Fantastic Plant Combinations
October 8th, 2009
Filed in Annuals and Perennials
Tags: Montrose, perennial gardening, perennials
If the ground isn’t frozen solid where you live yet (SORRY CHRIS!), fall is a good time to nab some perennials on sale to fill out the garden and get a jump-start on spring. While at the Garden Writer’s Symposium I picked up the new book Perennial Companions by Tom Fischer with photos by Richard and Adrian Bloom. It is totally inspiring. (FTC disclosure: I guess I was “given” this book for free. If by “given,” you mean filched, along with as many other books as I could lift and stuff in my already full bags. I’m kind of a klepto around the publishing table at GWA. I can’t help it. And, I rarely meet a book I don’t like.) I didn’t even know that there was such a book until I saw it on the table. I regularly take pictures of plant combinations I like. In fact, most of my garden-related pictures are combo closeups. I’m just enthralled with how many possiblilities there are!
Here are some photographs from my Summer travels. As you can see, I was welcomed by rain, humidity and general weather malaise during most of my visits. If the picture is blurry, well, blame it on the rain, yeah, yeah.
Clockwise from top left: Ornamental grass, Jacob's ladder, Coral bells
Hydrangea (top), ornamental grass (bottom)
Dianthus, ornamental grass, hollyhocks-all butterfly plants
Coral bells, Astilbe, Jacob's ladder, Lungwort and other shade plants
Ornamental grass (back), Coleus (front)
Colchicum (fall blooming bulb flowers) with Ophiopogon (looks like black grass)
Salvia 'Limelight' (front), sweet potato vine (back)
Castor bean, Dahlias, Ornamental grass, lantana at Montrose
Russian sage (back), Coneflower (front)
The reason I love all of these plant combinations are that they provide contrast. Either the colors contrast, the texture contrasts, the shape contrasts or the size contrasts.
Two of the pictures are from a garden center I visited this spring. They were great merchandisers because they had little plant combinations all over the nursery floor. If someone wanted to, he or she could just walk on by, scoop up the entire group of plants, go home and have an instant garden. This technique also helps garden shoppers see just how many plants they need to put in a nice sized little landscape bed.
Go forth and shop the garden center sales!
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