Nature’s Garden
Earlier this month I visited the Philadelphia Flower Show. I make a point of going to the show when I can, for a variety of reasons — in part, to get excited about the upcoming arrival of spring and planting season, and also to get ideas I can use in my garden.
“Legends of Ireland” was the show’s theme this year. As you might expect, there was a lot of green.
Initially, I wandered about, looking at the displays from a distance to assess their larger impact.
Nothing really registered for me. Then, I got closer.
In one display, I noticed a weird-looking plant called Araucaria araucana, the monkey puzzle tree. An evergreen, tropical conifer, it looked like something from the time of the dinosaurs.
Triangular, sharply pointed, scale-like, dark green leaves radiated out and around each branch in its entirely.
It did not look like anything one would want to touch. Yet, it was curiously attractive. (Unfortunately, as a landscape plant, it is hardy only in USDA Zones 7-10.)
In another display, I saw something called Chionanthus virginicus, better known as a fringe tree.
It is a deciduous shrub, and the specimen’s new growth was just beginning to emerge. The plant’s white flowers are borne in fringe-like clusters that contrast with its long, dark green leaves.
I discovered I could grow this plant in my Zone 5 garden, if I wanted to, because it is native to the eastern United States.
For me, this year, the flower show turned out to be a rediscovery of the value of texture in the garden.
Throughout the show there were other excellent examples of plant textures; textures provided by foliage, flowers and stems. It got me thinking about how I use texture in the garden, and how I could use it more.
Many of us are guilty, I think, of looking at a garden and seeing color: color in flowers, color in foliage, color in plant stems. Well, I decided I’m turning a new leaf this spring and am perusing my seed and plant catalogs with a strong eye to texture.
Of course, I did a mental inventory of what plants I already have that provide texture in my garden. The exercise made me think about the plants I grow in a very different way. Iris and Crocosmia provide spiky texture. Blue spruce and other conifers offer needle-like texture. Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) and lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) lend a suede texture. Ferns and yarrow (Achillea millefolium) are the lace. Fluffy pompoms are the flowers of ragged robin ‘Jenny’ (Lychnis flos-cuculi) and Japanese kerria (Kerria japonica).
Still, as I page through catalog after catalog this week, I am drawn to photographs of plants that would add additional texture to my garden-both subtle and in-your-face kinds of texture from foliage, flowers and stems. In fact, some new additions to my garden will be plants that have been on my “to buy” list for a while; their texture qualities tipping the scale in their favor this year.
Purple liatris (Liatris spicata) will add its bottle brush texture to a large, still-to-be planted, sunny border. Because they are reported to be deer resistant, the deeply engraved leaves of heliotrope (Heliotrope arborescens), the tall, feathery fronds of bronze fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), and the fine, brushy texture of threadleaf bluestar (Amsonia hubrictii) will also help fill out that sunny border.
Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascene) will lend its thread-like foliage and interesting seedhead textures to a cottage garden area off of my breakfast room.
And the peeling bark of a Heritage river birch (Betula nigra ‘Heritage’) may wind up somewhere in the front yard.
I’ll be selecting other textural additions for the garden as the season progresses, much to the dismay of my husband and our collective pocketbook. However, as he pointed out just last night, he’s glad my passion for shopping isn’t focused on shoes. At least he derives some pleasure out of what I manage to craft in our landscape.
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Susan Brimo-Cox gardens, observes nature and writes in Ohiopyle. Readers can send questions or comments to her at naturesgarden@brimo-cox.com.