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slideshow: june 7 garden-tour

by margaret
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succulent potRECIPE FOR A GARDEN TOUR: Shop ahead, then carefully clean and prep all ingredients and surfaces. Preset sky for sunshine; turn humidity and heat to low. Add the zest of one jumbo pop-up nursery to the driveway. Open gates, and layer on just enough visitors. Yield: A successful June 7 Garden Conservancy Open Day. The highlights:

plant saleFirst, giant thanks to Broken Arrow Nursery for creating the pop-up shop (above–before plant-mad shoppers bought three-quarters of it!); and to Laura Palmer of the Garden Conservancy for helping me get 350ish visitors acclimated–and for managing the national network of several hundred private gardens who open in 30-plus states each year, in the Conservancy’s Open Days program. I’m proud to have participate for about 18 years of the 20 they have been doing it (and am open again August 16 and September 20 this year).

Thanks also to Carol Gracie, whose spring wildflower lecture down the road at the local church was a big hit.

I can’t really capture the in-person experience of touring my hilly, 2.3-acre place for you here, so instead I try to show what people asked about, in the slideshow below. Things like the ultra-fragrant and chaming flowers of the American fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus, below) that they found along the way on their walkabouts.

male flowers chionanthus virginicusopen day slideshow

HOW THE SLIDESHOW WORKS: Simply hover your cursor over the right side of the first image, and an arrow for navigation will display; use it to move from slide to slide. Note: A few are vertical images (you can tell which by the shape of the thumbnail), so even better with those is to click on the photo, and it will pop up full size on your screen, with its caption beneath. You can also watch the whole slideshow by clicking on the first image, and popping it up onto your screen, and navigate slide to slide from there.

The Broken Arrow Nursery truck arrived about 7 to set up a pop-up rare-plant shop in the driveway, the first thing arriving visitors would see.
At the farthest reaches of the 2.3-acre garden, the incredibly fragrant blooms of the American fringe tree, Chionanthus virginicus, would certainly bring visitors back toward the house, where I was stationed,ask, “What’s that scent?” Female blooms on this tree…
…and male flowers on the boy beside her. I have a pair of these shrubby small trees. Male blooms are showier; if you have both genders, the girl will get olive-like dark blue fall fruit. Both get gold fall color.
Long before they got to the Chionanthus, though, visitors wanted to know: What’s that green stuff on your water pots and in your water gardens? I float duckweed (Lemna) and fairy moss (Azolla), for frog camouflage and to shade water, deterring algae. And it’s pretty.
Things in pots full of soil, not just water, always get a lot of inquiries, though they were just planted and still quite sparse. A pair of variegated Abutilon standards were a hit. (Tender; must overwinter in a greenhouse or house.)
The Abutilon standards are part of a crazy mix of gold, orange, purple, and silvery colors I promise will fill in to look great by the August 16 Open Day.
Everything from a perennial Heuchera ‘Caramel’ to a tender rex begonia vine (actually Cissus discolor, a tender grape relative) and even some lowly orange impatiens (not blooming yet) are in the mixture.
Did I say “impatiens”? Everyone wanted to know why I dared use any, with impatiens downy mildew still such a problem domestically and in Europe. Well, I thought I’d try. Just one big bowl (just planted, above) and a few here and there in nearby pots. We shall see.
Rex begonia vine, or Cissus discolor
By the way: That rex begonia vine, Cissus discolor (also a tender thing), will soon fill its bamboo tripod like this.
Speaking of vines on tripods: For a 3-foot-wide low bowl on the patio, I’m using an unusual color of black-eyed Susan vine, Thunbergia alata, as the eventually tall centerpiece.
Again: just planted, so really sparse and unexciting, but maybe you get the idea of what will happen when Coleus ‘Sedona,’ gold licorice plant (Helichrysum petiolare), a verbena with multicolored blooms, Alternanthera rubiginosa (the dark purple sprawler) and Haloragis (a bronzey sprawler) fill in, and the Thunbergia goes skyward.
Coleus ‘Sedona’ is a great unifier in pots, helping orange, purple, and pinky-purples and even a bit of yellow all go together.
My color scheme for the big low bowl we just looked at was a glazed strawberry jar I’d planted up last year with succulents, then overwintered dry and frozen in the barn. It sits near the big bowl.
Again, I took color inspiration for the bowl from the strawberry jar of succulents (you can see it beyond the big bowl): yellow, smoky purples, etc. Then I added some orange and pink to liven the new pot up.
The other pot question I always get: Where do you put those potted Japanese maples in winter? (Roll them on a handcart once defoliated and fully asleep, into the unheated barn. No water till near spring.)
More of the “What’s that?” queries: “What’s that sky blue plant?” It’s Amsonia tabernaemontana, bluestar, a native American. Foreground, peony ‘Golden Angel.’
The Amsonia and an adjacent Allium, lots of starry little blooms.
The “What’s that?” continued: As ever, the Alium cousin called Nectaroscordum siculum was a hit. An easy bulb that perennializes and sows around if happy. Hummingbirds like it, too.
In the backyard, the first plant I planted here, the Japanese umbrella pine (Scaidopitys verticillata) is always a star.
Across from the umbrella pine, Lonicera sempervirens was in full glory, my favorite honeysuckle.
Behind the umbrella pine, a giant old rhodie I’d inherited with the place (and almost cut down when I first arrived!) was cooperating, too.
Beneath the rhodie, much-asked-about perennial Euphorbia griffithii ‘Dixter’ is crazy shades of orange with red stems, and about knee high.
“What is that red-flowered little tree?” they asked, and the hummingbirds could have told you: the red buckeye, Aesculus pavia.
Aesculus pavia.
Big leaves always garner much attention here, and that’s Astilboides in the background (Nectaroscordum again in foreground).
Astilboides’ cousin, Rodgersia podophylla.
The giant clump of plain old rhubarb beside the vegetable garden always has everyone thinking it must be something rare. (Nope.)
Hosta ‘June’ got its deserved share of “ooh’s” and “aah’s.”
So did the so-called “ghost bramble,” Rubus cockburnianus.
This raspberry (which is very aggressive like other brambles underground, but does not flower or seed here), has brilliant gold foliage all season, then drops it to display wickedly thorny, ghostly white arching canes all winter.
More gold of interest to questioners: Two newish-perennials under an old apple, Leocosceptrum on the left and Aralia cordata ‘Sun King’ beside it. Both shrubby in stature (mine are only a year old).
I was happy that my Siberian irises got raves, not because they are at all special, but only because they are one of two plants (the other was the umbrella pine) that I brought from my first garden, at my parents’ home, 28 years ago to start my garden here. We three soldier on still together.
Categoriesornamental plants slideshows
  1. G. A. says:

    Could not make it over, but, the slide show is fantastic. A keeper. The what-is-its are beautifully displayed & explained. Hopefully, help with all that energy required on the “what-is-it” ? 350ish times!

    Happy birthday

    Reply
  2. endless mtns edna says:

    Happy birthday and I hope you enjoyed your pancakes they are one of my faves also just like you are

    Reply
  3. Jackie P. says:

    I enjoyed the slideshow — could have watched 30 more frames. Lovely and creative garden. Full of color, texture and interesting compositions. Thank you.

    Birthday greetings.

    Reply
  4. viqueen says:

    Rich with variety and color. Completely delightful. A big happy 60th to you!….. I’ll be joining you in a couple months. ;-)

    Reply
  6. Benita says:

    Happy Birthday, Margaret!

    Your website gives me great joy and inspiration and so I wish the same for you as you begin this new decade and for decades after that.

    Congratulations,

    Benita from Belllingham who ie turning

    Reply
  7. Tom says:

    Love your sense of design. Would like some suggestions if possible for a mass planting of bearded irises. An area about 20×100 would be divided into sections with grass between them for walking. Was thinking four 6×45 beds with the edges planted in annuals surrounding the irises would be nice. Immortality would make up the bulk of the iris plantings and not yet sure what would make up the remainder. Are there too many limitations for suggestions? Suggestions in the way of other colors for the iris and maybe additional companion plant material.

    Impressed with the diversity of your plant material and how everything is arranged. I have one plant started from seed you don’t see to often-Stephanotis, growing on a trellis structure in the corner of the living room and finally after six years getting ready to bloom. Looks like it’ll worth the wait.

    Hope your birthday was special.

    Tom

    Reply
  8. June says:

    So enjoyed the wonderful slide show! My dream would be to see your garden in real life…..it is so beautifully laid out and full of such unusual plants.
    I’m looking forward to revisiting your slides to make note of plants for my wish list. Thank you for sharing the names of your treasures.
    And a very happy birthday! Gardening keeps you young.

    June (turned 77 on June 4th)

    Reply
  9. linda williams says:

    Absolutely lovely! I read your books over & over. So inspirational! Digging in the soil is my bliss in zone 7b. Lots of clay but love the organic method.

    Reply
  10. Brigitte says:

    ….soo waiting for photos from your August garden tour ( considering my carbon footprint, your garden is just ‘out of reach’ )
    Brigitte

    Reply

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