Garden: I Think I Found My Plant

So.  In the last post, I was wracking my brain to come up with a plant (or plants) with dark foliage to weave throughout the garden.

And then, yesterday, I made a quick stop at City People's Mercantile to round up some hose connectors and sundry parts to help get me and the garden through the recent bout of hot weather, and I think I found my plant--Trachelium caeruleum "Lake Michigan Wine Red".

Trachelium caeruleum, or Blue Throatwort--unknown cultivar.  Source:  Wikimedia Commons

For some, Trachelium caeruleum is a perennial (some sources list it as being hardy in zones 7-11) but I bought it as an annual--in fact, the grower's website says that it is hardy to only 40 degrees.  It is a common flower in the florist trade and is available in shades of blue, violet, white, and green.  I really like the look of the green-flowered one, but it seems to be not yet available to retail trade.  Trachelium caeruleum is said to grow in clumps to 3 feet tall and wide.  I doubt if it will do that here, in the course of a single growing season.  The growth habit I expect is a single longish stem or two of dark green foliage blushed with wine or purple and topped with a single loose umbel of dark wine-colored flowers.  I think the longish, darkish stems could be just the thing I am looking for to help better integrate the dense dark-foliaged plants with the rest of the garden.   I bought two small 4-packs of of this plant and dotted them around the garden.  I hope they do well!  If so, I will try (next year) to source the darkest and duskiest cultivar available.

Garden: Thoughts on (My) Garden Color

I recently read a web article entitled Color: dense vs diffuse, by Michael McCoy of The Gardenist.  In it, he explored the different effects achieved by using vibrant, solid blocks of dense, hurts-your-eyes color (like the solid, hot pink of a Karume Azalea in bloom) vs the same color sprinkled among greens (as, for example, Knautia blooms).  He explained how using diffuse color (like the Knautia) can make an effective transition to a more solid block of color that would otherwise stand alone in a landscape.  The Knautia example was mine--and I totally mashed-up the author's Azalea example--but he shared several fantastic visual examples of plant combinations featuring dense/diffuse plant pairings.  His article is well worth reading--it's just a page long--and can be found here.  I've always been a fan of gentle transitions in the garden, so the general concept of stepping-down from an intense block of color to a graduated or diffuse version was not new to me but this eloquent essay got inside my head and it has been rattling around in there ever since.  

While I don't consider my garden to be a colorist garden, it is too small to leave color unconsidered. When I remodeled the front beds last year, one of my goals was to create a somber or dusky color palette. In addition to plants with dark or dusky flowers, I incorporated plants with dark foliage.  But I have been unsatisfied with the result despite continued tweaking.  One source of dissatisfaction has been the way in which plants with dark foliage tend to stick out like blobs within the big picture.  Having read Michael McCoy's article, I suddenly realized that non-green foliage functions like dense floral color in the landscape:  It needs to be stepped-down with a more diluted version.  D'oh!  I am not sure why that was not immediately obvious to me.

So, while I am still looking for more dusky options to strengthen my color palette, I realize that I need to look for wispy plants or plants having dark stems instead of focusing on big, dense, dark foliage plants like Sambucus nigra "Black Lace" or Sedum "Black Jack".  I'm having a bit of difficulty building that list:  I think that Pennisetum setaceum rubrum accomplishes the task; and I thought about blood grass although it is (probably) too bright red; Clematis recta purpurea would be OK if it vined instead of clumping strongly; maybe there's a really vining dark leafed geranium?--I have "Samobor" but it does not read "dark" to me.  Hmmm...this is not easy...

Here, for the purpose of critiquing the color palette, are some pictures of my garden taken during the past couple of days.  

I call this view the "reverse view" because the photo is taken from my neighbor's property looking parallel to the street--the opposite view from the one you'd get if you were approaching the house on the entry path.  

Reverse view. Everybody asks about the tall, skinny trees--
they are "North Pole" columnar apples.

Plants in this grouping that contribute to the dusky color palette are the Cimicifuga and the Digitalis parviflora "Milk Chocolate".  I didn't plan it, but I like how the Heuchera blooms in the background echo the color and form the Digitalis spikes.  The Cimicifuga seems like a pretty good choice for dark foliage in that it's rather ferny and not too dense.

...And a closer look at the Digitalis and lily "Landini".  Last year when the Digitalis was blooming, I'd just planted the Geranium and I admired the color echo between the brownish Digitalis spikes and the browned-off stems of the Geranium. (Last year's post about Digitalis.)  Fortunately, I still like the combo even though the geraniums are not brown but blooming.

Lily "Landini", Digitalis parviflora "Milk Chocolate", Cimicifuga, Geranium "Jolly Bee"

Here's another picture of the same plants but the viewpoint is shifted around to the street.  This view features a lot of deep reds contributed by the chocolate cosmos and the Sanguisorba "Red Thunder".  There's a Pennisetum setaceum "Rubrum" tucked in behind the Sanguisorba.

Chasmanthium latifolium, Cimicifuga, Digitalis parviflora, Geranium "Jolly Bee", 
Sanguisorba "Red Thunder", chocolate cosmos, Adenophora Tashiroi

...And a little closer.  

I think I made something pretty, but I'm still chasing the moodiness that I'd hoped to create.  In fact, I made a couple of changes just after I took these pictures.  I dug out all three clumps of Adenophora Tashiroi and two big, established sedums.  I took the Adenophora out because they flopped and their clear, light violet color just wasn't adding to the moodiness.  I'm not sure how I will replace them, but I'm leaning towards annual  larkspur "Blue Spires".  I like the darker blue color of the larkspur and I think I will prefer their single stems.  I also planted two Penstemon "Dark Towers" which, with their darker (but not too dark) foliage, should add to the moodiness.  I hope they do not clump up too vigorously--a narrow clump will suit my needs much better.

I am definitely not satisfied (or finished) with this garden bed.  At least, though, I have come closer to the solution.  Now I just need to research, research, research to find the plants which will help my vision come to fruition.

Garden: GBBD--June 2014

Well, I waited all day hoping for the opportunity to get a better batch of photos for this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, but evening caught up with me and I'm going to go to the publisher with what I've got.

First up, an overview featuring the Amsonia "Blue Ice"--it's getting a little faded after a month of bloom (and a good beat-down by the rain during the past couple of days) but the blooms still look nice.  I really appreciate this tidy, pretty plant.

Faded Amsonia "Blue Ice" with a background of Centranthus ruber alba, spires of violet Adenophora Tashiroi, and Geranium "Jolly Bee"

Digitalis parviflora "Milk Chocolate".  Parviflora means "small flowered" and this is what you get.  Luckily, this is also EXACTLY the effect I desired.  I also like the sturdy, ramrod straight stems of this variety.  I can't imagine that they EVER need staking and they continue to add architectural interest to the garden long after the flowers have faded.

Digitalis parviflora with Cimicifuga and Geranium "Jolly Bee"

Hardy geranium "Jolly Bee" with a baby digitalis spike.

Cosmos atrosanguineus "Chocamocha" with Jolly Bee. My camera sure has trouble with the blue of the geranium.

A poor little lily--a single bloom on a spindly plant--is the first of its kind to bloom.  But, I like the placement among violet Adenophora Tashiroi, a dark Pennisetum setaceum Rubrum, and Sanguisorba officinalis "Red Thunder".  Some of the blooms on the sanguisorba are full, but most are a week or two from actually blooming.

Astrantia with Jolly Bee in the background.  I'm not sure which Astrantia this is--I purchased both Abbey Road and Hadspen Blood--but this variety is markedly earlier and more vigorous than the other.

So, that's about it for the front garden.  Around back, I've got Rosa "Mutabilis", campanulas, Persicaria polymorpha, Sisyrinchium "Lucerne", Aruncus, and Gillenia trifoliate (Bowman's Root) currently blooming.

To take a peek at what is blooming today in gardens all around the world, head on over to visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Garden: Small Changes

I've been making small changes in the garden.  Some big projects still await completion--I am trying hard to avert my eyes and my thoughts from those projects.  And I am trying (very hard) to wait and see how the garden fills in before making any big changes to the planting.  But I've been moving slowly along, working on small projects here and there.  And nature has been moving slowly along as well.  So this is a "bits-and-pieces" post about some of the small developments taking place in my garden.

In the back, I found a dish for the top of the gabion pillar.

Before:

Picture taken last August.  The plastic dish acted as a placeholder for whatever would come next.

After:

New dish on gabion pillar.  I think I'd like to add some sempervivums to fill in around the base.  And I can't wait until the sedums bulk up and obscure the top edge of the gabion.

Just across the path from the gabion pillar, I ripped out all the Columbine.  I liked them--in early spring, I was especially happy to see their cheerful blooms--but they also looked gaudy and that weighed on me increasingly.  So, recently, I ordered seed for A. viridiflora "Chocolate Soldier" and I determined that the existing plants needed to go sooner rather than later.  How am I going to differentiate between the new seedlings and the (probably) hundred thousand seeds from the existing plants?  Really...that's not a rhetorical question.

Newly (temporarily) columbine-free area.

On the other side of the patio, the bulky plants in the arbor bed are getting some size and are doing what I hoped they'd do--providing a feeling of enclosure.  I've been thinking about, maybe, adding some Primula japonica (the dark raspberry-colored ones) to the area around the front--it might look nice if they infiltrated the spaces between the cement strips.

The persicaria is a good 7 feet tall right now.  Yea!

Further 'round the back, in the "Swamp Bed", the siberian iris are getting ready to bloom.  I planted them last year and they didn't bloom, so this is my first chance to see if I like the combination of chartreuse iris with the chartreuse-y Alchemilla blooms.  I've also planted fennel (plain old Foeniculum vulgare and bronze fennel) which should bloom alongside the Alchemilla later in the year.  And, there's also some soft, margarine-y yellow in the area, contributed by some asiatic lilies and Weigela middendorffiana.  I do like the soothing effect of a monochromatic palette--even when it is built around a bright like chartreuse! 

But the chartreuse/soft yellow is only one color story.  There's also a sort-of raspberry thread going on which includes Rosa mutabilis, Monarda "Raspberry Wine", Astilbes, and the dusky foliage of the bronze fennel and the "Sweet Tea" honeysuckle.  At some point in the year, the greenish yellows and the raspberry tones are going to intermingle. I keep hoping that I've added enough foliage to balance it all.

In the front yard, I am enjoying some of the lighter, more ethereal plants that I added during the big reshuffle.  That many of these plants make an earlier presence in the garden is a welcome side effect. 

Wispy plants in the front garden bed.

And I added one new plant to the front garden--Variegated Peuce, Peucedanum ostruthium "Daphnis".  I am quite taken with this plant, which looks a lot like variegated Aegopodium but has none of goutweed's bad habits.  I planted it in the back near the "Quick Fire" hydrangea, but it has enough height to be visible from the front and the early-season umbels will make a nice continuum with the umbellifers that bloom later on.  

One last photo--Amsonia "Blue Ice".  I love the inky, blue-purple buds!

Amsonia "Blue Ice"

Garden: GBBD--May 2014

It seems like everyone has something to show for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day this month--and I do, too.  

The unseasonal heat of the past couple of days has caused everything to rush into bloom.  Here's a quick tour arranged geographically--not everything that's in bloom, just a few highlights.

From the sunny front yard come the iris.  The brown one is called "Gingersnap" and it smells subtly like root beer.  Today was warm and, with so many blooms open, I noticed the scent just hanging in the air.  The purple iris is called "Cantina" and it often reblooms in the fall.

Unknown bi-color iris intermixed with Heuchera.

This Clematis chiisanensis "Lemon Bells" is newly planted on the back of the front yard fence.  I thought it would be lighter and more meadowy looking than the espaliered camellia that used to live here.  I found a great new spot for the camellia behind my garbage can enclosure.  It's a better placement--I swear!--even the camellia thinks so.

Around back, Alyssum forms nice mounds along the bottom of the planter wall.  Alyssum is a blue-collar plant, but it's really earned its place in the garden.  Alyssum is available early in the year, bulks-up quickly, flowers non-stop well into fall, isn't damaged by the occasional footstep, and it smells nice.  Winner!

Further along the wall, Sisyrinchium "Lucerne" has burst into bloom.  It won my respect last year for being tough as nails and continuing to bloom without cessation right until fall.

And here is Rosa mutabilis.  This is its first spring in my garden and I can't believe how many blooms it pumped out!

In the shady back yard, the Brunnera blossoms are fading just as those of Alchemilla are coming on.

And that's what I've got blooming.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is hosted each month on the 15th by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.  Head on over there to see what is blooming, today, in gardens around the world.