers in shades of white, blue, pink, red and even pale lime (see 'Limelight'), hydrangeas are an old-fashioned standby that never looked newer than in today's gardens.

Tree peonies, like their herbaceous cousins that die to the ground each year, bloom for several days in May. While they do not have the staying power that some long-blooming flowers have, they are so rich, so sumptuous, so unforgettably gorgeous that they are eagerly anticipated each spring. Many of them have a mysterious but utterly enchanting fragrance and no garden could be complete without at least one. But who could choose just one? The blossoms are fully double in most cases and come in the most delicious candy colors, from golden and butterscotch yellow to creamy to pure white, and from the palest hint of pink through rich pink and lavender to the deepest most marvelous purples, dusky reds and maroons. There is even an irregularly striped peppermint red and white colored one! And the foliage is fabulous as well. No pests and diseases will harm your plants and they will still be producing their amazing May flowers into the next and future generations. At maturity, each plant may produce more than 100 blossoms of some 10 inches wide.

Smaller shrubs like the groundcover fairy rose, Rosa 'The Fairy', introduced in 1932, add structure rather than height. The Fairy greens up early in the season and begins to produce clusters of small, double pink flowers in June. In mild winters, I have had roses on my Fairy rose at Christmas time. Even in harsher years, there are flowers into late October or early November. The Fairy never gets taller than two feet, but will spread at least three feet wide.

Perennial flowers are, after the “bones”, the basic component of any garden. Whether bulbs or herbaceous perennials, they come back bigger and better next year. The range of color, texture, height and hardiness is quite amazing. No matter where you live in the 48 contiguous United States, there is a selection of perennials for you. The selection of daffodils and tulips and allium are dizzying, minor bulbs (snowdrop, grape hyacinth, glory of the snow, etc.), peony, coreopsis, foxglove, lily, daylily, hardy geranium... the list goes on and on.

There are also plants that are grown for the beauty of their foliage rather than for their flower-power. These plants, such as hosta and hardy ferns, are excellent for brightening up a dark part of your garden. Many, but not all hosta have variegated leaves in shades of green, white, blue and gold, but all are “quilted”, heavily veined or crinkled to add beautiful texture. Most produce flowers in lavender or white, some of which are sweetly fragrant. Ferns add bold or delicate texture in a range of heights and widths.

Annuals and tropical plants that are used as annuals in most areas of the U.S. lend a touch of whimsy and exotica to your garden. Try tall cannas in your garden beds or dwarf selections in pots, exotic dark red cosmos, Angel trumpets, calla lilies, elephant ears and so much more.

Trees, shrubs, vines, bulbs, perennials, biennials and annuals/tropicals. These are the ingredients you will need to create the garden of your dreams... mix it up!