Moonlight and Roses

The only thing that could have made our near-5ft tall clump of 'Carolina Moonlight' Baptisia look better this spring was the beautiful color contrast provided by the red 'Double Knockout' Rosa in the background.

False Indigo, Baptisia sp., is perhaps my all-time favorite perennial plant, and the 'Carolina Moonlight' always steals the show in the spring with its vigorous height, although I do have 3 varieties of the shorter purple-toned Baptisia australis hybrids that are gorgeous as well. I love watching every stage of the plant's growth, from the asparagus like buds shooting out of the ground in early spring, to the delicate blue-green foliage, and of course those characteristic pea-family flowers!

The 'Knockout' rose in the back of the border provides a background to make the light yellow Baptisia flowers really stand out. 'Knockouts' have become a common staple in landscapes, offering a re-blooming, disease resistant option for even the most novice rose gardener. Used in the right places, the dark foliage and dazzling flowers give a show all season long... and with this warm spring they are starting extra early. In our sunny perennial border filling with spring flowers, these two beauties really steal the show when they come into bloom at the same time!

Early Spring in the Perennial Border

Spring is here. The leaves are out, the flowers are blooming, and the birds and bees are stirring in the garden. The Perennial border is finally filling in with color after the long months of bare mulch and branches.

 This time of year the plants are leaping towards the sun, putting on inches of foliage by the day, or bursting into bud overnight. Two of my favorite standouts for early spring border blooms are the 'Wine and Roses' Wigelia (left), and the 'Carolina Moonlight' Baptisia (right).

These beauties are also favorite spots for the bumblebees that have recently returned to the garden. Its great to see all the familiar faces of spring back once again!

Spring Spotlight: 'Heart Attack' Sweet William

While most varieties of Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) are biennial, 'Heart Attack' is one that is known for its longevity. Bold, clusters of carnation like flowers are blood red with a hint of chocolate and a white eye. Blooming on rich evergreen foliage from mid April until early June, it is the star of our spring garden.

'Heart Attack' was an introduction from a local nursery, Plant Delights, and was found in Southern Europe by their plant explorers. It grows in zones 4a through 8b, and prefers to be shaded from the afternoon sun in southern gardens. It generally likes well drained soils, but does fine in our clay mix. This year, the blooms first started to show April 20th, as the tight buds opened one by one. Although the petals are now starting to fade and some stalks are flopping from the rains, it still makes an impact. After cutting it back I usually get a smaller flush of flowers in mid summer.... but I might wait this year so I can collect some seeds.

The deep purple winter color is also a great feature on the evergreen foilage, making it an excelent choice for year-round interest in the front of the border. The new grows appears rich dark green in the spring, as the purple coloration fades. It gets to about 16 inches in height when in bloom, and otherwise the foliage stays low.

'Heart Attack' Sweet William is one of my favorite plants, and from what I hear about its perennial nature I will be enjoying the blooms for years to come. Its rich color is made even better by a pairing with the spring blooming 'Minnie Pearls' Phlox, another Plant Delights introduction which will be the topic of my next post in the Spring Spotlight series.

"How can one help shivering with delight when one's hot fingers close around the stem of a live flower, cool from the shade and stiff with newborn vigor!" ~Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette

Spring Spotlight: Small's Beardtongue

Penstemon (beardtongue) is a spring staple in the garden, and we have a couple in our perennial areas as well as wild ones that have free-seeded into the sunny areas near the stream in the back. My favorite specimen of the genus, the native Small's Beardtongue (Penstemon smallii) is no small bloomer. At over 2 feet tall and covered in lavender-colored blooms, this beauty is paid frequent visits by the bumble bees and every so often a humming bird.

The bumbles fly from flower to flower, crawling all the way inside the calyx to get the sweet nectar. Looking closely at the trumpet-shaped flower, the pubescence on the tongue-like petals makes you realize why they call it "beardtongue".

Small's Beardtongue is native to the mountain regions of the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama and grows in USDA zones 5a through 9b. In its native habitat it grows in light shade and well-drained soils, but in the garden it does best in full to part sun typical of Penstemon species. My plants (its a clump of 3) came from a class I took in the NCSU horticulture program last year, and grows in 4-5 hours of morning and mid-day sun. It blooms earlier, and for a longer period than our Penstemon digitalis varieties, starting in late April and continuing into mid-June. Last October it graced us with a second, smaller flush of blooms. I hear this is a short-lived perennial so I let it go to seed before cutting it back.

Following the heavy rains we've experienced in the past few weeks, a few stems have flopped, but it stood its ground better than expected for such a tall plant. We placed these near the front of our landscape border, near a downspout garden.  Great for the middle or front of any border or rock garden, this beauty is one of my new spring favorites and a has been sure place to spot the seasons first male hummers.

"The little purple plant, tended by its Maker, closed its petals, crouched low in its crevice of a home, and enjoyed the storm in safety" ~John Muir

The Perennial Border: A Spring Study

When looking for our first house, the yard was an important aspect: we knew we wanted a large perennial border. We were lucky enough to find a home with, among other features, a South-facing fence in our garden that makes a perfect backdrop for our full-sun mixed perennial border.

 

When we moved into our house in January of 2009, the first thing we did when the ground was warm enough to dig was fix the drainage around the property. Snaking its way through the back of the border is a buried drainage pipe that is trouble to dig around, but helped lay the plans for our perennial border. Brian, being the landscape designer, drew out the curvy style of our beds, while I was left with my favorite task of filling it in with plants. A huge area to fill, it took us 2 seasons to complete our plant selections. Starting with some clearance shrubs and home-propagated native perennials we built it up steadily. With almost everything in since last summer, this year promises to be gorgeous. There is one more hole to fill in this area however, an arbor at the far end was taken out, leaving me with some more room to expand the sun-perennial collection... I dread the time when I run out of room to plant!

Another great advantage of our home is the raised back porch. It provides a perfect vantage point to survey and document the garden. The view from above provides a much different perspective, and makes it even more of a challenge designing plantings that look good from every angle. The result of such is usually planting things a little too close to fill in holes seen from above, leaving me no room to walk into planting areas for maintenance. But, that's the thing about your first house/garden: you make lots of mistakes and always learn from them. Anyway, the vantage point on the porch is perfect to take a series of pictures to see how the border progressed over the month of March and early April.

March 9th, 2011

March 20th, 2011

March 29th, 2011

April 4th, 2011

The growth rate of things amazes me this time of year. I swear the Monarda grows an inch every night! As of now almost everything is up in the garden, with a few exceptions like fall perennials such as Joe Pye Weed. The Reeves Spirea (Spirea cantoniensis) really stands out in this series, as the blooms progress from the back to the front, weighing down the branches.

The weight of the blooms on the Reeves Spirea are so heavy that the branches touch the ground in the front of the border, making a rare visit with the "Little Beauty" Tulips. What a beautiful meeting!

I had to include some close-ups of a few other standouts right now in the perennial border. The 'Double Dutch' Tulip is a standout from any angle, at any stage of bloom. From a too-bright-to-capture neon orange, to this rusty aged copper, this Tulip has to be one of my favorites.

The Roman Hyacinth (Bellevalia romana) (left) was one of the first plants to go in the border. Bought on clearance and not planted until the end of January, these little guys have toughed through and are just now beginning to bloom. Not a standout from afar, it sure looks beautiful for its spotlight picture! The 'Stairway to Heavean' Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium reptans 'Stairway to Heaven') (right), on the otherhand, is a standout from afar, and you can see its white new growth in the foreground of the perennial bored time-lapse pictures. Yesterday, the first little sky blue bloom appeared, and soon they will be covered in blooms. Perhaps one of my favorite foliage plants as well, these little guys had to be moved into their shadier location to prevent leaf scorch.

The Easter Rose (Kerria japonica 'Honshu') (left) burst into bloom this week, and is setting many more buds for what looks like will be a long bloom time. I'm enjoying this new addition more and more every day, as the tropical looking flowers add a touch of summer to the spring pallet. The 'Wine and Roses' Wigelia (Wigelia florida 'Wine and Roses') (right) was another standout in the pictures, as you can see the wine-colored foliage appearing in the center of the perennial border time-lapse pictures. What you can't see from those images are the swelling rose colored buds, covered in pollen, but still beautiful!

I will conclude with a bit of a misfit, as it is not in the sun perennial border, but the Wisteria is in full bloom and dropping its lilac-colored petals all over the garden. Tonight promises to be our last night below 45 degrees, very exciting times! Perhaps a trip to the garden center is in store for tomorrow...

"If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom."  ~Terri Guillemets