Ready to Plan Your Garden?

-
Timber Press never lets us down, does it? This little gem, "Perennial Companions: 100 Dazzling Plant Combinations for Every Season" takes a new approach to guiding gardeners toward success.
The Table of Contents is segmented into seasons starting with Early Spring to Mid Spring and ending with Winter.

I'm an enthusiastic cheerleader for planting perennials. We rely on them to come back with each spring's warm weather. Especially this month, as flowers and leaf buds are appearing, we get excited all over again about the return of our favorites.

For each of the 23 seasonal sections, the author, Tom Fischer, gives perennial plant suggestions with a photo of the final result and an outline of the plants that provide that result.

Each plant is named, specifics provided - height, spread, hardiness, etc. Sun and water are requriements given in symbols.

Here's an example: Mid-Spring to Late-Spring.
1. Pearl Drops western bleding heart (Decentra 'Pearl Drops')
Height/Spread 12-16 in x 16 in
Hardy in zones 4-8

2. 'Cherry Ingram' Venus' navelwort (Omphalodes cappadocica 'cherry Ingram')
Height/Spread 10 in x 15 in
Hardy in zones 6-9

Fischer says, "This pairing is a harmony made in horticultural heaven. The bright blue of the navelwort couldn't have a better partner than the blush-white flowers and ferny, blue-green foliage of the bleeding heart. Plant this duo in a shady spot and then spend the rest of the day feeling smug."
The facing page is a full page photo of the combination in bloom.

Then for Midsummer to Late Summer the suggestions are Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus), 'Sahin's Early Flowerer' sneezeweed (Helenium 'Sahin's Early Flowerer) and 'Prince Igor' red-hot poker (Kniphofia 'Prince Igor')

The photos on the facing pages will make you want them all.

If you have a place to improve or a new bed to put in, this handy book will help out by providing the eye candy photos by Richard Bloom and Adrian Bloom and the details you need to purchase and plant.

The author, Tom Fischer, is the editor-in-chief of Timber Press. In the past, Fischer was the editor of Horticulture magazine.


DETAILS: Paperback, 216 pages, 7-inches by 6.25-inches

ISBN is 978-0-88192-939-3, $14.95 (free shipping) from Timber Pess. It's about $10 at online booksellers.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Moldy Tulip Bulbs

-
Image
Moldy tulip bulbs are a big disappointment when you are hoping to fill a bed or some pots. It is not that unusual for their skins to have a bit of penicillin mold but these are beyond that tad bit stage. Mold penetrating tulip bulb  Mold on emerging tulip bulb growth  So, what to do? The plant references say to throw them out and buy new ones but I already spent $22 for 50 of these white tulip beauties. First, they got a soak in 1% bleach solution in the kitchen sink in the hope that the bleach would stop the mold from continuing to grow without killing the life force in the bulb itself. After a good slosh around, I wiped them off to see how much damage was beneath the blue and black.  This tulip bulb is soft to the touch and there is little chance it will thrive in the soil. This basal root on these have been ruined by mold. The final step I took to try to salvage part of them  was to spray them thoroughly with fungicide.  They are all planted in the
Read more

Propagate Begonia Stem Cuttings in water - Cane-like Angel Wing Begonia

-
Image
Propagating by stem cuttings is just about the easiest way to make more begonias for next summer's garden. During the fall, I regularly trim off 3-node long cuttings and put them into the growing pots where they take root. Now that cold weather has arrived, I root the stem cuttings in a vase of water. It's a great way to produce more pots of Begonias for next summer's garden. Water the plant well the day before. Take a cutting about 4-inches long, with 3 nodes, from a healthy stem. Use a perfectly clean container. Rinse the container with a drop of bleach if you are uncertain about its spotlessness. Remove all but the top leaf or two. There should be no leaves in the water. The cutting should  have a healthy leaf node at the bottom. Don't leave a stub below the node. Place the cutting into the water, and place the container out of the sun. In a couple of weeks, you will see new roots beginning to form. Check the water periodically to make sure it is still f
Read more

Create Nesting Areas for Birds and Wildlife

-
Image
From the website, Choose Natives , this lovely and instructive article helped remind me to continue to increase the amount of habitat and nesting that we provide in our garden. Many, though not all, are native or considered to be native in Oklahoma. So, I did a little research on each recommended plant and provided a link to more information. You'll see the plant name in italics - those are my links for your edification. Here's the post Derek Stoner, Project Coordinator for the Delaware Nature Society, helped restore the 860-acre Middle Run Natural Area by “intensive habitat management”, including planting 12,000 trees and shrubs.  His lecture, ‘ Native Plants for Nesting Birds: Connecting Flora and Fauna’,  given to a group of enthusiasts at the Millersville Native Plant Conference   in Pennsylvania, focused on his observations. Here are Derek’s landscaping recommendations for attracting birds: Plant shrubs in clusters (“habitat circles”) that will create the dense
Read more