Friday, May 13, 2005
Mix it up for a more interesting garden party
Libba Wolfe
Libba Wolfe's column appears twice monthly in Extra.
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I love to have a party. I like pulling out cookbooks and trying something new. I love how the house looks after the stacks of mail and magazines are stashed under the bed and the good towels are out; but the success of the party is all about the guests. You have to have an interesting combination.
Before I started gardening I thought it would be easy to have a separate border for each season and each one would contain just one kind of flower. It still sounds easy, but I suspect it would be boring. Just like a party of 100 people all talking about the same thing. Doesn't that sound like some company dinners you've been to? Way more fun to put together a group with enough differences to produce some sparks.
Planning for plant combinations can be hard. My first year many of my sure-fire combos fizzled when bloom times didn't mesh or the plants didn't enjoy the same amount of water or sun. On daily walks I started to pay attention to what caught my eye - contrasting foliage, size and color, upright plants surrounded by sprawling ones, background shrubs, fences and rocks, even the color of the dirt and mulch. I began to see it wasn't all about a mass of blooms. Success was in the combinations.
One of my favorite combos was an accident. A clear yellow lantana liked the 10 hours of direct sunlight in my front yard. It took off into a clump of low-growing caryopteris nearby. In September the graceful branches of the caryopteris were covered in deep blue blooms and tangled with the yellow lantana. Lovely. Each plant was better for being beside the other.
Next week I'm making room in a sunny spot for another great match, Mexican sage and pineapple sage. Both are 4 or 5 feet tall by the time they bloom in October. The Mexican has huge velvety purple and white blooms and the pineapple has smaller true red flowers. Great at the back of the border. And very dramatic in a tall glass vase in the house.
My brother Clay is not a timid gardener. He likes bold color and texture contrasts. He stops traffic with the huge purplish leaves of the castor bean surrounded by spidery pale pink and white cleomes and under-planted with magenta gomphrena. If the toxic castor bean makes you nervous, you could substitute dark elephant ears.
Remember when you discovered the power of the black crayon in the second grade? Outlining with black made all the other colors brighter. Apply the same idea in the garden. A patch of black or deep burgundy makes the other colors pop and shows off nearby blooms. Try black liriope, dark coleus, cana foliage or black sweet potato vines. You can even spray-paint a pot black and use it in the border.
My friend Joyce lives in an old farmhouse that came with big trees, boxwoods and lots of shade. She's added hydrangeas and shrub roses. (She's promised to give me her shrub rose tips and I'll pass them along later.) Joyce is a disciplined gardener who found the colors that work and sticks with them - no irresistible orange impulses for her. The shade is brightened with pinks and whites contrasted with deep blues and burgundy. She under-plants all those big shrubs with giant ajuga, ferns and hostas, masses of white wave petunias, pale impatiens and lots of Fence Guard spray to keep the deer out.
A trip to another friend's garden left me dazzled. When I looked up from the bottom of a long, gradual hill I realized even the tops of his huge trees are a lesson in combinations - spires, globes, burgundy against lime and gold, delicate new leaves with solid conifers. Every path reveals a new way to look at the way the plants play together. He says you can't beat ferns and hostas for creating excitement and beauty in a border. Hostas in blue, deep green, gold, lime; some solid, striped or variegated; huge leaves, tiny ones, rough textured or smooth, shiny or matte.
Pair them with ferns - delicate or muscular, upright or mounding, green stems or black, from the spring greens of maidenhair to the pink and white splashed Japanese painted fern. Go for the contrasts. The combination possibilities are endless and we haven't had to say a word about blooms.
I got a great tip from Milly. She lives up the street and her generosity has been the beginning of many new gardens on our street. This time of year she stuffs pots full of annuals and when inspiration strikes she moves the pot into the border. I'm going to plant some pots of lime coleus and some of burgundy and they can be my "little black party dress" that can go anywhere.
I'd love to hear about your favorite combinations. Take notes, take pictures, take risks. It's just like having a party. Do what you can ahead of time and pray for good weather.
