Perennial fashion show
24.05.2007 04:39
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- Source: Home Envy
All the best perennials are hitting the runways in horticultures version of the spring fashion show. There are perennials frosted with silver, with stems as red as iodine, or edges curled like Scarlet O'Hara's petticoats. It will be possible this season to have the colours of a Crayola crayon box in your perennial border, and that's before they go into flower. "People are still mad about foliage," declares Janet Anderson as she wields a flat of her favorite perennials. Anderson is a grower of distinct perennials, nothing murky or mundane gets shipped from her Strathroy nursery. She's added 250 new plants to her collection from "gorgeous ferns" to ground covers tough enough to be stepped on. The well-dressed garden, predicts Anderson, will be cloaked in heucheras. Take the heuchera (coral bells) called 'Lime Rickey', it's superb. Green as an inch-worm, it electrifies any neighboring plant, in the ground or in a container. When I made my own little still life of Anderson's favorite plants, I put 'Lime Rickey' next to another heuchera called 'Can Can', and they started to make music. 'Can Can' is one of those dark maroon heucheras, like the colour of canned beets. Without a contrasting colour, burgundy heucheras sulk in the garden. But put shocking green next to somber maroon and sparks start to fly. Anderson says that 'Lime Rickey' is a vigorous grower in full sun to part shade. Other plusses include its attractiveness to butterflies and hummingbirds, and deer resistance. 'Can Can' has metallic streaks of silver through the burgundy leaves and a compact, mounding habit. Those precious little matched sweater sets are out in fashion, and the same conservative approach to colour in the garden is wilting. Now it's time to create theatrics, and it's even possible with foliage alone. In with the zesty lime heuchera I put another Anderson pick, the athyrium (lady fern) called 'Lady in Red'. This lush, sturdy fern has stems the colour of red licorice whips. "It doesn't burn like other ferns," says Anderson. In part sun (morning sun is perfect) to light shade it has a commanding presence. Plant it too, with those brooding, dark heucheras, where the red stems can reinforce the colour theme. The lady fern benefits from adequate water in the summer, grow enough and you can use the fronds with their red stems, as filler in flower arrangements. Shady gardeners are always pleading for grasses. Search no further than the grass-like carex (Japanese sedge) 'Ice Dance'. "This one looks fantastic with hostas and ferns," says Anderson. I liked the way it looked too with the heucheras. The clean white edge of the carex, picked up the brightness of heuchera 'Lime Rickey'. 'Ice Dance' will grow well in part sun to shade in average garden soil, but it will really thrive if organic matter is added. It is also a candidate for wet locations where it can be grown in groups. My pocket-sized arrangement of perennials had just one plant in flower but when it's a hellebore (Lenten rose) it makes an elegant statement. Hellebore 'Royal Heritage Strain' has subtle, freckled faced flowers that bloom forever in changing shades of pink. I think all gardeners can find a home for hellebores. They grow in sun, they grow in shade, in acidic or alkaline soil. Toxins in the plant reportedly make them deer resistant. Hellebores have lovely leaves, often glossy, and usually with serrated edges. In the spring, cut off the old bedraggled foliage to better show off the pristine, emerging flowers. The more sun they get, the more moisture they will need, but they should never be waterlogged. Once you fall for hellebores, it's too easy to become obsessed. Janet Anderson showed off a sizzling hellebore named 'Janet Starnes'. The foliage is dotted and marbled and speckled with cream. Scuttlebutt on the internet indicates this one could need coddling, but may be worth it like any precocious child. It's obvious that foliage can be fashionable and even flamboyant. It's an investment like the one great Armani suit you buy. The flowers - they're the accessories, they come and go like shooting stars, but the foliage never goes out of fashion.
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