It's a gorgeous day here–sunny and warm enough for the snow to be melting. Though it feels like spring has arrived, I remind myself that it is only the first of March and winter may not be done with us just yet.
You can see the tangled growth at the base of the lilac in this shot from June 2019.
Even though it is just a common lilac, the flowers are pretty and very fragrant.
Despite the pockets of snow, the dogs and I spent a good part of yesterday afternoon out in the garden. The temperature was mild enough for me to ditch my winter jacket and get to work pruning a neglected lilac. While this is not the proper time of year to prune a lilac (you could cut off all this year's flower buds if you aren't confident in what you're doing) I find it helpful to get a headstart on simple tasks like removing spindly suckers before I get overwhelmed with a long list of other pressing spring chores. That and it's nice to be puttering around outside in the sunshine!
Like me, I am sure you are beginning to draw up a spring wishlist. What interests me these days are plants with unique foliage and flowers. With that in mind, I've put together a list of new introductions from Terra Nova Nurseries that have captured my imagination. And as I promised earlier in the year, I'm also going to highlight some older introductions I think are worth seeking out.
A word about Terra Nova® Nurseries. They use tissue culture to propagate and grow both annuals and perennials.Based in Canby Oregon, they have introduced over a thousand new plants to market.
As a wholesale propagation nursery, Terra Nova does not sell directly to the public. On their website, they have a handy page that will help youlocate a retailer in your state or province that sells their plants (Sadly for Canadians on the East Coast and in Saskatchewan, Terra Nova is underrepresented).
Some of the New Plants for 2020
Geum Tempo™ Rose from Terra Nova® Nurseries
Geum Tempo™ Rose has dark rose-pink flowers on short, dark stems. Moist, loamy soil is prefered. Long bloom time. Full sun. Height: 8-21 inches, Spread: 12 inches. USDA zones: 5-9.
Sedum Peach Pearls has burgundy leaves and rose-gold flowers. Even in its first year, this sedum produces multiple flower crowns. 'Peach Pearls' likes soil with good drainage. Drought tolerant and attractive to pollinators. Full sun. Height: 14-20 inches, Spread: 24 inches. USDA zones: 4-9.
Veronica Vespers™ Blue has blueish-purple flowers. A long period of bloom begins in late spring and runs into mid-summer. It prefers moist soil with lots of organic material and good drainage. Full sun. Height: 9-13 inches, Spread: 11 inches. USDA zones: 4-8.
Heuchera Northern Exposure™ Sienna has green foliage when it first emerges in the spring. In summer, it becomes a mix of sienna and orange with greenish margins. Fall sees it revert back again to green. Rust resistant. Moderately well-drained soil and average moisture conditions. Full sun to part shade. Height: 13-22 inches, Spread: 21 inches. USDA zones: 4-9.
Other Perennials that Caught my Eye:
Of all the perennials on my list, I would love to get my hands on this one the most! I find Thalictrum to be a terrific option for part-shade. This type of Meadow Rue has lovely ferny foliage, dark stems and star-like flowers. I have the mauve flowering variety but would like to add a white flowering version: Thalictrum Nimbus™ White has clouds of white flowers and fern-like foliage. The flowers age to lavender-pink seed heads. This perennial prefers moist, humus-rich soil but adapts well to average soil with good drainage. Part-shade. Height: 28 inches, Spread: 16 inches. USDA zones: 5-9.
I have a quite number of Bleeding Hearts, but I don't have this cultivar with its combination of golden leaves and white flowers.
I can just imagine Dicentra 'White Gold' mixed in with tulips and daffodils. Beautiful! Again, it's a great option for the shady area of your garden (although, based on experience with similar 'Gold Heart', I would recommend part-shade for the best leaf color).
Dicentra 'White Gold' has heart-shaped white flowers and golden leaves on a vigorous plant. This perennial prefers moist, loamy soil. Part to full shade. Height: 24-30 inches, Spread: 36 inches. USDA zones: 4-8.
When you're a plant collector, it's hard to resist adding more of your favourites:
Geum Petticoats™ Peach has semi-double peach flowers on a compact plant with green foliage. Moist, loamy soil is prefered. Reblooms. Full sun. Height: 10-12 inches, Spread: 20 inches. USDA zones: 5-9.
Every year I try to invest in at least one new hosta with interesting features. Here are two with very attractive reddish-purple accents:
Hosta 'Purple Heart' has glossy lime-green foliage with red-purple at the base of each heart-shaped leaf. 'Purple Heart' has a neat, uniform growth habit and good slug resistance. Full shade. Height: 15-24 inches, Spread: 30 inches. USDA zones: 4-9.
Hosta 'Raspberry Sundae' is a compact hosta with creamy-white variegation through the centre of the leaf. It has deep burgundy petioles, leaf bases and flower stalks. Its flowers are deep lavender-purple. Part-shade to full shade. Height: 9-23 inches, Spread: 21 inches. USDA zones: 4-9.
Yet another personal favourite is Penstemon (I already have Penstemon 'Husker Red' and 'Dark Towers'). Many of the newer introductions aren't hardy here, but I was very excited to see two that are reputed to be tough, hardy perennials:
Penstemon Dakota™ Verde has violet flowers on dark stems. Seed heads are a lovely dark burgundy color and the foliage takes on a purple tinge in the fall. Average, well-drained soil is fine for this perennial. Full sun. Height: 12-24 inches, Spread: 18 inches. USDA zones: 3-8.
Penstemon Dakota™ Burgundy has violet flowers. This penstemon is shorter and more compact than popular 'Dark Towers'. Average well-drained soil and moisture conditions are fine for this plant. Full sun. Height: 12-24 inches, Spread: 18 inches. USDA zones: 3-8.
I thought I would also throw in a few annuals that caught my attention. Some people struggle with Rex Begonias, but I seem to have good luck with them. I keep them as houseplants year-round in an east-facing window. Each spring, I divide them and move the divisions outdoors to fill part-shade containers.
I often take cuttings in the fall and keep Coleus over the winter as houseplants. Last fall I didn't have a chance to take the usual cuttings, so this spring I am definitely in the market for some new plants. Here are a couple I am going to watch for:
I hope this post has inspired you to add a few plants to your own wishlist for 2020.
In this, the second post on David Hobson's garden, I'd like to focus in on the design and layout and highlight a few more of the standout plants.
For any readers who missed Part 1, David Hobson is an author and newspaper columnist who gardens in Waterloo, Ontario. The home he shares with his lovely wife sits on an average-sized suburban lot, but there are so many distinct areas of visual interest that the limitations of its boundaries aren't the thing that you notice. As with any well-designed outdoor space, the garden reveals itself slowly with one discovery after another. A brick path, that starts at the side gate, branches in several directions at the back of the house. Follow the main path down one side of the yard and you might find yourself in the vegetable garden at the very back of the property. Turn down a short offshoot and you'll find yourself standing on a small lawn surrounded by flowerbeds on all sides. Cross the grass and another branch of the pathway takes you to a patio area, the deck and small pond. It's a great example of how clever design can influence the way you experience a garden.
In so many of the backyards I visit, the garden skirts the perimeter of the property and the lawn is the empty void in the centre. This approach always feels a bit forced and unnatural. In David's garden, the flowerbeds not only skirt the perimeter of the backyard, but they also curve into the central core of this outdoor space. The lawn is no longer an isolated monoculture. It feels integrated into the overall layout of the garden.
When it came to creating his garden, David was quite resourceful.
"It evolved in general with some planning of the elements. It's a bit of a budget three-R garden –as materials became available, I incorporated them, such as using old barn-board for the fence and a chance opportunity to reclaim bricks for the patios. I used scavenged rocks wherever I found them. The first liner for the pond was a piece of a terrible aqua blue swimming pool liner. Everything else I built," he says.
Occasionally David will use potted plants to fill the empty spaces left by early bloomers, but often container plantings end up in the garden simply because he has potted up too many plants.
Tenets of traditional garden design recommend groupings of three to five perennials for maximum visual impact. That may be all well and good if you have an English manor house and acres of land. On the other hand, if you are a plant collector like David, with a typical suburban lot, you have to rethink such old-fashioned principals.
In David's modest backyard, there just isn't room for multiples. Most of the time, he's lucky to find room for just one of everything. You might think that mixing a wide range of individual plants would have the potential to make the garden seem a bit disjointed and higgledy-piggledy. In actuality, David's one-of-a-kind approach works quite nicely. Repeated colors, shapes and textures help the whole garden hang together very nicely.
A nodding Allium (sorry, not sure of the specific type).
Staghorn Sumac, Rhus typhina 'Bailtiger' Tiger Eyes is a dwarf Sumac cultivar. Staghorn Sumacs are named for the reddish-brown hairs that cover their young branches much like the velvet that covers the antlers of a male deer. The great thing about this Sumac is there is minimal suckering (unlike the species Rhus typhina). This shrub can be grown in well-drained, average garden soil. Long, odd-pinnate leaves are bright yellow-green when they emerge and turn shades of yellow, orange and red in the fall. Female flowers produce showy pyramidal fruiting clusters that become bright red in the fall. Full sun or light shade. Height: 3-6ft, Spread: 3-6ft. USDA zones: 4-8.
Reference to a similar Globe Thistle: Globe Thistle, Echinops ritro 'Vietch's Blue' is a well-behaved garden perennial that has grey-green foliage and round, steel-blue flowers. Bees love this flower in mid-to-late summer. Full sun. Height: 90-100 cm (35-39 inches), spread: 60-75 cm (23-29 inches). USDA zones: 2-9.
Tansy
An evergreen hedge separates the prettier parts of the garden from the more practical area used for growing vegetables. If you walk through the arbour (see above) you'll find a modest greenhouse, tomatoes and a wide range of other edibles.
The yellow Yarrow. A similar phlox might be 'Laura' or 'Purple Flame'
"I've had this common yellow yarrow–say that ten times quickly– so long I'm beginning to think I planted it in a previous life", David jokes. "There are numerous colors of yarrow available in all sizes and they are one of the easiest perennials to grow. Yarrow requires full to part sun, good drainage and little to no fertilizer. Once established they are drought tolerant," says David.
Sempervivum requires very little soil so they are quite at home on this hypertufa "straw" hat.
One of the most whimsical of odd-ball container plantings in David's garden are these straw hats. They are made using hypertufa (a mixture of peat moss, perlite (or vermiculite) and Portland cement).
"The thing to remember here is you have to have plants that survive without much moisture. Hens and chicks, little sedums; they do fine," says David.
Watch a video about David's unique container plantings.
To make this obelisk David repurposed the boom from an old teak windsurfer. The metal rings are barrel hoops.
"I knocked this together from old barrel hoops. the beauty of an obelisk is it can be out in the open and you can view the plants from all sides," says David.
Spike Speedwell, Veronica 'Red Fox' has magenta flower spikes in summer. Removing faded flowers will encourage a longer bloom time. Powdery mildew can be an issue if the plant is stressed by drought. Average garden soil. Full sun. Height: 30-40 cm (12-16 inches), spread: 30-35 cm (12-14 inches). USDA zones: 4-8.
"Veronica are neat and tidy plants that are beautiful in or out of flower. They are carefree and easy-to-grow perennials preferring mainly full sun. Butterflies and hummingbirds love them too. They are commonly known as Speedwell," David advises.
Weigela 'My Monet' is a dwarf shrub that has green and white foliage which changes according to light exposure. To encourage a pinkish tinge to the foliage, plant this shrub it in full sun. 'My Monet' prefers well-drained soil but is adaptable to a variety of soils. Average moisture conditions. Slow growth rate. Height: 30-45 cm (12-18 inches), spread: 45-60 cm (18-24 inches). USDA zones: 4-9.
Lilies of all types are great to have in the garden for mid-summer color.
In the distance, an Amur Maple, that can reach a height of 18 ft and spread of 10 ft, creates a shady corner.
Curiosity draws author and humorist David Hobson out into his garden.
"What I really enjoy is going out into my garden each day and discovering something new. It might be a new plant coming into bloom; it could be an insect, or it might be a bird," he says.
Ligularia and an Astrantia
This original take on a "boxwood ball" os mone of the garden's many novelties. To make it, David placed a pot of annual flowers in a hollowed out depression at the top of the clipped box.
One of the nicest spots to sit and relax is right at the back of the house. There is the pleasant sound of water and the dark reflective surface of the pond.
The thick carpet of chartreuse moss and the firey-red color of the Red Fountain Grass are a stunning example of how to use texture and color in a garden.
Scotch Moss, Sagina subulata 'Aurea' has chartreuse to yellow moss-like foliage and tiny white flowers in the spring. Tolerates moderate foot traffic and is often used among flagstones in pathways. Scotch moss requires well-drained moist soil and may require regular watering. Full to part-sun. Height: 1 inch. USDA zones: 4-8.
Red Fountain Grass, Pennisetum on a carpet of Scotch Moss, Sagina subulata 'Aurea'.
Swamp milkweed, Asclepias incarnata is native to most of the U.S. and Eastern Canada. Though it is found in swamps and wet meadows, is adaptable to average, well-drained garden soil. This plant has a tall, slender, vase-like shape and pinkish-magenta flowers that have a faint vanilla fragrance. The one thing this plant does not like is over-fertilization which can inhibit flowering. Swamp milkweed is easily grown from seed. Once mature, it has a deep taproot that makes it difficult to move. Swamp milkweed does have one drawback. It can be a rather prolific self-seeder. It likes full sun, but I have also grown it in light shade. Height: 4-6 ft, Spread: 2-3 ft. USDA zones: 3-9.
Blood Grass, Imperata cylindrica
I am going to end with another of David's videos–this one about long-blooming perennials. Enjoy!
