Flower Power

Last week I was pretty down on the perennial border. Perhaps it's hard to tell with all the veggie prep, but ever since spending those couple of days pulling all the weeds out front, I've been a little obsessed with what should go in there. Some of that is self-defense: the more plants that are filling the bed, the less room weeds will have to grow, and the less work I will have to do. Mostly, though, once I start thinking about how a design (of anything, really) should come together, I can't stop until something is solid. I like to finish things.

Several days last week, then, were filled with researching plants online, wandering through local nurseries, and sitting out front staring at the dirt with a pencil, graph paper, and some tape measures. This sucked down literally hours at a time. I tried to look out the windows at it once it got dark, but that wasn't really working since it was, um, dark.  

At one of our local nurseries I was inspired by their 50% off sale on roses to stick with my original plan of mostly white with some red accents. I figured two rose bushes (White Out, which is like a Knock-Out rose: super-duper hardy and with a very long blooming season) would do well to cover a lot of ground with minimal maintenance. And really, at half price, I could give the late planting a shot without worrying too much about an untimely demise.

I came into some cash through a little freelance work, so with that and a pickup truck borrowed from our mechanic, I was ready to roll. In addition to our local nursery, I also dragged the kids on a trek out to Carlisle to this amazing hosta and daylily farm. This is what we came back with:

I ended up spreading the planting over several days, because we were working on the vegetable beds as well, and because once in a while I like to do non-garden-related activities. Plus I have two kids. But today I finished what I had, so here's what it looks like. If you want to know the details of what all the plants are, keep reading. If you're happier just scrolling through the photos, that's fine too.

Starting in the back, from left to right: large boxwood, medium pinkish-white rhododendron, and the empty space next to that will be filled with tall white phlox next season (unless you have one or two to offer right now).

Middle row, from left to right: red daylily, gaura "snow fountain" (also known as "whirling butterfly"  because the tiny pinksh-white flowers look like butterflies swirling above the leaves), white daylily (curving up toward the back).

Front row: from left to right: white clips, Jacob's Ladder, blue fescue, white lavender.

On the edge of the path: crabgrass that needs to be killed.

Picking up where we left off, in front of the row of white daylilies are some daisy chrysanthemums that we salvaged from the border that was here when we moved in. These bloom late in the fall and are pinkish-white daisies with yellow centers and stretch along the path. Between the row of daylilies and chrysanthemums is a clump of gooseneck loosestrife (the fluffy-looking one).

Behind and to the right of that is a scraggly female (berry-bearing) holly that was so overgrown that we cut it back to the ground to see if it would sprout back in a form that we could have more control over. Behind the holly are the red hollyhocks I put in during the heat wave (not blooming yet, but should be tall spikes at that corner where the house jogs in to the four-season porch.

You have to use your imagination in this section because things aren't really blooming or filled in here. Finally, at the far right of the photo are the daisies I planted during the heat wave--also not blooming, but they have some buds, so we may get a few flowers in a couple weeks. If you click on the picture you'll see more than just green blobs.

This seems a good place to compare all the new stuff to a "before" photo before we move around the corner.

In the front you can see where the chrysanthemums leave off and the stonecrop (sedum tricolor) begins. Those are tiny green leaves with pink and white edges, and should eventually cascade over the wall. In the middle is a purple hydrangea that will be replaced by a white one in the spring, white siberian iris, more gooseneck loosestrife, and a white azalea (the yellow-green bush).

In the back is the male (non-berry-bearing) holly and a blank space where the red climbing roses will eventually make it up the corner of the porch.

Oh, and the giant empty space to the left of the hydrangea is going to have a white peony, hopefully one salvaged from further around the corner.

This is almost the same photo, but continues to the right to show a white hydrangea, which marks the end of the area that is finished. To the left of the hydrangea and in front of the azalea are two kalimeris "Daisy Mae," which have tiny mini-daisies.

Now we get to the part that is still overgrown with that big blue hydrangea, some wisteria, and a couple peonies. I need help digging it all out, though, so I'm stuck with it for today:

This is all such a mess in the middle that I won't be able to figure out what to put there until I have a blank slate. Onward:

I did get to finish the right end of this bed, just before the gate to the back yard. From left to right, you can see some more "Daisy Mae" still in pot (waiting for final placement), several small white geraniums, a large white tree peony, a tiny white and green hosta, and red roses on the trellis. Those roses are mixed with white clematis, which will climb the trellis and trail along the top of the fence. Behind the geraniums is another red climbing rose that isn't yet big enough to go up the corner of the house.

There you have it. I'm totally loving all the white (knowing that it will look even better against a yellow house some day). The photos don't really do it justice because a flower garden is more a 3-D experience, but I'll try to get better pictures as things bloom (realistically, this won't look great for a couple years, but there will be more updates before then!). I definitely feel much better about the perennial border now.