From: Sean O'Hara Newsgroups: rec.gardens Subject: Re: Perennial Garden Timing (professional tips) Date: Wed, 11 Jan 95 12:39:48 PDT [...] The first thing I tell clients who want their gardens to go all year is to work on the soil and irrigation (if appropriate). A 'full bore' garden needs good nourishment and adequate water to keep itself going throughout the year. Look into permanent mulching, annual topdressing, etc. Next, if you notice a lack of somthing happening in your garden at a given time of year, look around you in other gardens that are 'happening'. Most gardens have only a short season where they enjoy this effect, but by noting the plants and/or combinations in your area, you can think of ways to incorporate them into your own garden to provide effect at that time. Color is too often 'muddled' in garden. It is best to keep it restricted to a limited palette for real drama and impact. Separate your garden into color zones, or concentrate a particular color into one season (e.g. pale pinks/whites/yellows with newly emerging chatreuse and bright green leaves; robust reds/oranges/yellows/blues in summer; fiery sunset tones and lavender and purple in fall, etc). Just keep it to a definite palette (rather than "I like ALL colors"). Often, taking color 'hints' from existing plants can provide more depth and richness than you previously imagined. Look at the color of a flower in bud (often darker or contrasting), a leaf stem, bark & twigs (e.g. sometimes a nice ruby red). Use these to give you ideas. Any always consider the architectural color - the color of your house or that of your neighbors. Consider a well placed colored garden chair, or painting that garage door blue to highlight the Delphiniums, etc. To have a garden looking good all the time, think long and hard about foliage color (you might have to break open a few books here ;-). Flowers are very transient, but foliage color is less so. You have the advantage we do not of wonderful fall color, but variegated or unusually colored foliage can provide the same effect that flowers would for months at a time. Choose your foliage color carefully, usually keeping to a narrow palette to avoid a real 'mess'. E.G. - if yo have a lot of dark greens around, brighten them up with some white variegated shrubs/perennials, matching with a good amount of white flowers as well as one or two other colors (again, keep it simple for the best effect). Or use 'gold' variegates or gold-leaf forms (often a nice chartruese) to punch up these somber greens, adding some warm-hot oranges/yellows in flowers, or contrast the yellowish foliage with clear, pure blues (this is a classic!). I have a 'red' bed that has lots of dark, brooding plum foliage, which is a nice accent to the fuchsia, magenta, red-pink & rose flowers it contains. Or glaucous blue-grey foliage with an occasional accent of a gold/chartreuse leaf, adding yellow flowers. On and one you can go, but work with the foliage color/texture first, then if the flowers are gone, noone will really notice! Often, to maximise the foliage effect, pruning at a particular time might be helpful. For spring bloomers such as Weigela, prune heavily just after the flowering is done, and the bush will spring forth with beautiful wands of attractive leaves (there are various variegated, gold-leaf, and dusky plum forms of this easy plant). Or summer bloomers can be pruned early to maximise the size of new flowering wood, producing the largest flowers as well (Butterfly Bushes (Buddleias) fall here). New foliage is often a different color that of mid-summer - use this color to advantage by picking it up in a flower or another foliage color. Distraction is a useful technique. If you have a seasonal knockout plant, that become a real 'hole' later after its done, more the next season's focus to another spot in the garden - don't try and have some beauty reach its peak, right next to another that looking miserable! Separate them by enough space so that you scarecly notice the demise of the first. Winter - Oh, to garden in a REAL winter, with snow! Think about the garden and how it'll look in this time of dormancy. A few well-placed evergreens epscially those in interesting shapes (naturally, unless you are Edward Sissor-Hands!) and nice textures, can provide a nice contrast to summer flowers as well as 'something to look at' in the snow covered landscape. Also, perennials and shrubs can have their own unique winter look. Consider leaving seed head and bare stalks until spring - see if they provide some interest in their 'dead' state. Some shrubs/trees have beautiful bark/stems in winter, or their buds starting to swell can be almost like flowers in early spring before things are growing. Think about winter bloomers like Hellebores, early bulbs like Snowdrops & Winter Aconite. Fall fruits like rose hips and Viburnum berries can persist into Winter, providing interest and winter food for a few birds. They key is always observation. See what works in your area. Try new things and see if you like them. Use shrubs, trees, perennials, bulbs, annuals, all together (this is how they grow naturally) in a border to provide more interest throughout the year (rather than annuals that are flattened by the first bad frost). Let delicate vines trail over shrubs, weaving their leafy textures and flowers into those of its host, or let them trail on the ground between your annuals & perennials. Let all fall into demise from time to time to see if they offer multi-season offerings. (Done rambling now! Hope some of the above was useful) Sean A. O'Hara, 710 Jean St., Oakland, Ca. 94610-1459 saouc@uccmvsa.ucop.edu or sean.ohara@ucop.edu