Here are the kind of plants I lust after – isn’t
this a tempting scene? It’s a Bay Area garden by designer Yeong Lee, and full
of glorious succulents that, had I attempted to grow them in my Whidbey garden, I would have
been cleaning up their black mushy corpses yesterday. Most of these beauties would
never have survived our December freezes.
Sometimes I think plant lust is nothing more than a raincoat we
slip on this time of year to protect us from our rational minds – we know we
can’t fit all those plants we desire into our gardens, and all too often they
aren’t even appropriate– like these succulents that are my newest craze ….so
I’m glad Janet asked me to talk about plants I can’t live without, because the
plants I really love are much easier to care for and more dependable than the
ones I lust after…
Really, I love flowers, and old-fashioned plants that taste and
smell good. I’m far most interested in how plants work in the garden, and in
combination with other plants than in how new or unusual they are..
I adore the dainty, early-blooming, fragrant narcissus
that are so intensely colored they warm up chilly spring gardens. ‘Golden
Dawn’, ‘Falconet’ are two fragrant favorites that are tough and persistent. I
also love ‘Precocious’ which has paler petals and a ruffled orange cup. I plant
hundreds of these, my whole garden is filled with them in April.
Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ interplanted with the slight
bigger and less iridescent ‘Globemaster’ for many weeks of bloom, with ‘Purple
Sensation blooming a couple of weeks earlier with a nice overlap with
‘Globemaster’.
Fox tail lilies – This one is Eremerus ‘Cleopatra’ –
never could grow them before in heavier soil – they’re the most gorgeous things
that grow from spider-like tuber things….really this baby gets to be 4-5 feet
tall….
And then we get to lilies, one of the great glories of
the garden. This one is a trumpet lilly called ‘Anaconda’; here’s one of the
new hybrid Orienpets -this one is
‘American West’
Sweet peas bloom all summer long if you keep
them picked and watered – this is the heirloom ‘Black Knight’ which is
especially fragrant, but I love a variety of old-fashioned kinds.
My new favorite annual is Begonia boliviensis – there are several
cultivars, I believe this one is ‘Bonfire’ – I know it looks like a fuchsia, but
it isn’t. Smothered in flowers all summer long. I grew a bunch of them in pots
all around the outside of a raised bed full of raspberries – they even made
raspberries look good…
An ode to nasturtiums – they grow easily from seed, they bloom all summer if you
don’t overfeed or overwater them, you can eat the flowers and the leaves…here
are a few ways to grow them…the pale ones are ‘Moonlight’, and ‘Tip Top
Scarlet’ favorites because they start blooming in May and continue til frost, and
they hold their flowers up above the leaves.
Fancy-leaved geraniums - I love Mrs. Pollock with tri-color
leaves that looked good well into December this year.
Annual poppies are beautiful– ruffled bread seed
poppies, ‘Double Raspberry Blush’ and Shirley poppies – all grow easily from
seed – although the seed isn’t always easy to obtain…
Coleus – ‘Rustic Orange’ only kind I grow besides the
little, brown and chartreuse ‘Inky Fingers’
It can be invasive, I know, but Icouldn’t do without
nigella, or love-in-a-mist – striped seed pods and fluffy foliage let alone
those shades of blue…
Sunflowers – to add height, attract birds, and even
on overcast days you know it’s really summer if you have enough sunflowers
blooming. Every year I try different kinds, but I really love the bronze ones
like this ‘Cappuchino’
This newer ligularia ‘Britt Marie
Crawford is s stunner with real chocolate colored leaves…
Heuchera ‘Caramel’ has proven sun-resistant and truly
evergreen – ‘also ‘Marmalade’ but too much of a pink tinge for me.
Lobelia tupa – so showy and gratifying
Hosta ‘Sum and Substance’ – the essence of hosta –
Eryisimum ‘Apricot Twist’ - I grow this long-blooming wallflower in ribbons all
through the beds
Acanthus mollis – Lauren Hall Behrens garden – takes
advantage of its architectural quality.
Zauschneria californica (California fuchsia) –
hummingbirds love it – so thickly flowered it has great impact and kicks in
late when many flowers have faded – drought resistant.
Sedum ‘Ogon’ – takes shade, stays chartreuse and can
grow anywhere
Japanese forest grass – Hakonechloe macra ‘Aureola’
Anementhale lessoniana – New Zealand wind grass is a beautiful russet grass
Stipa gigantea – blooms in June
Lavender – fragrant gray foliage, long bloom – Rabbit
ear or Spanish lavender blooms earliest…
French heirloom ‘Cinderella’ pumpkins – don’t take up
too much room
Rainbow chard for its beauty – nothing like it
Artichokes – Italian purple ones called ‘Violetto’ stay compact with lovely dark coloring at base of the artichokes and toothed gray foliage.
Raspberries - I grow delicious ‘Cascade Delight’ that are loaded down with berries
Cherry tomatoes – ‘Sungold’ – always wins the taste
test – the sweetest tomato ever
Cut-and-come-again lettuces, also call Mesclun blends
– a variety of textures and colors, come easily from seed, and just keep
snipping on them for weeks.
‘Sugar Snap’ edible pea pods… because they’re so easy
and so much more delicious right out of the garden.
(Photos courtesy of Jacqueline Koch)
