By Fran Sorin
I garden on a steep, aberrant diamond shaped property of about one half of an acre. Because I use my garden as my laboratory for experimenting with new plant varieties that appeal to me, I’m always looking for ways to expand my garden and design repertoire.
That is why during late spring 2006, I decided to plant up a deciduous shrub garden bed to see if it was possible for me to create a strong and pleasing palette of plant textures, colors, shapes exclusively using woody plant material. Over the years, I have used a plethora of deciduous shrubs within my herbaceous borders with great pleasure and success but had never taken the leap to an exlusively ‘Shrubs Only’ border.
Believe it or not, in my intensely planted garden, I was able to find the perfect spot. It was a southern exposure on the top level of my garden, with a mild slope towards the northern end. The edge of this new bed was going to help create the illusion, I hoped, of a path with grass separating the new garden from a xeriscape, natural styled perennial border on the opposite side.
As always, I took out my trusty can of spray paint to ascertain the approximate shape and depth of the garden-to-be. Then my crew got busy rototilling the area, grass and all, only adding peat moss and some granular fertilizer to the soil. At no time in recent years had the soil in that area been improved.
As is my practice when designing, I tend to select less of a variety of plant material and a greater number of one specimen. It was an easy pick because Spring Meadow Nursery had some terrific newer selections that I had been wanting to try. The four that I chose were: Sunshine Blue® Caryopteris, Wine & Roses® Weigela, Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’ and Little Henry® Itea. I planted no less than 9 of each variety with the Hydrangea paniculata‘Limelight’ at the back end of the border and the Caryopteris on the front edge. My great experiment was to see how these plants would fare when given minimal attention in a decent but not heavily fertilized, rich soil. Would they prove to be ‘tough plants for tough times’ or would they bite the dust in the hot, humid and dry summers that we experience in Philadelphia?
The only out-of-the-ordinary care given to these plants was an every other day watering of 40 minutes for the first two weeks in their new home. After that initial reception, they were left to sink or swim on their own. It is my rule of thumb to water plant material (outside of containers and veggies) solely when a prolonged drought ensues.
I knew I would love the Itea because I’ve been using Itea virginica‘Henry’s Garnet’ in my garden for at least a decade and a half with great success. It is one of those wonderful native shrubs whose shape and creamy racemes of aromatic spring flowers followed in fall by glorious orange and red hues is only outdone by its hardiness and ease in growing.
I specifically wanted to give Little Henry® a try to see how it might be used in the future in containers and in tight nooks in the garden. And Little Henry® did not disappoint! As I look out my office window in late November, this hard working petite shrub is a blaze of color long after all the other shrubs have lost their leaves. Think in terms of ground cover, front of the border and planting vignettes when you decide to buy this Itea.
I was a bit hesitant about trying Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’ because I am a real fan of the antique colored hydrangeas. Of those, I can never have enough in my garden! I feared that ‘Limelight’, although elegant and stately in its shape, might disappoint when it came to the blooms. Was I in for a surprise! In its first summer in my garden, ‘Limelight’ produced an abundance of spectacular blooms from mid-summer on through fall. When I first looked at the flowers, they seemed to be white with greenish pale markings on its edges. As the summer progressed, the colors began to change to an antique green mixed with rose that maintained its beauty until I began to cut them to be used in floral arrangements and dried for my winter wreaths.
Sunshine Blue® Caryopteris proved to be exactly as it is described in the literature. Its bright blue/violet blooms juxtapositioned against its yellow foliage makes for a pleasing and sharp contrast. Unlike other varieties of Caryopteris that are scattered about my garden, Sunshine Blue® thus far has remained golden and tidy. Check in with me five years from now and I’ll let you know how it has matured.
The final variety that I selected was Wine and Roses®Weigela. The jury is still out on this shrub because it did not have a chance to bloom the first season. But if it is similar to other weigelas that I have in my garden, it will be a carefree arching shrub with deep burgundy leaves and delightful pink blooms in late spring.
So, you may ask, did my experiment prove successful? Yes, it did indeed. I can heartily support the concept of an exclusive woody shrub border if the garden maker has the ability to view beauty in a new context: which was not a problem for me. It will take me at least another five years to gather significant data on the maintenance and growth habits of these shrubs. But for now, their presence has added a unique and rich dimension to my plot of land. By Fran Sorin
