It’s been a slow and stately progression through the season here in the Hudson Valley; the weather and the leaves have changed gradually but surely, and we finally had a real killing frost here just last week. Always a beautiful time around here, and many people claim it as their favorite season, despite the danger of being run down by busloads of eager leaf-peepers on the back roads of New York and New England.
 
The trees are so spectacular that no one really grouses about the lack of flowers in the garden, although there are a few hangers-on… Asters, Chrysanthemums and Aconitums are three that come to mind. But it’s not about flowers just now. The perennial garden is taking its turn towards being a study in texture and monochrome… the gradual annual transition from a painting to an etching.
 
Still, there’s abundant color among herbaceous plants that we can note for future exploitation… why not plant for appeal at this time of year, as well as for the peak bloom periods? We’re often advised to choose trees and shrubs for more than one season of interest, so why not perennials too? If, for example, out of twenty similar pink Astilbe cultivars on the market, one of them has outstanding fall color, why would I not choose that one?

Case in point is this Astilbe cultivar, ‘Delft Lace’, which bears delicate, somewhat open sprays of warm pink flowers in June and clean, deep green foliage all summer in the ferny texture that Astilbes are known for. If that’s not enough, it’s deer-proof and fairly weed suppressing once established. Then for an added bonus, when temperatures cool it takes on mottled shades of pink, red, gold and coral, varying somewhat every year. Now that’s a perennial that pays its way.

Another Astilbe for multi-season interest is this dark foliaged variety, ‘Chocolate Shogun’… it holds the deep maroon color all season and the flowers are a pleasing creamy blush that blends well with everything, then age to these beautiful bronze seed heads.

Most years it turns glowing shades of red in autumn. One note of caution:  I have several plants from three different sources and they aren’t all the same. They all have the deep purple foliage but those that bloom with creamy flowers (not a definite pink) are the only ones that bear the bronze seed heads.

The true, or hardy Geraniums are a vast tribe that includes many types that color up nicely in fall. This is the unpronounceable Geranium wlassovianum, the Siberian Cranesbill, a workhorse for damp soil in sun or semi-shade.

Siberian Cranesbill blooms pinkish lilac on trailing stems that grow rapidly from a central crown to weave among other perennials in an attractive way, and as its origin suggests, it’s absolutely bone hardy.

Another Geranium workhorse that has reliable fall color is the unbeatable groundcover Geranium macrorrhizum, the Bigroot Geranium. There are several forms with flower color ranging from white to magenta… this is ‘Ingwersen’s Variety’, an oldie but goodie with flowers of a nice strong bubblegum pink.

Still flowering here as late as last week is the almost ever-blooming Geranium hybrid ‘Rozanne’, shown here weaving herself among the foamy pink inflorences of the Purple Love Grass, Eragrostis spectabilis. It’s a native grass that’s common on roadsides around here, and it’s being incorporated into plantings more and more often. Not much to look at in the foliage department, but the clouds of pinkish purple bloom are stunning when they have the right setting.

Another small scale grass that ends the season with style is the Japanese Forest Grass, Hakonechloa macra. All its varieties are graceful and elegant throughout the year, but some of them have particularly nice fall color, like ‘Nicolas’, shown above.

The lime green variety, Hakonechloa macra ‘All Gold’, is the fastest growing cultivar (that’s relative) and bleaches to a pleasing shade as the season winds down, while still retaining its pendant, willowy form.

At the other end of the scale are some very large, sculptural grasses that color up well. Molinia caerulea, the Purple Moor Grass, has an upright vase-shaped form that lends itself to being used as an eyecatching feature in mixed perennial plantings. There are several good cultivars on the market, and I particularly like ‘Skyracer’ for its height and see-through habit. Add to that a lovely greeny-gold autumn hue and you have a real winner.

Even larger is the Giant Sacaton, Sporobolus wrightii  ‘Windbreaker’. This selection of the southwestern states native is hardy here in Zone 5 and makes a graceful mound of foliage topped in late summer by 6-8 foot plumes that age to tawny gold.

One of the best pairings for larger grasses is with the Arkansas Blue Star, Amsonia hubrichtii. It’s a terrific plant, native to the Oachita Mountains of Arkansas but perfectly reliable here in the northeast, providing one of the best displays of fall color by any perennial. As frost approaches, the finely textured foliage takes on shades of lime green, coral and violet.

Then it becomes a dramatic mass of bright golden yellow that’s unequalled among herbaceous plants.

The fall color is enough to warrant growing it, but it’s equally fascinating in May, as the curious clusters of sky blue flowers unfurl like some undersea creatures.

Stems and stalks can provide fall color just as well as leaves, as in these pinkish purplish branches of the Marsh Spurge, Euphorbia palustris. It’s another plant I like to use alongside large grasses to provide a foliar contrast in average to moist soils.

I love its refreshing blast of acid yellow flowers in late spring, an antidote to all the pink and lilac that’s everywhere that time of year.

In summer, the Marsh Spurge features interestingly textural seed heads and mounds of clean, medium green, deer-proof foliage that makes unobtrusive filler as other plants take the spotlight.

And making the case that it’s a four-season performer, the desiccated winter stems curl inward to form an intricate, wiry sculptural sphere.

Another Euphorbia that’s colorful all year is the much smaller Euphorbia polychroma ‘Bonfire’. A bit tricky to establish, and often not a permanent resident, but if you can succeed with it you’ll be rewarded by season-long shades of burgundy and ruby red, and as the frost comes, subtle overtones of lavender and violet.

Epimediums are one of my favorite groups of perennials. I love them for their dainty early spring flowers and their beautiful foliage that smothers most all weeds. Not all of them color well in the fall, but I’m gradually learning which ones do… like ‘Purple Prince’ (above), which mutates through shades of caramel and peach as autumn progresses. 

Two more good choices are Epimedium rubrum (left), sporting fresh pink flowers in spring, and the hybrid ‘Freckles’ (right) with dappled leaves that turn a solid bright orange.

Lavender and purple aren’t colors I usually associate with fall, but this Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’ was, I thought, quite decorative after being touched by a couple of light frosts.

More lavender and silvery grey shadings in these seedheads of Liatris ‘Floristan White’, the beautiful Korean Feather Reed Grass (Calamagrostis brachytricha) and the towering domes of Eutrochium dubium ‘Baby Joe’, a trio that thrives in full sun and damp to wet soil.

Don’t forget that green is a color too, and like pines and hemlocks growing among flaming oaks and maples, the deep green of Hellebores provides a satisfying counterpoint to the brighter colors of surrounding perennials and grasses.

Sometimes the lowliest plants can offer a real color blast as temperatures turn chilly. This Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’ sports chartreuse foliage all summer that flames into shades of gold and orange in the fall.

So why lament the lack of flowers in October and November when there’s so much color and texture to hold our attention?… not only from our spectacular tree foliage but from ordinary garden perennials, if we only care to observe. Above, clockwise from upper left, Cinnamon Fern, Coreopsis tripteris, Persicaria ‘Firetail’ and Gillenia trifoliata all make a contribution to the fall garden.
 
Observe, appreciate, rethink. Allow the plants to be plants, and savor the full cycle of growth, maturity, decline and decay. As snow arrives this week, I’m enjoying the garden in the moment, but already starting to dream ahead to another year of renewal and replenishment. I hope I’ve given you some ideas for plants that generously offer more than a fleeting moment of beauty. And I hope you’ll try some of them, next year and in seasons to come.

There’s something about the way the sunshine angles down now, and the clarity of the light itself, that’s a subtle but noticeable difference from summer. It’s a great time to be outdoors and gardening… there aren’t so many urgent tasks, the cool nights have revived plants that seemed tired out by the heat of late summer, and suddenly it feels good to be sitting in the mid-day sun.

I love the morning fog too, adding softness and a touch of mystery to even my most mundane plantings. It’s hard to say whether I favor this time of year because so many things reach their peak now, or if I’ve unconsciously chosen plants that have late season interest because I love September. Chicken or egg, I suppose.

At any rate, we seem to have an August/September garden, and we’re enjoying it very much right now. It was an honor and a pleasure to share the moment with a group of twenty-five avid gardeners last Saturday, through the Garden Conservancy’s “Digging Deeper” program.

I’d been asked a couple of times to consider being on Open Days, but I declined because I had the impression that most Open Days visitors were looking to be “wowed”. I don’t have a wow garden. Interesting, perhaps, and quirky, definitely. But not wow.

Also, I’m a very private person, an introvert really. So I’ve always struggled to be more open, to push myself to engage with other people in a way that seems contrary to my natural inclinations.

And I was a little put off by a group I invited to see my previous garden, years ago. No one was rude, of course, but there was disappointment (“Oh, no water feature?”) and some subtle digs (“Hmmm…pink and yellow, such a tricky combination to pull off well.”)

But I had a feeling the Digging Deeper group would be different, as indeed they were. Avid gardeners all, but at every level of experience, making for a lively dynamic and lots of cross-fertilizing advice and enthusiastic participation.

The focus was on scaling down naturalistic planting concepts to a level that suits most of us, average gardeners with modest means and minimal acreage. So we looked mainly at my 3-year program of wet meadow planting and how that project is progressing. But of course, they were also shown just about every other planting here, from the sunny dry terraces to the propagation beds, to the failed meadow planting (which actually doesn’t look too bad) that my husband dubbed “The Wilderness”.

Offering your creative efforts up to the critical gaze of truly experienced gardeners is a bit daunting, but gardeners are, in general, kind people. Those with depth of experience always have interesting perspectives and really valuable suggestions to make. And it’s wonderful to see that spark of enlightenment in a novice who realizes that one doesn’t have to be a conventional gardener, that there’s so much more to real gardening than foundation shrubs, mulch, and the annual disposable hanging basket. 

And so connections were made, plants shared, and friendships forged. It seems enjoyment was had all round, and I’ve even received several hand-written (imagine that!) thank-you notes.

All in all it was such a positive experience for me that I think I’ve finally turned the corner in terms of opening our garden to visitors, in some capacity, in the future.

We will never have the stylish houses, or the spectacular views, or the perfectly trimmed hedges and edges of some of our friends. But what I think our garden offers that’s meaningful for many people is relatability. That’s what I saw sparkling in the eyes of the newest gardeners: the revelation that a satisfying garden can be created, over time, on a limited budget and with only minimal professional help.

So the fact that it’s far from a perfect garden is actually its strength. There are weeds, there are gaps, there are wavering edges and failed attempts. There are areas abandoned to their fate because I’ve lost interest. But real gardeners understand all this, sympathize, and relate.

This lovely month has been a moment in the cycle of the year, to be savored fully but never to be captured, held, suspended. A garden, I’ve come to understand, is a process, not an end result. For me it’s a laboratory, a playground, and a refuge. And if this garden also helps me make connections to other people, both intellectually and emotionally, then really, what more can I ask of it?

As gardeners, we all have our favorites. I hate houseplants, I like trees, I love shrubs, but I’m absolutely mad about herbaceous plants. Perennials, grasses, ferns and sedges have been a sustaining passion for most of my gardening life, and I see no signs of the fever breaking. There’s something about the way they change daily, completing an entire cycle of emergence, growth, maturity, decline and dormancy in just one year, that’s always fascinating, exciting and touching, really… a metaphor for the human condition.
 
For the last couple of years I’ve been doing speaking gigs at some local garden clubs, plant societies and the like, introducing home gardeners to the new way of using herbaceous plants. This type of planting has been called, most often, the Dutch Wave, and it’s been lapping at our shores for twenty years or more. Now it’s gained enough attention, through publicity and exposure of plantings like New York’s High Line, to pique the interest of the general gardening public. Everywhere I’ve presented, interest has been high, and there are lots of questions about how it’s actually done.
 
I’m far from an expert on naturalistic planting, but like many seriously addicted home gardeners, I’ve started to experiment with these concepts on my own property. My venture is a wet meadow triangle of approximately 4500 square feet. Partly shaded, it’s the lowest corner of our property where everything drains, and was always a pain to keep mowed. Because the initial outlay on this type of planting is considerable, from both a budget and a labor standpoint, I divided the project into three sections. Last year I planted the first section, this season the second, and the third section is being prepared for planting in 2020.

The first section is only in its second summer after planting, but as you can see it’s filled in very densely. Weeds haven’t been much of a problem at all, after an initial going-over in late spring. There’s tweaking to be done, and there were some holes to repair where grasses drowned after our extremely wet fall and winter, but overall everything has taken well and is flourishing.

Naturalistic planting is all about choosing the right plants for your site, not trying to alter your soil and conditions to suit an arbitrary list of plants you’d like to grow. It’s the old adage of “right plant, right place”… the commonsense notion that a plant will thrive in the conditions it has evolved to grow in. This means natives, of course, but also non-natives from similar ecosystems in other parts of the world.  So I had to call on all my experience, and do some homework, to assemble the list of plants for this area. Included in the first section are (more or less left to right above), Monarda ‘Raspberry Wine’, Panicum ‘Hot Rod’, Molinia ‘Skyracer’, Heleniums, Scutellaria incana, Persicaria ‘Firetail’, Geranium wlassovianum, Veronicastrum virginicum, Eutrochium ‘Gateway’, and Carex muskingumensis.

If you’ve read anything at all about naturalistic planting, one term you may have encountered already is “matrix”. The idea of matrix planting is to combine three or four plants of similar requirements and relatively equal vigor (this is critical) so that they knit together and function the way ground covers have been used in the past. This “living mulch” covers all areas not occupied by larger, taller perennials and shrubs, so moisture is conserved and there is no space for weeds to gain a foothold. I took the photo above on the High Line last September, showing a mature matrix planting of Sporobolus (Prairie Dropseed), Sedums and Euphorias, through which the taller plants, like the orange Butterfly Weed, can emerge.

It’s a concept that works, but the trickiest part is figuring out which plants will suit the purpose. Many of the things that serve well in this capacity aren’t commonly available in nurseries. But the good news is that you might already have some of them, like Ajuga, Common Violet, or Creeping Jenny. Even quite thuggish plants can be employed here, if they’re balanced with equally aggressive companions, like the matrix above at Federal Twist, James Golden’s inspiring garden in SW New Jersey.  The combination of Equisetum, Ajuga and Creeping Jenny is obviously not for every situation, but it works in this large, moist, densely planted garden.

Another matrix planting above, this one also at Federal Twist, of Persicaria bistorta, Sensitive Fern, and Equisetum. In their essential book on naturalistic planting design, Planting In a Post-Wild World, Thomas Rainer and Claudia West call this matrix the ground cover layer, so you will hear different terms for this undercarpeting, but the idea is the same: plants become the mulch.

Back at my place, I’ve planted up the matrix above in section 2, installed this spring. A trio of Mountain Mint, Wild Ageratum and Palm Sedge is already growing in nicely. Achieving quick density is key here… rather than planting with 1- or 3-gallon plants spaced 18” apart, the ideal is to use small divisions or landscape plugs planted just 6 to 9” on center. Getting everything to grow together as soon as possible creates a tapestry of vegetation that functions as a stable, ongoing plant community. At least that’s the goal… it remains to be seen whether my choices will balance each other out, or whether one of them will overwhelm the other two. But it’s all an experiment, and it’s just gardening after all, not open heart surgery.

Here you can see a taller plant emerging from the matrix, in this case Eutrochium ‘Baby Joe’.
As in nature, larger plants will have no trouble pushing up through a well-designed matrix, and their deeper root systems mean that they occupy different strata both above and below ground.  But what about my annual mulching, you say? After the planting knits together, in a couple of seasons, you can forget about the mulch and put your efforts (and your mulch budget) elsewhere. There will be surprisingly few weeds cropping up if you’ve chosen the plants appropriate to your site’s conditions, and planted them at the proper density.

You can also use just one plant to provide the ground cover layer. Here, in the shadiest part of my section 1, Packera obovate fills in by offsets and by seeding in, carpeting the ground around the larger plants like Iris ‘Gerald Darby’ and Angelica gigas. Packera obovata isn’t as popular as its relative, Packera aurea, but having grown them both I much prefer obovata… smaller, glossier and tidier foliage, with more compact flowering in late May. In another adjacent section I used common Violets, dug from our lawn (free!). Sensitive Fern works well too, and most of us have it somewhere on our property if conditions are naturally moist. There are no rules… one has to think these things up, as Little Edie said.

Once you understand the matrix concept, you can apply it to any conditions in your garden, whether it be shady, sunny, moist or dry. Here, on our hot, dry and sunny terrace beds, I’ve used low carpeting Sedums, Veronicas, Creeping Phlox and the like to create a matrix through which grow grasses, Lavenders, Alliums, Pulsatillas, and early species Tulips.

If you don’t want to be quite so formulaic about using a matrix, you can get the same weed suppressing and moisture conserving benefits by planting grasses, perennials and even annuals very densely and allowing them to grow together into a tapestry of herbaceous vegetation. That’s the philosophy at the wild and wonderful garden of Jack Potter and David Lebe, in nearby Harlemville, NY.

Their sun-drenched hillside is on the dry side, but there wasn’t a wilted leaf in sight on a blazing hot Open Day a couple of weeks ago. With their vast plant knowledge, and through trial and error, Jack and David have assembled a plant palette that’s perfectly adapted to thrive in their conditions. Natives are a high proportion of the mix here, but by no means are they the only plants allowed.

There is no lawn, no sprinkler system. Just gravel paths, stones and plants… lots and lots of plants. Anyone interested in naturalistic planting should really make an effort to see this garden when it’s on Open Days. To wander here among so much color and texture is inspiring and enchanting, a real testament to two masterful plantsmen who are unafraid to let plants be plants.

Let me state, without judgement, that this kind of planting is not for everyone. Many people think it looks “messy” or “weedy”. There is unquestionably a higher proportion of green leaf to flower color for some people’s taste, because there is no attempt to have everything flowering at once, or continually. The idea is a progression, over a long season, where two or three or four plants make a show while others are waiting to bloom or have already passed into an attractive seed stage. And the colors and texture of foliage become as important as the flowering. The garden above, in Kinderhook, NY, might look unkempt to some, but I much prefer it to the typical lawn, foundation shrubs, and groundcover of Pachysandra or Vinca.
 
One of the things I point out in my talks is how, over the arc of my gardening life, tastes and interests have evolved. No longer do we care only about masses of color and traditional perennial borders that are relics of an era when maintenance labor was cheap and plentiful. Now we want manageable, sustainable plantings that require less weeding, mulching, staking and deadheading. And we want more natives, more plants that nourish pollinators and beneficial insects, feed and shelter birds, and in general make more of a contribution to the web of nature. This is particularly true of the younger gardeners I meet. But those of us who have a lifetime of experience can be at the forefront of this quiet revolution, using our hard-won knowledge of plants and their requirements to assemble successful and beautiful planting schemes that satisfy, both aesthetically and ecologically. I challenge you to that goal… I think you’ll find it fascinating and very rewarding.

Now that we’re past Memorial Day it seems like summer’s here, even if it doesn’t officially, astronomically, begin until June 21st. Everything in the garden is full, fresh and lush, especially after all the rain we’ve enjoyed this spring, and blooming plants are everywhere.
 
For the past few weeks our garden has been having a blue/purple moment, with Woodland Phlox, Forget-me-nots, Alliums, Amsonias and Irises going full out, juiced up by the sharp acid yellow of Euphorbias and the oranges and melons of the last Tulips. So there’s been lots of color, and very welcome after our long and dreary winter.
 
Now though, as the days warm and lengthen, white flowers suddenly seem to be everywhere, even on the fringes of the woods where native Viburnums, Elderberries and shrubby Dogwoods display their foamy white blossom. There’s something about white flowers that helps alleviate the heat, at least visually. Like a crisp linen shirt, white in the garden can be a refreshing and revitalizing antidote to the sultry weather that’s just around the corner.
 
Of course, early summer is prime time for Peonies and Bearded Iris, both of which have numerous cultivars in all imaginable shades of white, every one of them lovely. But in this post let’s look at some less obvious choices, in flower just now, that can bring the cool, soothing qualities of white to your garden just as the season turns.
 
Clematis, for instance, are coming on now. So many varieties in gorgeous jewel tones and delicious pastels, but the whites are very appealing too. I’ve tried several of them, and this one (above) has so far proven the most reliable. It’s ‘Guernsey Cream’, and so vigorous that I’ve been slicing off pieces of the root for the past five years and potting them up for giveaways. It opens ivory but soon bleaches to a pure clean white that has good substance, followed by decorative golden seed heads.  Another classic white is ‘Henryi’, with purplish brown stamens that add a note of contrast, but he’s more finicky, and sometimes goes down to fungal disease.

Baptisias have become popular garden plants, with many color permutations on the market. I like most of them, but if I had to choose only one to grow it would be this simple white species, Baptisia alba. It has a long season of interest, from early spring when it pushes up asparagus-like shoots of sooty grey-purple, through its clean flowering and good foliage, then ending with a fine display of rattling black seed pods. I can remember, in my distant youth down south, seeing this plant scattered among tall pines in poor sandy soil, so there’s no need to coddle it. The most challenging part is finding it for sale.

Of course, being a native southerner I have a weakness for Magnolias, so I’ve accumulated several kinds that can tolerate our northern winters. One of those is the Japanese species Magnolia sieboldii, known as the Oyama Magnolia. She’s an elegant thing with fragrant, pendant blossoms, satiny smooth but of substantial texture. The stamens can vary in color from pale pink to deep raspberry red, and the buds are egg-shaped. Just a lovely small tree that would be a good choice for a spot where space is limited. All the references give its hardiness as only to Zone 6, but mine is on year eight with no winter damage whatsoever, and I know of a much older specimen in Spencertown, the coldest part of the county.

I ran into this combination at the Berkshire Botanical Garden, and it perfectly illustrates the freshness that white can bring to a planting. It’s the variegated version of Solomon’s Seal, Polygonatum odoratum var. pluriflorum ‘Variegatum’ (whew!), underplanted with Sweet Woodruff, Galium odoratum. A simple, clean and foolproof combination that you’d be wise to copy for a shady spot with average to moist soil.

Another choice for the same conditions might be the Meadow Anemone, Anemone canadensis, but only for the wilder parts of the garden. In a border it can be too aggressive, but it’s just the ticket to provide weed-conquering masses in moist woodland or shrub borders. Native to the northern tier of the U.S. and to southern Canada, so you know it’s tough and well-adapted to our climate.

Planting American natives is all the rage now, but I still don’t see this one too often in the Northeast. Hopefully that will change as more people discover the Fringe Tree, or Grancy Greybeard as I heard it called growing up. The lacy flowers are like no other, and emit a light sweet scent, especially in the evening. Grows slowly to an ultimate height of about thirty feet, and the handsome leaves turn bright yellow in fall. Sometimes botanical names can be quite poetic… Chionanthus virginicus translates roughly as “Snow-flower of Virginia”.

Still another American native is the Cranberry Viburnum, Viburnum trilobum. ‘Wentworth’ is an outstanding selection that was originally discovered in New Hampshire, offering showier clusters of bright red berries and better fall color than the straight species. The beautiful lacecap flowers are out now, reason enough to grow it. Viburnums are native to many parts of the temperate world but North America is rich in species, so they should be grown more, even though the Viburnum Leaf Beetle has become a threat to some types. I’ve had a few show up every year, but so far, not enough to disfigure my plants to any alarming degree.

I’m planting lots of the native American Sedges these days, but the first Carex to come into gardeners’ consciousness, about twenty-five years ago, were the Asian species. This is the first one I ever tried, and I still have it today… it’s Carex siderosticha ‘Variegata’. The bamboo-like leaves are cleanly variegated with white and arise from a gradually (not invasively) creeping rootstock that will ultimately form a tight groundcover in moist shady ground. Lovely combined with solid green Hostas, Dwarf Goatsbeard, Ferns or Heuchera ‘Autumn Bride’.
 

Confession:  I’m a plant snob but not a collector of rare or unusual things for their own sake. I’d much rather grow something that’s a good doer and solves a problem, than give space to a struggling rarity. So yes, I have a large patch of this white variegated Hosta that’s as common as pig tracks, as my grandfather would have said. In fact it’s so ubiquitous around here that I’ve never bothered to find out its name, but it must be an older variety because it’s seen at nearly every farmhouse and suburban ranch in the Hudson Valley… a true pass-along plant. When it emerges in spring the white variegation is much creamier, so I underplanted it with one of my favorite early Daffodils, the pale yellow ‘W.P. Milner’, and I love the combination. And this Hosta increases so fast that from my original five-year-old clump, I was able to get enough divisions to cover a sizeable area under a Maple and next to a big mass of Hydrangea ‘White Dome’, where it looks fresh and clean all season and does a fine job of suppressing weeds. So there.

A full month after our American Dogwood blooms, the Asian species begin to flower. They are, in my opinion, less spectacular than our native tree, but very beautiful in a different way, displaying their pointed, star-shaped flowers against the already unfolded foliage. As with our native Dogwood, the “flowers” are actually showy bracts that surround the true flowers, the golden central cluster of stamens and pistils. There are many cultivars, some of them pink, but I grow a simple white one, Cornus kousa var. chinensis. All of them are small trees of multi-season interest, with early summer flowers, interesting showy fruit, and good fall color.

Siberian Iris are having their brief but spectacular moment just now, and one that I’ve enjoyed for many years is this dwarf white, Iris siberica ‘Nana Alba’. It’s as easy as any Siberian Iris and the shorter foliage means it doesn’t flop later in the summer like so many of the taller varieties do. Besides being beautiful and vigorous, another reason I like having it around is that my plants originally came from the late, lamented Heronswood Nursery, whose annual catalog (with no pictures whatsoever) was eagerly anticipated by plant nerds across the country. It’s one of only three or four things I still have from there, despite having ordered many more than that over the years, and failing to keep them happy. So it’s a nice, humbling reminder.
 

Lately I’ve been on a somewhat obsessive binge with the perennial Geraniums, and have been trying several new ones each year. Most of them come in shades of pink, blue or purple, but there are a few that are true whites, making them doubly useful as fillers and weavers among other perennials, which is what Cranesbills do so well. Very well adapted to our climate is this white selection of our native Geranium maculatum, called ‘Hazel Gallagher’. I don’t know who Hazel was, but she must have been a fine gal because her namesake plant is top-notch.   
 

Another great white perennial Geranium is this one, Geranium sanguineum ‘Album’. Delicate foliage spangled by clean white blooms and easy, easy, easy. In fact this is one of the longest surviving perennials I have, going back to my community garden days in the East Village of the late 80’s. Geranium sanguineum, the Bloody Cranesbill, is probably the most common hardy Geranium seen in American gardens, in its magenta form. The white is sooo much nicer.
 

We’re lucky to have a little stream at the edge of our property, into which many acres of woods drain, so it has water flowing most of the year. It makes the perfect habitat for many things that like shade and constant moisture, including Primula japonica, one of the Candelabra Primroses, so called for its gradually unfolding tiers of flowers. They reseed reliably where happy, and I think I started out with a pure white selection called ‘Postford White’. But they are promiscuous things, and whatever color you choose, you’re eventually liable to end up with a range from white through all shades of pink to magenta. They’re all so lovely I don’t have the heart to rogue out the colors I don’t prefer, so it’s always a surprise to see what comes out.   
 

One of my favorite recent acquisitions is this Sweet-shrub, Calycanthus x ‘Venus’, a complex hybrid of several species including the reddish-brown flowered Sweet Betsy from the southeastern U.S. It’s a spreading, multi-stemmed deciduous shrub that in late May bears luscious Magnolia-like blossoms, 3-4 inches across, that have the scent of ripe strawberries and melon. The flowers are pure white, of waxy substance, and have distinctive yellow and purple structures at the center. Truly looks like nothing else and always gets attention. Needs shade from the hot afternoon sun and reliably moist soil, but otherwise it’s not demanding. The foliage is a rich, glossy green and turns a nice shade of golden yellow in the fall.
 

Mock-orange, or Philadelphus, is a rather forgotten shrub nowadays, and it’s a pity. It has sweetly scented flowers and a lovely arching form that makes it look perfectly at home around an old farmhouse. In fact it’s one of those plants that was hugely popular in the 19th century, with many named varieties developed by Victor Lemoine, the French hybridizer responsible for almost all our beautiful old Lilac cultivars.  But Mock-orange doesn’t lend itself to being pruned into a green meatball, so it’s never been a darling of “landscapers” or the kind of home gardeners who prefer over-tidy foundation plantings. Also, its period of bloom is glorious but brief, so although it looks respectable all year, it could never be considered a four-season plant.
Nevertheless, I love them, partly because I still grow one, Philadelphus grandiflorus, (above) that’s descended from my grandmother’s plant. In the south we call it English Dogwood, although it’s neither English nor a Dogwood, and because it suckers freely it’s often shared around among gardeners. The flowers are larger than other Mock-oranges but only slightly fragrant.

Much richer in scent are the smaller flowered hybrids, some of them doubles (above, a cultivar I’ve grown for years but have lost the name of) or the single species Philadelphus coronarius (bottom of this post). There’s also a variety with golden leaves, but I’ve never seen it except in photos, and although it certainly would provide more foliage color, I’m not sure the white flowers show up as nicely against the lime-green leaves as they do on the standard dark green kinds.

Another of my favorites is ‘Belle Etoile’ (above), a shorter cultivar sporting single white flowers beautifully marked with purple near the central boss of stamens. Whatever the variety, Mock-oranges should only be pruned by taking out a few of the oldest canes from the base every year to preserve their distinctive fountain-like habit. Never, ever cut them back halfway or attempt to shape them unnaturally.
 
By the time I’ve finished writing this piece, some of these plants will have already passed out of bloom… it’s early June, after all, and the flowering sequence is hurtling forward, another round of things that like it even warmer are budding up, waiting for their moment to bloom. But that’s the way gardens work, and what they have to teach us about the passage of time, about life itself. Right now I’m enjoying this lush, fragrant, exhilarating moment… my very favorite time of the year, when spring surrenders, so gracefully, to summer.

Not quite Tulip time, you say? True, if you mean the classic garden varieties that come in every paintbox color, the ones we see massed at Longwood and Keukenhof, gorgeous, lavish and eyepopping in their thousands. May is their month, here in the Hudson Valley.

But I'm talking about their wild and wonderful cousins, the species or botanical Tulips. Their time is now, blooming along with Daffodils, Hellebores, Forsythias and the other things that make the first big splash of spring color. These are the Tulips that get banished to the back pages of the bulb catalogs, with other "little bulbs" that apparently never sell very well. It's a damn shame, because in this group are some of the most arresting and rewarding of all bulbous plants we can grow here in the temperate north.

Their struggle to be appreciated in comparison with their showier cousins is longstanding... one of the great grande dames of American gardening, Louise Beebe Wilder, wrote in 1923  "To some of us who know them the wild Tulips of Central Asia, of Italy, of North Africa and elsewhere, so diverse in form, so sprightly and unspoiled, are more interesting and alluring than the splendid border forms."

I've tried quite a few of these over the years, most with some success, and several have become reliably perennial in my garden. It pays to remember that most of them come from parts of the old world that have brief, cool, wet springs followed by hot, dry summers and cold winters. Good drainage in our climate is essential or they will rot, so I find my terraced beds and our sandy loam suits many of them very well. And they like to be left alone, as Ms. Wilder writes, "in sheltered sunny corners where they will be safe from molestation by misguided zeal."  There's plenty of misguided zeal in my garden, but the species Tulips survive and thrive nonetheless.

These are Tulips for gardeners who don't particularly like Tulips... by which I mean, they find the modern hybrids perhaps too formal, too stiff, and altogether too much trouble to replant every year. The species Tulips have both the grace of wildflowers and the brilliant colors, so welcome in spring, of their hybrid descendants. Plus they tend to be much more perennial. I don't know the name of the beautifully marked pale yellow in the photo above (it came here as part of a mixed bag) but it's bloomed reliably for the last six or seven years, its clump increasing slowly but surely.

Tulipa praestans is another easy one that's available in a few nice cultivars like 'Fuselier' (above), an intense poppy red. I also grow 'Moondance', a bright orange (below) and 'Shogun' in softer shades of saffron and melon. All of them, like many species Tulips, throw multiple flowers from one bulb, an added color bonus.

'Moondance' must get its name from the cool, sinuous budding growth, because when the flowers open they're a very strong orange on the inside of the cup.

For a softer color scheme, Tulipa batalinii 'Bronze Charm' is certainly charming. I haven't grown it in a few years, but I had it at my old house where it was reliable in a raised bed with good drainage, sunny in early spring but partly shaded during the summer. Think I'll try it again.

I love the colors of emerging perennial foliage, and this variegated Iris is the perfect companion for this little yellow species Tulip. I can't remember whether this is Tulipa tarda or Tulipa dasystemon, and some sources list them as the same thing. No matter what name you get them under, just get them because they are easy, perennial and as cheerful as a sunny-side-up breakfast.

The Lady Tulips, Tulipa clusiana cultivars, have a very old pedigree in western gardens, having been brought to Florence from the Near East in 1606. They are charming, especially in their slender pointed bud stage that on sunny days opens to reveal a dark central blotch. They spread by stolons to form a colony when they're happy and have naturalized in parts of Spain and southern France. Good varieties are available here from most bulb merchants: 'Cynthia', 'Lady Jane', 'Tinka', and 'Tubergen's Gem', all worth a try.

I'm going in mostly for warm shades in the areas where I grow my species Tulips, so don't have many in the pink or purple range, but there are some really gorgeous kinds in that color palette. 'Persian Pearl' (above) is one such, a variety of Tulipa humilis in jewel tones of magenta and deep yellow, the outer petals flushed with silver-grey.

Tulipa bakeri 'Lilac Wonder' is another in that part of the color wheel, but softer and sweeter with lilac pink petals opening to reveal a golden yellow blotch. Easy and prolific, a good one for newbies.

I can't get enough of this little one... it's Tulipa orphanidea subspecies whittalii  (sorry folks, no common name). Which is indeed a mouthful for such a little flower. But it packs a substantial color punch, with burnt orange petals that are accented by black and olive markings on the inside of the cup. Really cute coming up through low-growing perennials like Sedums or Creeping Phlox, and reliably perennial for me in my terraced beds that drain well and bake in the summertime.

Lastly, my very favorite that I've grown (so far)... the Woodland Tulip, Tulipa sylvestris. Very happy here on a sandy loam bank in part shade, among Forget-Me-Nots, Epimediums, Crested Iris, Japanese Woodland Peonies and other like-minded companions. This one truly has the bearing of a wildflower with its slightly nodding flowers that move in the breeze. It's a very adaptable species, ranging naturally all the way from Portugal and North Africa, through the Near East and into parts of China.

One more reason to try these:  they're relatively cheap to buy... 25 bulbs will typically run under $10, so you can afford to plant in quantity and experiment. Success is not assured, but likely, if you can provide their minimal requirements... all of them will bloom the first season and with a little luck some of them will find that your garden suits them very well, and remain permanent residents.

The few I've profiled here are only the ones with which I have some familiarity. There are many, many others that are available from the popular bulb merchants and, with a little searching, from specialist growers. If you want a real treat, take a minute to look at the slide show at tulipsinthewild.com. Breathtaking photographs of Tulips in their native settings, with an interactive map showing their distribution.

Easy, prolific, inexpensive, colorful and fascinating... with so many things going for them it's hard to understand why more gardeners don't give these wonderful little bulbs a try. Maybe you'll be prompted to order a few this fall and, next spring, you'll see why I'm so enthusiastic about growing them.

Another wintry week, following on teasing breaks in the weather that only hint of things to come.

It's a good time to get away, briefly, for those of us fortunate enough to be able to travel. For the rest of us, it's an endurance test.

Still, I wouldn't trade our winters for something less definitely seasonal. Just last week I was back home in Louisiana, where the camellias were glorious and the saucer magnolias, sweet olive, and winter honeysuckle were all in full flower. But it was damp and cloudy, with a wet chill that permeates everything... typical Deep South winter weather. And with the woods full of pine, holly and magnolia, there's (dare I say it) an unrelenting greenness to the landscape that made me miss our stark and spare northeastern winter.

Make no mistake, I'm as anxious for spring as anyone. But before the warm weather arrives, with its rush and push of growing things and the attendant tasks, I'd like to pause and appreciate this most unloved of seasons.

To gardeners, these are the gifts of a harsh, definitive winter. . .

With snow covering the ground the air is clean, dry and refreshing, so it's a fine time to take a walk or just appreciate the stars at night. Seems to clear my head too, making space for sorting things out. In the garden, clarity of vision as the strengths and weaknesses of our designs reveal themselves, stripped of the forgiving layers of leaf and flower. We see improvements to be made, lines to be altered, branches to be removed. The structure of trees and shrubs is revealed against sky and snow, and the stripped-down color palette of white, black, brown and grey, like a Brueghel painting, is surprisingly satisfying.

Blessed relief from my bottomless summer to-do list. A chance to reorganize the garden shed and clean the tools, without being rushed on to the next job by the realization that growing things can't wait. Getting the seed-starting materials together and, unhurried, perusing the catalogs in front of a toasty fire, cat on lap. Looking back over the hundreds of garden photos I take every season, amazed that the frigid, withered scene out the window was, just months ago, so lush and colorful and bursting with growth.

I get a bit annoyed when what I call Sunday Gardeners say, "oh it's winter, everything's dead!"  It's not, of course... maybe your petunias are, but real gardens are never dead. Here in the Hudson Valley we usually have a snow cover during the coldest months, keeping sleeping perennials insulated from drying winter wind and the thawing that winter sunlight can induce. We take for granted that so many of the plants we consider easy to grow here:  bearded iris, peonies, hostas and many more, actually require this dormancy in order to grow and flower normally. Gardeners in parts of the world with mild winters struggle to satisfy them. My mom spent an entire winter once, dumping ice cube trays on a spindly peony crown, trying to induce a bloom... as gardeners, we always pine for what we can't grow.

Without the foliage and under a pristine blanket of snow, the garden's structure is revealed like a three-dimensional, walk-through plan on paper, a clean slate for trying out fresh ways to improve the space. This is the time I like to lay out new planting areas, or expand existing ones (I know, I know) using 24" rebar rods from the lumber yard. These are cheap and can be driven into the frozen ground with a light hammer to delineate a curved line, or anchor the ends of a mason's line for a straight one. When I'm happy with the layout, I leave them in place until the spring when the ground is clear and dry enough to cut the line with a spade.

The greatest gift of our long, cold winters. A few months to relax, read, cook, enjoy the company of loved ones. There are winter chores for the gardener, of course, but they're not very pressing. And with the garden hibernating, I have no excuse not to tackle cleaning out the linen closet and reorganizing the pantry, the indoor tasks that are shoved aside during the gardening season.

It will come soon enough. As the sunlight strengthens and the days become, finally, noticeably longer, I'm savoring this moment. I'm appreciating that we have clearly defined seasons in our part of the world, each with its beauties and its obligations. I'm resting, renewing, reviving.

And, of course, I'm dreaming of springtime.

Down home in Louisiana, Epiphany or Twelfth Night signals the official beginning of carnival season... a time of parties, King Cakes and general silliness that culminates on Shrove Tuesday, aka Mardi Gras.

In that spirit (and also because it's damn boring out in the garden right now) I want to share some pictures of the silly, amusing and downright puzzling landscaping I've encountered over the past year.

2018 ended with our Holiday Possum-in-the-Manger, above, an unexpected squatter in our henhouse, where he was allowed to spend the night before being gently evicted next day. No damage to the resident poultry, although he may have consumed a couple of eggs.

Looking forward to 2019, here are some trends I've spotted that you might not like to emulate...

Mo' mulch, mo' mulch, mo' mulch!!!!!!

Hey do you think some plants would enhance my mulch display?

Dude, I was partyin' last night and I had this awesome idea about how to use that pile of stones we have...

Our motto: Love rocks, hate plants.

Connect the evergreens, see the bunny!

Tomato Gitmo.

Build houses for your lawn jockeys so they won't have to stand out in the snow!

For the connoisseur of the rare and unusual... the exquisite Daffodil-flowered Spruce, Picea narcissiflora 'King Alfred'.

Also, the seldom seen Flowering Stump Tree.

Hope springs eternal.

Wait, what? Hostas are shade plants???

Well, at least it's cheerful.

I love golden evergreens. I love them, I love them, I LOVE THEM!!!

It's a topiary made from Rudbeckia. A topiary. Made from Rudbeckia... Ok.

Hanging basket tree. Wrong, on so many levels. Just wrong.


Don't hate me, I'm really not a mean person. Have a Happy New Year, everyone.

We had our first killing frost last weekend, an event that marks time for every gardener in the temperate zones. As the growing season winds down, I try to assess each area of my garden, making notes and obsessive lists of what to move, divide, replace next year… which plants thrived and which were disappointments (or downright disasters). I take a lot of photos too, not just to remember the beauty of things at their moment of perfection, but also to document the gaps and the flops, and to record the process and progress of newly planted areas.

Failures are inevitable, and one of the things I admire about most really experienced gardeners is their ability to take disappointments in stride, to soldier on through inclement weather, plagues of disfiguring insects, epidemics of fungus and various other afflictions that descend upon those of us who’ve chosen this avocation. A lost plant is an opportunity to rethink and replace, and except in the case of very old or rare specimens, seldom mourned for long.

We lost this Spruce over the summer. It predates our ownership of the house by many years, and I never even bothered to research what type of Spruce it was (evergreens just aren’t my thing). But it formed part of the canopy over my shady area of early spring plants and later, ferns and hostas, so it was always welcome and taken for granted. Of course my first instinct was to cut it down and replace it with something more glamorous, but my husband pointed out that it looks pretty cool as it is, and has a certain dignity and sculptural quality even in death. So we’re letting it be, and seeing what happens.

Underneath, the planting has never looked as lush, given all the rain we’ve had, and the Spruce’s branches, now growing lichens instead of needles, provide enough traveling shade to keep the plants from scorching, at least for now.

Nearby, another shady area is maturing. The variegated Pagoda Dogwood, Cornus alternifolia ‘Golden Shadows’ is finally tall enough to escape deer predation, save for a bit of browsing on the lowest limbs. It’s one of the last plants I bought when Loomis Creek closed, so I’d hate to lose it.  

In the same area, a great selection of the native Woodland Phlox, ‘Blue Moon’, has finally achieved critical mass and put on a nice display for the entire month of May.

Over against the house, another area that’s matured is the sunny terraced bed that steps down to our little south lawn. Here, a tapestry planting of Sedums, dwarf Alliums, Pulsatillas, creeping Veronicas and other small scale, reliable sun-lovers covers three levels and provides continued textural interest, and a carpet from which, in early spring, dwarf Iris and species Tulips emerge. The grass is Bouteloua gracilis ‘Blonde Ambition’, a native of the western high plains that struggles with our wet winters, but seems to have found its happy spot here in the baking, well-drained terraces.

Below the terrace beds and adjacent to the south lawn is an area I call my Dark Garden… it’s given over to Fritillarias and Opium Poppies until they finish in June, and then I plant it up with annuals and tropicals to finish out the season, all in shades of orange, black-red and deep purple. For the last several years it’s been a highlight of the property, but this year I was preoccupied with other plantings and didn’t give it the thought and attention it usually gets, so it turned out a mess. The Cannas and Castor Beans didn’t get in soon enough to make a good showing, I failed to grow the Tithonia I like from seed, I allowed too many volunteer Perillas to remain, and I decided to plant Persian Shield as a filler instead of the usual Coleus, and they didn’t get enough sun to really do anything. A couple of days concentrated thought and effort would have set it on the right path to success, but the window was missed. In gardening, timing is everything.

And attention must be paid! I finally was able to buy a plant I’ve been coveting for the last four years, the gorgeous white version of Sweetshrub, Calycanthus floridus ‘Venus’, for a new area I’m developing, but I sited it for maximum visual impact instead of paying enough attention to cultural requirements. Then came our late summer rains, and a damp area became a wet area which became a waterlogged bog that never dried out all through August and September. By the time I noticed the telltale drooping, yellowing foliage, my Venus had drowned.

Whatever the weather, every growing season has plants that falter and others that thrive. This summer must have been perfect for the three above, which have never performed better in my garden…left to right: Buddleja alternifolia ‘Argentea’ (Silver-Leafed Fountain Butterfly Bush), Ligularia japonica (Japanese Ligularia), and ‘African Blue’ Basil.

Sometimes an abject failure can evolve into something like a success, as in the case of the area at the back of our property we’ve dubbed “The Wilderness”. It was originally meant to be a perennial meadow on damp ground, but it was my first foray into naturalistic style planting, and I thought I could just stop mowing part of the lawn and plug in vigorous natives that would hold their own against the weeds. THAT was a delusion… probably ninety percent of the things I so thoughtfully planted never made it past the first summer, swamped by weedy grasses, Goldenrod and head-high Jewelweed. By the second summer (above), some toughies like Monarda fistulosa, Echinacea purpurea, and Persicaria amplexicaulis were making headway…surviving at least.  

This summer the balance finally began to even out… there’s still lots of Jewelweed, but the Echinaceas made a strong showing, and the more desirable Goldenrod varieties (like my favorite ‘Fireworks’) are claiming more space.

And I’ve discovered that one secret to planting into a weedy patch is to use towering perennials that grow early and fast (like Coreopsis tripteris and Vernonia altissima ‘Jonesboro Giant’ above)  They can get up above the Jewelweed before it has a chance to smother.

Sometimes I conveniently forget that some of the best effects in my garden are accidental. I was really pleased with this July trio of Panicum virgatum ‘Northwind’, Patrinia villosa, and Verbena bonariensis. Then I remembered that the Verbena had arrived on its own last summer, just a couple of random seedlings that I very nearly pulled out. Mother Nature thinks outside the box, even when I don’t.

My biggest and most ambitious project of the season has been phase one of a three-part meadow-style planting. I actually laid it out over a year ago, and put in a few things last fall, but the vast majority of the planting was done this spring and early summer, and mostly from landscape plugs. If you’re not familiar with these, they're essentially well-rooted mini plants that come in flats of 32 or 50, and they’re used in landscape installations where large quantities of plants are needed, and planted close together to get quick density. Sort of the opposite of the “Let’s-see-lots-of-mulch-around-every-plant” school of landscaping.  

The area is the lowest corner of our property, often too wet to mow, and sunny most of the day. These are conditions that suit a wide range of moist meadow perennials, so the design challenge was more about limiting my impulses to plant too much variety. But after lots of obsessing and revisions I came up with a plant list of about thirty different perennials, biennials, grasses and sedges to fill the space. That still sounds like a lot of variety, but there’s a succession of interest, and because each species is used in quantity, the effect isn’t spotty at all.

The landscape plugs establish and fill in quickly, and by late summer the area looked well-furnished and full of seasonal interest. The tight planting also discouraged weeds, as did the initial 2-3 inches of composting mulch through which the plugs were planted. In spite of all the effort it’s already given me so much more pleasure than the boggy, weedy lawn that was there before. I’m looking forward to seeing how it will fill in even more, and evolve, in a year’s time. And I’m already working on the plant list for phase two!

To tell the truth I’d actually delayed starting this project for a whole year, talking myself out of doing it altogether at one point. I had just turned 60, and was thinking how absurd to launch such an ambitious planting plan at that age. But gardeners are never entirely governed by logic (thankfully) so I thought what the hell, carpe diem, courage, forge ahead, excelsior!!!

Designing plantings is often compared to the visual arts…”painting with plants” or “making garden pictures” are phrases one frequently comes across. But a stroke of red on a painting will still be virtually the same a hundred years from now, whereas a patch of scarlet Monarda has changed within days, weeks later will have a completely different effect, and by the next season might have doubled in size or be gone altogether. Gardening is an ephemeral, constantly mutating art form, more akin to dance or music. That’s what makes it so challenging and, when it works, so exciting.

Embracing your failures, large and small, is all part of the process of garden-making. Creating them is the thing, so as my 62nd birthday looms, I’m carrying on with my ill-advised, imprudent and over-ambitious project. Gardens are never really finished, and that’s as it should be, because they never really outlive the gardener for very long. I’m enjoying every bit of it, success and failure, now.   

I like that word, culmination. The crowning point, the zenith, the high-water mark. In the gardening year, for me, Labor Day is the beginning of the period when I enjoy my garden most. As I've grown older, my taste has shifted towards late bloomers and plants that wait until now to really shine, in the beautiful clear light of early fall.

Don't get me wrong, I still love the exuberance of April, May and June, the lush fresh growth that expands almost hourly, flowers everywhere and the promise of another season still unspoiled by disappointments and setbacks. We all need that time, especially after the long, dim winters we often have here in the Hudson Valley. But I'm pushing my plantings more and more towards things that strut their stuff at the end of the growing season, and enjoying the results.

As a young gardener my plantings were heavily weighted towards that late spring/early summer culmination, that peak we have around Memorial Day, when Iris, Peonies, Poppies and other traditional perennials flower. Nurseries are well stocked then, and there's no shortage of eager customers, which is part of the reason why most gardens are so dull after midsummer. At Loomis Creek, and later at Pondside, we were constantly striving to get people to come in later in the season, because there's really a large vocabulary of plants that can make this time of year one of the most gratifying.

Here are a few ideas for plants I'd recommend trying, to give your garden (and your spirits) a late season lift . . .

Grasses, grasses, grasses! Those seedheads are what I wait for all season, even though the foliage is lovely and soothing during the summer. But now's the time that grasses really are front and center. One of my new favorites is this Blue Grama Grass with yellowish seed heads, Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition'. The wiry stems look delicate but they're remarkably strong, staying upright even through most of our winter snows. A native of the western plains that needs a hot, dry, sandy position.

Purple Love Grass, Eragrostis spectabilis, is a bit of a plain Jane through the summer, but when it blooms in September, it's a knockout. Native to this area, so once you learn to recognize it you'll start seeing it everywhere, on roadsides and in unmown fields.

Lots of ornamental grasses are shoulder high or taller, so it's great to find some that are below knee-high. A good choice, and one that tolerates some shade, is Deschampsia cespitosa 'Goldtau' (Golden Dew). Native to several parts of the world, including North America, with deep green blades that have a medium-fine texture all season, then in early fall carry ethereal sprays of pale green aging to warm gold. I love it planted among my Hellebores so there's another whole season of interest in that area.

Panicums are still among my favorite grasses, and you can't go far wrong with Panicum virgatum 'Northwind' (above, left). It's a reliable choice if you need a tall, upright presence. For more color, there are quite a few reddish cultivars coming on the market now. The standard for years has been 'Shenandoah', but I'm loving 'Hot Rod' (above, right). It seems to be more vigorous than 'Shenandoah', and colors up richly by summer's end. I think it looks especially fine paired with one of the larger Sedums, a classic fall combination.

Speaking of Sedums, I love this newer variety with citron-yellow flowers on sturdy stems that stay upright all winter. It's called 'Lemon Jade', and although I usually hate the plants selected by the Proven Winners program, this one's truly a fine choice, and a good blender color-wise. A little shorter than 'Autumn Joy', 'Matrona' or the other pink-flowered cultivars that have been around for years.

A plant I've been fascinated by since I was a child is the Rattlesnake Master, Eryngium yuccifolium. It's common in the Louisiana pinelands where I grew up, but grows well here also. Does best in sandy, dry soils that keep it sturdy and upright... in rich ground it tends to sprawl and need staking. Otherwise trouble free, a great textural feature, and dries well for winter bouquets.

Heleniums are American natives that went to finishing school in Europe in the late 19th century and came back to us much improved, but we still don't appreciate them nearly as much as the Germans, Brits and Dutch do. That's beginning to change, with the introduction of some shorter varieties that don't need staking like the older cultivars. Three good choices are 'Mardi Gras' (top), 'Mariachi Salsa' (lower left), and 'Moerheim Beauty' (lower right), an older variety that I still think is one of the best reds. Heleniums provide a solid punch of color in September, and the seed heads age nicely into fall. Easy to grow if they have consistent moisture in the soil, otherwise they tend to dwindle after a couple of years.

Aster season kicks off with Aster umbellatus, the Flat-topped Aster. Fresh, clean white daisies are followed by really showy tufts of seedheads in a beautiful tawny gold. My plants were a gift from local Superwoman Gardener, Betty Grindrod, and just divided this spring, so by next year they should reach their full height potential of 6-7 ft. Annoyingly, this plant has recently been reclassified as Doellingeria umbellata. Just kill all the botanists, now.

It's a shrub, no it's a perennial, no it's a shrub! Lespedeza thunbergii, common name: Japanese Bush Clover, is a graceful plant that's tough and pretty. The stems die to the ground in our winters but regrow vigorously to shrub height, arching sprays that cover themselves with deep pink or white pea-flowers in early fall. The best pink is 'Gibraltar' (above, left) and there are several nice white ones, like 'White Fountain' (above, right).

Lespedeza is perfect for planting on a bank, where the lax stems can tumble down and cover themselves with flowers in September, as seen here at Linda Horn's garden in nearby Spencertown, NY.  If a more compact plant is wanted, it can also be cut back by half around Memorial Day and it will still flower well, just in a bushier form.

There are good reasons why you see a Panicle Hydrangea, Hydrangea paniculata, flowering now at almost every house in these parts. They're tough, hardy, and spectacular in flower, aging from white to pink and perfect for big, lavish floral arrangements. There are literally dozens of cultivars on the market, from the classic heirloom 'Peegee' to more recent introductions like 'Limelight' (greenish-flowers) and 'Phantom' (panicles the size of basketballs). I prefer the ones with more open clusters, like 'Pink Diamond' (above). All they need is plenty of sun, reasonable soil, and a modest shaping in early spring. Also often grown as a standard, incorrectly called a "Tree Hydrangea".

I know it's on the invasives lists in several states, but I still grow the Sweet Autumn Clematis, Clematis paniculata. It foams up the side of our porch, sprawling out over a Lilac, and envelops the deck above with fragrant masses of bloom every September.  I prune it back pretty severely in spring, just as the buds are breaking on the old vine, to keep it reasonably under control. As the old stems age and get woody, new ones will sprout from the base and can be trained to replace the older ones. Occasionally I find a seedling coming up, but I've never seen much potential for it to become invasive, at least not in our garden.

While we're on the subject of vines, early fall is the peak of perfection for most annual vines, like Morning Glories, Spanish Flag, Cup & Saucer, or the Hyacinth Bean, Dolichos lablab, shown above. I prefer this variety, 'Ruby Moon' which has purplish stems, leaves and pods that are as decorative as the flowers. I used to start it every year from seed, under lights in my basement, but it's been volunteering for the last three or four seasons and it seems to come true to color. As easy as any other bean, and one or two plants is all you need to cover a fence or an archway. 

What would early fall be without at least a few Dahlias, queens of the late season cutting garden, and (mostly) worth all the trouble to start them warm, stake them while they grow, and dig & store after frost. Their gorgeousness is often breathtaking, and the varieties are endless. 

Another tender group that's worth the trouble to replant every year are the shrubby Salvias, like Salvia guaranitica, Salvia leucantha, Salvia uliginosa, and their many cultivars like 'Black & Blue', 'Indigo Spires', 'Cambridge Blue', 'Waverly', 'Argentine Skies', or 'Amistad', each more enchanting than the next. The only reason they're not more popular is that they look like weeds when it's time to buy and plant them... but just wait until the days shorten a bit and they start to bloom like mad and keep going until taken out by the frost. Give them full sun, evenly moist soil and plenty of room to expand into shrub-sized plants that will cover themselves in flowers that Hummingbirds and Sphinx Moths flock to. Did I mention they're deer-proof too?

I love anything thistle-like (maybe it's my prickly personality) and I buy a couple of Cardoon plants every year to plug into sunny spots that need a gutsy foliar focal point. The proper name is Cynara cardunculus, and it's a cousin to the edible Artichoke. I had one live over the winter this year and although it didn't make the large, vase-shaped plant I was hoping for, it did throw some nice buds and flowers, which were like small artichokes and dried nicely. Most years the leaves reach 3-5 ft. in height and look incredibly sculptural by the end of the season.

Another plant I love for it's dramatic foliage is Ricinus, the Castor Bean. I grow a few every year from seeds that are easily sprouted with a little bottom heat. By September they're topping out at 8 ft, more in a hot wet year, and producing their clusters of colorful, spiny seed pods. The seeds themselves are highly toxic (the source of the poison ricin), so not a plant for gardens where small children are likely to ingest them.

There are a few varieties of Castor Bean, but my very favorite is a deeply colored one called 'New Zealand Purple', available from Select Seeds, Chiltern's, or Annie's Annuals. It's a little smaller than some of the green Castor Beans, only 6 ft. tall instead of 10, and I love scattering it through plantings of richly tinted annuals and perennials.

Here's 'New Zealand Purple' in a stunning combination with Salvia uliginosa, the Bog Sage, put together by Dorthe Hviid at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, Mass.


I hope I've given you some ideas for plantings to liven up the waning days of summer, but whether you take my suggestions or not, enjoy your garden in September. With less pressing chores, beautiful weather, and a bounty of flora and fauna to observe, it's a wonderful time to be outdoors.

Loads of rain here recently, following on a month-long drought. Such is the weather for a gardener... never perfect, never quite what we would want it to be. At least I'm not watering by hand and sprinkler now, a tiresome and well-draining activity I try to confine to items planted within the last year; anything that's been in the ground longer is on its own. The ample moisture has refreshed and renewed many plants that looked on the verge of demise, including the toasted lawn, plumping up flagging stems and leaves, triggering everything to put on fresh turgid growth in a botanical sigh of relief. 

All this exuberance is especially noticeable on the largest and most heavily textured plants, those we need for bold effects, the unapologetically oversized plants all experienced gardeners instinctively turn to for accents and focal points, and to avoid monotony in a planting scheme. Tropical annuals, of course, are perfect for providing the scale and impact needed, and I couldn't garden without Cannas, Cardoons, and my beloved (and deadly poisonous) Castor Beans. But they are a lot of trouble to raise from seed every year, or carry over as bulbs, or buy again every season.

What I'm appreciating most right now are the perennials that provide that tropical look with less effort on my part, those that reliably return every year to make the late summer garden, beyond the flowery fuss of May and June, a satisfying essay in texture and form. Here then, a baker's dozen of these big, bold beauties, some of which you probably already grow, and some new ones you may want to try.

One of my top ten favorite perennials, Ligularia japonica thrives in damp shade and builds up into magnificent clumps of rich green, deeply divided foliage that gives a distinctly tropical effect. In midsummer the flowering stems shoot up head high or more, and though I'm not so fond of the shaggy golden yellow blooms, I love the seed heads that follow: tufts of golden brown that hold well into the winter before shattering.

I'm not sure why this plant is so hard to find in nurseries because it comes easily from seed... in fact I pull out dozens every spring that sprout in places I don't need it... so if any of you want a start, email me and we'll get a list going for next year!

Darmera peltata, commonly called Indian Rhubarb, is technically an American native, just not to our area. It hails from wooded streamsides in Oregon and northern California, but grows very well here in the Hudson Valley as long as it's given a spot in shade that never dries out. The thick, rhizomatous roots, lying just on the surface of the soil, make it an ideal plant for stabilizing the bank of a stream or the edge of a shaded pond.

The flowers are more curious than beautiful, naked stalks topped with a ball of pale pink blooms that poke up very early in the season, before the leaves expand. It's those leaves that are the main attraction, and why we grow the plant: scalloped discs more than a foot in diameter, held shoulder-high in a wet year like this one. They take on rich shades of bronze, gold and red in the autumn, then disappear with the first snow, leaving only the conspicuous rhizomes to mark their place until the following spring. Darmera increases gradually and steadily, never overly aggressive like Petasites japonicus, a plant often recommended for similar conditions.

Aralia cordata is a great large-scale perennial native to Japan, where its young shoots are eaten like asparagus. 'Sun King' is a golden-leaved version that was reportedly discovered there in a department store nursery by plant explorer Barry Yinger, and brought back to the U.S. where it's recently become a hot perennial. I've been growing it for about five years now, and continue to be impressed... it flattens to the ground every winter but returns faithfully in spring, quickly making a dense mound of foliage 6 ft. tall and wide.

The sprays of delicate greenish white flowers in late summer are attractive, followed by black berries that the birds relish. But it's the foliage color that makes this plant truly distinctive: it seems to have some sort of inner phosphorescence that makes it glow in the late evening light like no other golden plant. Or maybe that's just the martinis.

Miscanthus have been the most popular ornamental grasses for twenty years or more, but they're undergoing something of a reevaluation because many of the varieties can reseed invasively, particularly in Zone 6 and southward. Most nurseries are now required to put scary labels on all their Miscanthus, even the varieties that aren't a threat. One that's perfectly safe to plant here in our area, because it blooms too late to set seed, is Miscanthus x giganteus, a hybrid of unknown origin. It's also the largest of the genus by far, towering ten or twelve feet in ideal conditions.

The effect is close to that of a Bamboo, without the running propensities... a clump of Miscanthus x giganteus will gradually increase every year but never enough to cause terror and panic. After first frost, it turns beautiful shades of tawny gold until the leaves shatter in late winter. Give it space, full sun and adequate moisture and enjoy the drama that ensues!

Like an Astilbe on steroids, Persicaria polymorpha is a shrub-sized perennial that really looks great at the back of a border, or in a meadow style planting. It's related to the much hated and horribly invasive plant known locally as Japanese Bamboo (not a Bamboo at all, but equally uncontrollable). But Persicaria polymorpha doesn't run rampant, just makes a nice polite clump that increases slowly every year. Its common name is supposed to be Mountain Fleece but I've never heard anyone call it that. It's valuable for its scale, boldly textured leaves, and long-lasting plumes of flowers that age from greenish white to a pleasing tan.

Prefers full sun and average to moist soil, and as I mentioned it's strong enough to hold its own in a meadow, growing 5-6 ft. tall and able to compete with grasses, Asters, Goldenrods and other such plants. Takes its time to emerge in the spring but the hollow, persistent stalks are very distinctive so you'll be able to find it during late winter cleanup. Persicaria is a genus of plants that has been switched around a lot in recent years by botanists (damn them) but although the name Persicaria polymorpha is officially listed as "unresolved", most likely you'll find it being sold and referenced under that name... at least for the time being!

Rodgersias are substantial perennials that make a bold foliage statement. There are several species and cultivars that will grow here, including Rodgersia aesculifolia, Rodgersia pinnata and Rodgersia podophylla. The one I grow was bought as R. pinnata 'Superba', but I'm not entirely sure it was labeled correctly. Never mind, they are all beautiful, dramatic and worth the patience it takes for the painfully slow crowns to establish and build up.

In England and northern Europe they can be grown in full sun, but here they need some shade from scorching afternoon heat, and reliable moisture in the ground. Distant cousins to Astilbes, which is evident when they throw their plumes of white or pink flowers, which are attractive but nothing in comparison to the visual impact of the leaves.

Astilboides tabularis used to be called a Rodgersia until it was hived off into its own genus by the ever-annoying botanists. Culturally, it has the same requirements as Rodgersia and takes just as long to establish and really get going, but it's well worth the wait.

The platter-sized discs of fuzzy mid-green, held aloft on strong stems, contrast dramatically with other more delicate shade lovers like ferns, Thalictrums or Actaeas. Astilboides is a great feature at Margaret Roach's garden in nearby Copake Falls, NY, always eliciting lots of questions and comments on her Open Days.

With most of us trying to grow fewer Miscanthus, we're all looking around for other large, substantial grasses. Panicum virgatum, also known as Switch Grass, is a native American species with several selections that fit the bill. One of the largest and most dramatic is 'Cloud Nine'. It forms a graceful fountain of slightly bluish foliage that erupts in late summer into an enormous cumulus cloud of delicate bloom.

The whole thing ages to a pale gold by September and persists until we have a really flattening wet snow. Other good alternatives to Miscanthus are Sporobolus wrightii 'Windbreaker', Molinia caerulea 'Transparent', Andropogon gerardii 'Red October', Panicum virgatum 'Northwind' and Spodiopogon sibericus.

I know Hostas don't need any promotion... you've probably got more than enough of them already if you've been gardening for a while. But there's just something so satisfying about the large, blue-leaved cultivars that I couldn't leave them out of this list. If you can get around the deer, Hostas are incredibly reliable and one of the very few bold-foliaged plants that will survive in dry shade. I prefer most Hostas used in masses, but I love these large blues set apart as specimens, underplanted with something low and lacy, like Sweet Woodruff, so they can show off their size and texture and lovely vase-shaped form. The classic old-time variety is Hosta sieboldiana var. elegans, still a great plant after more than a century in the nursery trade, but there are lots of newer big blue cultivars to try as well, like 'Blue Angel', 'Humpback Whale', 'Blue Umbrellas' and 'Empress Wu'. Just promise me you won't become a collector.

Although it's not a true perennial, the Korean Angelica, Angelica gigas, is a very reliable biennial, meaning it needs two years to complete its life span from seedling to bloom. You may need to buy the plant two years in a row to get it going on the proper cycle, but it's worth the trouble. Handsome compound leaves, almost like an Acanthus, held on sturdy 5-6 ft. stalks, topped by striking domes of deepest red-purple. The flower color is particularly rich, and the whole plant is suffused with shadings of wine-red that make it a standout among other more ordinary greens.

Blooms in late summer, and like many umbellifers, it's a great pollinator plant. The seed heads persist into fall in an attractive way before dropping to begin the next year's seeding cycle. Best on evenly moist ground with some shade from the hottest afternoon sun, but adaptable to an average border setting as long as the soil is fertile.

Goldie's Fern (named for Scottish botanist John Goldie, not Goldie Hawn) is the largest of the native Wood Ferns, genus Dryopteris. Although one doesn't usually think of ferns as bold plants, the sheer scale of this beauty puts it in a class by itself, a well-established crown easily reaching 4 ft. tall with an equal spread on boggy soil. In our climate only the Royal Fern, Osmunda regalis, can compete, but its fronds look completely different. Dryopteris goldiana has the classic twice-compound fronds of many other ferns, just at an impressive size. Plus it has the leathery texture of all Wood Ferns that enables them to remain attractive throughout the growing season, instead of browning out in dry spells like some with more delicate fronds.

Comfreys are notoriously invasive, but this variegated type, Symphytum uplandicum 'Axminster Gold', is very well-behaved. I've had it for more than ten years and the clump increases only modestly every year, just enough to share with friends. My Vermont garden designer friend, Donald Corken, pointed out that it's unusual to find a plant with this coloring that grows in full sun, an astute observation.

Like all Comfreys, the deep, strong roots will enable the plant to regenerate quickly, so after flowering I cut the whole business right to the ground and in a week or so there's a fresh flush of new foliage. Average to moist soil is recommended by most references, but I have mine in a raised bed with light, sandy soil and it's done very well.

Something you may not have thought of using as an ornamental is common Rhubarb, Rheum rhabarbarum. If you look at it with an unbiased eye, it has everything you'd want in a bold perennial: handsome large-scale foliage, tall sprays of milk-white or pinkish flowers, adaptability and bone-hardiness. The stems can still be harvested for early use in the kitchen and the plants will regenerate plenty of new leaves to carry through the summer.

Once established, the substantial rootstock will live for many, many years, as evidenced by their continued presence around old farmsteads. Richly manured soil will yield the largest leaves, but they will grow well in ordinary garden soil as long as it's not too hot and dry. If you want to get fancier, there's a non-edible Eurasian version, Rheum tanguticum, with jagged leaves suffused with red, and deep pink flowers. Very handsome!



You may have noticed that many of the plants I've suggested require some shade, and at least consistent moisture if not downright boggy soil. That's simply a matter of evolution... large leaves can collect more sunlight in dim conditions, and reliable moisture in the soil is a requisite for maintaining full, lush growth. If your garden conditions tend towards hot, dry and sunny, you probably won't be able to grow all of these, but it's worth trying to find a spot where you might succeed with some of them... the north side of a building, in the drip of the eaves, would be a likely place.

There are other choices not covered here, of course... Inulas are wonderful, and a great feature at James Golden's garden in western New Jersey, Federal Twist (see photo below). But I've never grown them, so I hesitate to write about them. Another obvious choice for dramatic effect is the Japanese Butterbur, Petasites japonicus, but it's so fearsomely aggressive that I couldn't recommend it to anyone who has a garden smaller than Central Park.

Those on the list above are reliable here in USDA Zone 5, adaptable and extremely valuable for adding something refreshingly audacious to your garden. Look at your plantings with a critical eye, and you're sure to find somewhere that needs more punch, more boldness, more vitality, more of a horticultural extrovert!