Garden Canadensis, Part 3: More Plants & Planting Combinations

In this, the third in a series of blog posts on Garden Canadensis, Chen and Linda's country garden located near Milton, Ontario, we will take a look at interesting perennials and plant pairings for sun and part shade.

(In case you missed the earlier posts here are links: Part 1 and Part 2.)

Planting Combination: Penstemon 'Dark Towers' and Geranium 'Rozanne' and Lavender, Lavandula.

Why this works: Though I am focusing in on the flowers at the moment, I want to take a second and point out the valuable role that the conifers play in this grouping. The blooms in this combination of plants are dainty and their stems are fine and wispy. They flower would tend less noticable without the wonderful and varied backdrop of green that the conifers provide.

Even though the flowers colors are all quite different in this combination of plants, they all have a purply cast that makes the grouping cohesive.

Penstemon 'Dark Towers': Height: 60-90 cm, Spread: 45-60 cm. Full sun. Normal, sandy or clay soil are fine. Average to dry conditions. Zones: USDA 3-9

Geranium 'Rozanne': Height: 30-50 cm, Spread: 45-60 cm. Full sun to part shade. Normal, sandy or clay soil are fine. Average to moist soil.

Chen says, "I have had this Geranium for years. It is a reliable and forgiving beauty."

Geranium sanguineum var. striatum

Geranium sanguineum var. striatum: Height: 15-20 cm, Spread: 45-60 cm. Full sun to part shade. Normal, sandy or clay soil are fine. It tolerates a range of soil conditions: dry to average or moist soil. Zones: USDA 3-9

 Chen Notes: " I like its pale pink flowers and nice green foliage for the front of borders. It spreads fast,  bordering on weedy."

Lavender, Lavandula

Plant Combination: Pale pink Geranium sanguineum var. striatum and Lavender, Lavandula. 

Why this works: Delicate and pretty in combination is always charming.

On the subject of Lavender, Chen writes: 

"This is one of the 'must have' perennials in my garden. I grow them for their ornamental foliage and flowers, and for their easily controlled, neat habit. Most of the Lavandula in my garden are from seeds I sowed many years ago. They self-sow a little, but not enough."

Those of you who regularly follow my blog know that I have struggled to grow Lavender successfully, so I asked Chen if he gave his plants any special treatment:

"The only thing I pay attention to for Lavandula are: not to locate them in a wet spot, give them as much light as possible and a pruning to keep a tidy shape. I do not have any special soil preparation for them. In fact, they seem to do equally well in poor soil. Some of them have even self-sown in the crevices of standing rocks."

Plant Combination: Another mix using Pale pink Geranium sanguineum var. striatum. Here it is combined with ground cover Sedum rupestre 'Angelina'.

Sedum rupestre 'Angelina': Height: 15-20 cm, Spread: 45-60 cm. Full sun. Dry to Average  conditions. Zones: USDA 3-9

Astrantia major 'Roma': Average to moist soil and part shade to sun are best for Astrantia. Height: 60-90 cm, Spread: 45-60, USDA Zones: 3-9

Plant pairing: Chen combines his Astrantia major 'Roma' with a Japanese Iris and purple Geranium 'Rozanne'. See a picture of the mix of all three plants on Chen's website.

In Chen's garden, a problem with voles means he has to struggle to keep his Astrantia flourishing. This area of the garden gets morning sun and passes into shade mid-afernoon.

Giant White Fleece Flower, Persicaria Polymorpha: Height: 90-120 cm, Spread: 80-90 cm. Full sun to part shade. Average to moist conditions. Zones: USDA 3-9

Chen writes:

"This is a lovely giant perennial. I am fortunate to have enough room in my garden to accommodate it. It is used as a bold structure plant and has attractive creamy-white plumes that bloom for a long time from late spring."

Plant Pairing: Coreopsis 'Mercury Rising' and Penstemon 'Husker's Red'. You can see Coreopsis 'Mercury Rising' in the foreground on the left. The front of a border is a perfect place for it.

Coreopsis 'Mercury Rising': Height: 30-45 cm, Spread: 30-45 cm. Full sun. Tolerates a range of conditions: dry to average and moist soil. Zones: The jury is still out on the true hardiness of this cultivar.

Plant Pairing: Coreopsis verticillata with burgundy Heuchera 

Why this works: The soft cloud of ferny Coreopsis verticillata makes a nice backdrop for the wands of tiny Heuchera flowers. 

On the subject of Coreopsis verticillata, Chen notes:

"I have had this for years. I don't particularly like the yellow flowers, but the ferny, refreshing green foliage makes it worth having around."

Coreopsis verticillata: Height: 30-45 cm, Spread: 30-45 cm. Full sun. Tolerates a range of conditons: dry to average and moist soil. Zones: USDA 4-9.

Gypsophillia cerastoides: This little pink flower caught my eye in Chen's rock garden. On his website, he warns that it self-sows to the point of being weedy. It sure is pretty though!

Lychnis coronaria: is a short lived perennial. Height: 60-90 cm, Spread: 45-50 cm. Full sun. Normal, sandy or clay soil are fine. Average to dry conditions. Zones: USDA 3-9

Chen notes,"This flower color is a little too bright to mix easily with other plants. The silvery foliage is what I want. It self-sows quite a bit, bordering on weedy."

Chen:

"The 'Dragon's Head' is an interesting group of perennials with various shades of attractive bluish flowers. It is most commonly grown by rock gardeners. Some books have warned that this is a highly invasive group of plants. It is my belief that only some of Dracocephalums behave badly."

See Chen's collection of Dracoephalum and read his full notes here.

Final Plant combination: Dianthus and Heuchera' Paris'

Chen:

"I used to think of Dianthus mostly as fillers, because they are easy to sow from seeds. Over the years I have come to like them as much as other ornamental perennials... 

Dianthus propagates from seeds and grows easily. Although they produce tons of seeds each season, so far, I find that they mostly self-sow in their own little patch and do not run around wildly like Forget-Me-Nots. 

I find the taller varieties have floppy habits. All my Dianthus look like brown patches in late summer. You can easily do a clean-up by pruning off the brown tops, but if you want some self-sown babies, you need to save some for seeds. If you are willing to address these shortcomings in your composition and maintenance schedule, Dianthus belongs in your garden."

In the final post on Chen's garden we will look at his impressive collection of conifers and see how he has combined them beautifully with other plants.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Garden Canadensis: this is one garden you'll want to see!

Welcome to Garden Canadensis. 

Located on two acres just outside of the town of Milton, Garden Canadensis is the creation of Chen and his lovely wife Linda. I asked Chen to tell me the garden's name and a bit about its history:

"Although we started building this garden when we first moved here about 26 years ago, we started a hobby bonsai nursery business (which we called Garden Cnaadensis) shortly after, and struggled for a few years. We soon realized that our professional career commitments and raising two kids etc. made it impossible to keep up with the gardening and the nursery hobbies."

"I did not go back to serious gardening until about 2007/2008: renovating/extending the beds, removing overcrowded trees/shrubs and starting to collect new plant material again. That is why you will find a mix of very mature trees and relatively young trees in the garden. We kept Garden Canadensis as the name of our garden to signify our connection with this land even from a botanical perspective."

From the driveway the garden appears somewhat unassuming, but the moment you come closer, and start moving among the plantings, you realize that you are in the midst of something special.

Miscanthus sinensis 'Dixieland'

Geranium 'Rozanne' 

Chen on geraniums: 

"Geraniums may not be the kind of plant that takes your breath away on first sight, or second. After you have a couple of them around for a few years, you may find that their quiet charm in mingling with other plants in shade or sun seems to make your garden more compete. Then you want more...I wish I could say they are easy to grow, but the fact is some of those that I like simply will not live here for more than a few years."

See more pictures and read Chen's notes on Geraniums. Click the 'i' to the top left of the image to have each cultivar identified.

Penstemon 'Dark Towers'

Penstemon 'Dark Towers'

An excerpt from Chen's notes on Heuchera: 

"In terms of ornamental attributes, usefulness, versatility and maintenance I would consider Heucheras as one of the most valuable perennials in our garden; yes I am biased. Heuchera has an interesting and wide color range, a compact neat habit, beautiful textures, and is semi-evergreen...Depending on the varieties, it can be grown in sun and shade." 

Read more notes on the subject of Heuchera on Chen's website. Click the 'i' to the top left of the image to have each cultivar identified.

Penstemon barbatus 'Coccineus'

Penstemon barbatus 'Coccineus'

I asked Chen if there was an overall vision for the garden when they began to create it or if it came together over time:

"Like all 'city folks', our initial dream when we moved here was to create an enchanting 2 acre garden. However, the initial shock of country gardening (extremely poor clay soil, poor drainage, limited water resource, extra vicious weeds and the scale of the garden) quickly limited our initial landscaping efforts to a few beds and patios around the house.

However, I did divide the one acre around the house into a number of imaginary zones (beds) and paths from the beginning, and planted some structure conifers in them...Over the years theses imaginary beds evolved iteratively and took shape (about 70% of them now)."

We are going to head into the back garden now. 

On the left there is a large family swimming pool and to the right is the house. Ahead of us is the winding path that leads into the main part of the back garden.

A rose covered arbor leads into the pool area. Let's stop to admire the roses before we look back 

toward the plantings surrounding the pool.

Rosa 'Climbing Iceberg' 

These overall shots are not as glamourous as closeups of beautiful flowers, but I wanted to include a few of them to show you how well the planting beds have been conceived and executed.

This is the view looking back towards the pool.

Let's step back onto the path and see more of the garden.

Penstemon 'Husker's Red'

What a love best about this garden are the many special moments.

Penstemon hirsutus

This is a garden that is beautiful even when it is quiet and green.

And it is stunning where there are stands of flowers like these tall, graceful Delphinium. 

Delphiniums 'Pacific Giants'

Some of Chen's views on delphiniums: 

"Our Delphiniums all came from inexpensive seed packages. I generally don't like flowers that need to be staked, but I would make an exception for the blue delphiniums; tall or short. Maybe it is because they are sooo...true blue. Their elegant presence in the garden is always noticed first."

Coreopsis 'Mercury Rising'

Chen tells me:

'Mercury Rising' was aquired last April and bloomed from June till frost. It was introduced to the marketplace as part of the Big Bang Series, and like 'Red Shift' is supposed to be hardy, but I am not holding my breath. I hope the claim by the breeder/nursery is true."

Chen has a wonderful array of Coreopsis. See additional pictures and read his notes regarding other cultivars here. Click the 'i' to the top left of the image to have each cultivar identified.

A shady area near the house.

 The plant with soft grey foliage is Veronica incana. The tall variegated green plant is Phlox 'Norah Leigh'. In the foreground with orange-red foliage is Heuchera 'Marmalade'.  The pink flower is Veronica spicata 'Giles Van Hees'

This is a very long post I know, but honestly, I haven't shown you the half of it! 

In upcoming posts, I will take a closer look some of the many wonderful planting combinations and offer more excerpts from Chen's notes on specific cultivars.

Have a wonderful weekend!

More Information and Links: You can also read more about the garden and see additional pictures by visiting Chen's website: Garden Canadensis .