Perennial Drama

by Nina Koziol There are thousands of perennials — species and cultivars — for sun and shade, but until you use them on a job site or in your own landscape, or see them thriving in a public garden, how do you know what works? And not only works, but goes into overtime with extra flower power, fabulous foliage, winter interest or longevity?

Landscape designer Karla Patterson-Lynch, Gardens for People, is intimately familiar with many great perennials. In 2016, she designed and managed the installation of Midwest Groundcovers Perennial and Ornamental Grass Display Gardens. This spring, Midwest Groundcovers invited her to give a virtual talk about how to create drama in the garden. After all, a landscape is like a theater. You’re the director and the plants play different roles.

Directing the siting and combination of plants boils down to three key elements, Patterson-Lynch said. “It’s your design intent, the specific site, and the design characteristics that you combine to create the drama. Develop a design intent for each planting plan and relate the garden style to nearby architecture.” For designers who are new to the industry, she stresses observing architecture. “Formal architecture is usually symmetrical with fewer types of plants, geometric edging and requires more care to keep the strong geometric look.” It also can make plant replacement more difficult when one or several plants in a formal line, such as boxwood, dies.

“When you have informal architecture, there’s a broader range of plants and curvilinear lines that are more forgiving at the edges so losses and replacements are not so big an issue. If you’ve been to Midwest Groundcovers, you’ve seen informal gardens. I refer to these as matrix gardens. They really lend themselves to large spaces and typically involve a lot of grasses in full sun and they can be used in any setting.” MWG’s Perennial & Grass Display Garden

New plant stars took the Midwest Groundcovers stage this spring with other well-known supporting actors. “If you haven’t seen the perennial garden, it’s laid out in loose alphabetical order,” she said. “Different cultivars are close to each other so you can compare them.”

Check out Midwest Groundcovers (midwestgroundcovers. com) and make plans to visit their facility so you can observe the many display gardens and plant combinations. You won’t be disappointed.

Here are some of the underused newer perennials that Patterson-Lynch talked about.

Brunnera macrophylla ‘Alexander’s Great’

“It has a lot of visual energy. Because the silver and white foliage place it in the cool color family, I’d use it with blue hostas, blue carex, Orchid Frost lamium, dwarf Chinese astilbe and an ajuga with dark foliage. (Check out Ajuga reptans) ‘Binblasca’--Black Scallop Bugleweed.) Echinacea PowWow® White

Dynamic Plantings

“If you want to create drama you need high visual energy plants.” This includes plants that provide vertical or upright forms, coarse or bold textures, and contrasting leaf or flower colors and shapes. “Flower color is fleeting. When I’m designing I want to pick form and height first, the foliage color and texture next. I worry about flowers at the end.”

“We can fall into a rut using the same plants over and over,” she said. “I’ll thumb through a catalog or web sites to spark my creativity.” And, when choosing plants, recognize the difference between site preference and tolerance. “This is something you can only learn by experience.” Plants don’t read the books. One example is sun-loving daylilies. Some plants will perform in semi-shade, such as at the edge of tree’s drip line where they will get enough afternoon sun to flower.

(continued from page 10)

“I feel like white is good as an accent but it can’t really carry a design unless you do an all-white garden. Other perennials like baptisia, red echinacea, grasses, and prairie dock work with it and a clear white is so nice with blues like those of salvia.”

(continued from page 12) Gentiana alba

“This is a native plant called cream gentian and it’s a new plant to my palette. It doesn’t have high visual energy, but it plays a supporting role and has an interesting flower that lends itself to blues and pinks. So, to use it in the right site I searched the MWG web site to find all the plants that are native to the mesic prairie. I was able to find other natives that were appropriate partners like Liatris and Monarda fistulosa.”

Heliopsis helianthoides ‘Summer Nights’

“Last year I remember the heliopsis flopping over and laying down. If you’re not going to stake the plants, surround them with woody shrubs for support or trim them back to two or three sets of leaves around Memorial Day. If you need something tall, it’s a really nice plant. Most people think red shows up in the landscape best, but really it’s yellow that draws attention.” ‘Summer Nights’ has dark-black stems and works well with smokebush (Cotinus), Andropogon ‘Blackhawks’ and Diervilla. (See Diervilla splendens ‘El Madrigal’ Nightglow® Bush Honeysuckle.)

Hosta ‘Rainbow’s End’ “How could you have another hosta? Well, a walk through the hosta display is really lovely. Because of the creamy lime green variegation I wanted to go to the opposite.” She pairs it with Astilbe chinensis var. pumila (Chinese astilbe), Carex plantaginea and Ophiopogon (dwarf lilyturf).

Iris versicolor ‘Purple Flame’ “This one was new to me,” Patterson-Lynch said. Plants reach 2 to 3 feet tall and wide. The flowers are a medium lilac but it’s the foliage that’s the show-stopper. The leaves have a rich dark purplish color. She suggested pairing it with Marsh marigold, Lobelia siphilitica (great blue lobelia), swamp milkweed, Alchemilla mollis, Hibiscus moscheutus, and Zizia area (golden Alexander).

(continued from page 15)

Nepeta ‘Cat’s Pajamas’ Who doesn’t like a good blue in early summer? She suggests pairing this catmint with Calamintha and big bluestem. “Give it full sun and accent it with plants that offer pale yellow and lime green foliage.”

Penstemon ‘Midnight Masquerade’

Penstemon cultivars are competing to see which one offers the darkest foliage. This one reaches 3- to 4-feet tall and blooms May into July. “Accent it with pale yellow and lime green foliage such as Sambucus ‘Lemony Lace’.

Polygonatum odoratum ‘Ruby Slippers’

“I use the variegated Solomon’s Seal, but I wanted to try some other things and this one has red stems. I was looking for ways to play off the red. You could pair it with ‘Chocolate Shogun’ Astilbe, ligularias with dark foliage, Annabelle hydrangea, or native ginger.” Blooms May to June and prefers moist soil and shade to part sun.

(continued from page 16) Sanguisorba officinalis var. microcephala ‘Little Angel’ (Little Angel Dwarf Burnet)

“This sanguisorba is fine-textured and light. It provides a great contrast with monarda, columbine, and Hibiscus ‘Holy Grail’,” she said. Rabbit-resistant, Little Angel is 8 to 10 inches tall and 10 to 12 inches wide and can be used in pots, in rain gardens, and in woodland shade gardens. Sedum ‘Carl’ (autumn stonecrop)

“You don’t always have enough space to put in all the plant material necessary to have a color succession each season.” But the foliage on this sedum does play a great supporting role and the flowers are a huge bonus, attracting pollinators galore. Give it moist, well-drained soil and consider pairing it with ornamental grasses, coreopsis, coneflowers, and helenium. Blooms in July at 18 to 24 inches tall and the flower color packs a punch into fall.

Over 10 acres of holding yard in two convenient locations. Main Office & Sales Yard

7200 S. Madison · Willowbrook, IL 60527 630-323-1411 Little Rock Farm

2353 Creek Road · Plano, IL 60545 630-552-8314