We, too, use a wide variety of ornamental grasses and shrubs to
provide interest and topography to our property. I'd love to see a
planting diagram to better visualize how these folks integrated
perennials. As a backbone to our grass garden, we planted groupings
of nandinas and some native American hollies. In our zone 7 garden,
they're "evergreen." The bright red berries on the nandinas pop in
the sea of golden grasses in the winter...making winter the most
colorful season for our grass beds.
In My Garden Blog
Mid-Atlantic
October 11, 2007
By
Charlotte Kidd,
Radnor, PA
Expansive masses of color and texture intertwine to weave an autumn tapestry.
Sweeping Beauty
By autumn, ornamental gardens tend to be lush with full-grown perennials, airy plumed grasses, and brightly berried shrubs. A late-season landscape near Wayne, Pennsylvania, recently caught my eye. Sweeps of purple asters, golden Baptisia, seed-topped Agastache, lacy brown fennel heads, stocky sedums, among other beauties filled five beds, large and small.
At the driveway entrance, spiky miscanthus towered over purple clusters of Verbena bonariensis and mounds of puffy pennisetum. Bronzy purple-leafed smoke bush (Cotinus), midsized spirea, and short cherry laurel backed a wide, curvy swath of fuzzy, floppy lamb's ears. The landscape's overall appeal comes from simplicity of design paired with bold masses of contrasting textures, colors, heights, and shapes. It's the Modern American style of gardening.
On the roadside bank, a 5- by 10-foot sweep of feathery, golden Baptisia spilled into seedy fennel stalks planted above a large bed of ground-hugging sedum rosettes in blue-green and burgundy. Purple-pink 'Autumn Joy' sedums leaned into stalwart iris blades. Coarse-leaved oakleaf hydrangeas framed swirls of euphorbia and lavender. Arching Abelia branches were covered with white trumpet flowers or delicate pink bracts. Clusters of reddish blue berries dripped from large viburnums accented with a few scarlet and orange leaves.
This landscape is quite different from many of our informal, hodgepodge gardens. Most of us tend to be attracted to a flower's color, so we buy a promising flat of annuals but only one holly or one favorite hydrangea. Often our garden beds are small and our budgets limited so we're judicious about selection. Occasionally we splurge and come home with a carload of irresistible finds.
The Vision
I've learned in design classes to look at the big picture; to group plants in threes, fives, and sevens. To envision a spit of soil as a painting with drifts of the same plant abutting other mass plantings of contrasting or complementary color or texture. Or both. I imagine an Impressionistic garden a la Claude Monet's garden in Giverny, with color and texture and plants spilling into each other, sharing space naturally. Other gardeners may prefer order, strong definition a la Versailles, where King Louis XIV kept his garden as controlled as he liked his court and subjects. A garden often reflects its owner or designer.
The Wayne garden has a bit of both styles. Shrubs, perennials, and grasses are grouped simply, distinctly, deliberately. The plants, though, are a combination of loosely branched shrubs, wavy-stemmed grasses, and casual perennials set against tightly held iris, lamb's ears, and sedums. The effect, both close up and afar, is pleasing.
From the country road, the broad colorful swaths are refreshing, bright, and semi-orderly compared to the shallow woodlands nearby. Up close, the charm can be subtle. Brown aster seedheads above bright green foliage are fascinating in front of bluish, yellow-eyed asters with yellowing leaves.
At first glance I did not see a sprinkler, drip irrigation tube, or soaker hose. Besides being beautiful, this garden seemed self-sustaining, drought tolerant, and low maintenance -- something to strive for in our gardens.
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Comments on Sweeping Beauty
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We welcome your questions and comments about this column. If you have gardening questions unrelated to the column, please ask them on our message boards.
Christi
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Brian
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I too have been gardening with mass grass plantings mixed with
perennials. One of my favorite combinations is Miscanthus zebrensus
with goldstrum rudbeckia. The golden flower of the black eyed susan
really pulls out the yellow banding on the zebra grass. I also
enjoy the movement and sound created with the breeze through the
grasses, this is even more effective during the winter months when
little else is going on. One other bonus to the grasses is in the
spring before I cut them back I enjoy watching the birds as they
land on the grass blades and gather all they can carry to build
their nests.
Charlotte Kidd
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Hi Brian,
What a beautiful description. I've been enjoying a Miscanthus
sinensis 'Zebrinus' planting this season too. Was your pairing it
with Rudbeckia an accident or deliberate? Certainly gives your
garden dynamic winter interest PLUS spring pleasure watching the
birds.
Several springs ago, I put several overgrown rosemary topiaries on a
picnic table in my backyard. When I looked a couple days later, the
plants were shorn to the wire frames. I scratched my head; I knew I
hadn't pruned them. Several mornings later I watched from my window
as a starling clipped off a branch, then carried it to a nest.
Another landed and did the same. Made me smile to imagine nestlings
hatching in my rosemary sprigs. Brian, thanks for writing.
Charlotte
Charlotte Kidd
Hi Christi, you put considerable thought and planning into your
landscape design. The deep green wall of hollies with
lanceolate-leafed nandinas and their red berries makes an excellent
foil for wavy, upright ornamental grasses. An eye-catching mix of
contrasting colors, textures, shapes, and movement.
Though I don't have the Wayne landscape's design on paper, I do have
more photos, Christi. If you're interested in seeing them, email my
editor Kathy Bond Borie and ask her to forward your request to me.
I'd be happy to email low-res pics so you can see more integration
of perennials, grasses, and shrubs as mixed ornamental beds.
Blossoms up! Charlotte"