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In January and February, the gardener
is doing what she or he is supposed to
be doing: the familiar ritual of perusing the new plant catalogs, selecting a long list of what plants she can’t possibly live
without; adding up the $$ total, and then slashing the list dramatically, so as to preserve the food budget for the humans and the beasts.
To get us past the winter doldrums, the better catalogs are packed with excellent pictures of the new offerings, and their accurate descriptions of color, shape, height, spread, origin, and zonal hardiness. Be aware, though. Some well-known retail catalogs follow the unscrupulous practice of doctoring the pictures to make their plants appear lush, when in fact they are shipping inferior plants which may have only one root per pot, and you are left to struggle to keep that one alive. It will likely never look like the picture.
One of the very best nurseries, Plant Delights in Raleigh, North Carolina (www.plantdelights.com), frequently provides the color designated by the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society, England) to aid us in selecting just the right coneflower or Dahlia or Crocosmia for our garden. For example: Echinacea “Mango Meadowbrite” is RHS 21A. This coneflower is being highly touted as the latest thing. Frankly, the color in the picture looks more like orange-mustard than mango. The text says: “This is a stunning plant in flower that is sure to stand out in the garden.
How well will Echinacea “Mango Meadowbrite” stand out if it is planted in close proximity to the butterscotch color of, say, Dahlia “Yellow Hammer” RHS 163A? Not good, not good at all, we learn from the color chart.
Now, constant readers know that Easy Gardener believes that a good clash is better than a bad match. Therefore, with the RHS color chart as a guide, Plant Delights Nursery might well tempt us with the lusty combination of a wow-red Dahlia “Bishop of Llandaff” (RHS 45A), the golden flowers of Dahlia ‘Bishop of York (RHS 17A), and Crocosmia “Jenny Bloom”, with orange buds (RHS 25A) that open into golden-yellow flowers (RHS 17B)!
Bordering on gaudy. Not for the faint of heart. But for real excitement, follow us as we lead you further down the garden path to the truly gaudy: a woody-stemmed 3' x 4' clump of Salvia (Sage) “California Sunset”, topped in spring and again in fall with a superb show of flower spikes of an unusual peachy orange (RHS 31B). Then wandering past those Dahlias, and the calm of the “Black Magic” Elephant Ear (a dusky black-purple), you come upon another Salvia in bloom in a color that cannot be reproduced successfully in print: a deep vibrant blue. This sage bears the tasteless name of S. guaranitica “Black and Blue”, the Domestic Violence Anise Sage. We did not make up this name, and we won’t tell you who did!
We think that possibly the Royal Horticultural Society begged off giving this color a number. Despite the name, this plant in bloom is a stunner. A worthy addition to any fall-blooming garden.
There are many well-behaved combinations of plants; the fun of gardening is putting together the great contrasts, such as the tiny-leaved foliage of the Northern Maidenhair Fern with the extravagantly large blue-puckered leaves of Hosta “Big Mama” and a magenta Coleus for spice.
It is literally endless fun to come up with plant combinations. Loving shade gardens as we do, this fun includes the many wonderful combinations that include Azaleas. Stay tuned.
Pat Howell is a Takoma Park gardener and landscape designer/contractor. She is available for hand-holding and answering questions through Deephaven Landscapers.
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