The "Other" Blooms in June

The last day of June 2010 brings an end to twenty-one straight days of temperatures in excess of 90°F. I don't have accurate information on the number of days over 100° or the days where the heat index was in the triple digits. During those twenty-one days, the rainfall went north, south, east and west of my garden. Finally, in the middle of the night, I heard the rain. Relief.

Now, I can reflect on all the beautiful flowers in the garden, captured in photos but unable to fully enjoy in the unbearable heat.

The "other" blooms in my garden often take a backseat to grand-stand performances of agastache, bee balm, coneflowers, coreopsis, nepeta and salvia. While the blooms of these "other" plants are more limited, they fill significant niches in my garden.

The "Emerald Isle" (photo below) beside my stone walk is still a work in progress. The ground covering hardy ice plant (delopserma cooperii) is a good match for the mounding betony (stachys hummelo).

Over the last four years, the two perennials have been filling in the space between the stone walk and the dry stream, beneath the high canopy of a crepe myrtle 'Tuscarora'. In spite of the tree, this spot receives a pounding by the sun on the southwest side of the house. Zones 5-9 can grow the ice plant in xeric conditions; Zones 4-8 can grow the betony; full sun. Both are deer and rabbit resistant, although there is the occasional sampling of a betony bloom.

Balloon flower (platycodon grandiflorus; photo below) is an edger along a section of cottage garden path,  adding color when the azaleas fade. I've long lost the label for the exact variety of the perennial balloon flower! This is an "out of sight, out of mind" perennial that has been under-appreciated until recently. I am determined to collect seeds this year to sow with shasta daisies, so I've not deadheaded for rebloom. Zones 3-8; part sun; doesn't like to be transplanted after established.

The balloon flower (second photo below) mingles well with rose campion (far right pink), perennial heliotrope 'Azure Skies' (ground cover at bridge), garden phlox (pink bloom in middle). 

I have a love-hate relationship with the unknown variety of chaste tree (vitex agnus-castus; photo below was shot in the evening light, making the blooms appear more blue).

I love the flowers, color, form factor and the fact that bees and butterflies are drawn to it. Therefore, I will not be without this tree. The chaste tree grows in my butterfly garden with St. John's Wort 'Sun Pat' (hypericum), bee balm 'Jacob Cline' (monarda didyma) lantana 'Miss Huff', bronze fennel, milkweed (asclepias tuberosa and incarnata), agastache, salvia, verbena and coreopsis.

What I hate are the hundreds of seedlings that sprout below since I can no longer reach the top to deadhead or cut back the tree. I also planted a 'Shoal's Creek' variety in my meadow above the butterfly garden. This variety has an even more lovely bloom and I've not had a seedling problem. However, that one isn't planted in rich garden soil!

I have trained the unknown chaste tree so that there is a trimmed-up trunk, but it can also be treated like butterfly bush with a late winter shaping. Zones 6-9; full sun; drought-tolerant and can be used for xeriscapes; deer resistant.

Last, but not least, are my daylilies. Once upon a time, I had quite a daylily (hemerocallis) collection at a previous home. Here, with limited space inside the cottage garden fence, I grow two re-blooming varieties, the lovely yellow 'Happy Returns' and the pale yellow-white 'Joan Senior'.

I had grouped these daylilies together for a yellow garden bed. However, hot summer droughts were parching the foliage. I am in the process of moving the daylilies to another location with more moisture and less sun.

The yellow blooms look great with perennial heliotrope 'Azure Skies' and the cobalt blue blooms of Brazilian sage.

Daylily foliage is eaten by rabbits in early spring and the blooms are eaten by deer in the summer. So, I won't invest the money or the effort in growing any exotic varieties. Zones 4-10; sun to partial shade.

Although these plants haven't been given much attention, I would be hard-pressed to garden without their presence.

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. Deer and rabbit resistance varies based upon the animal population and availability of food. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

For the Love of Lavender

I love to buy lavender soap and bouquets of dried lavender at French markets. 

(Antibes, France; May 2010)

I love to use lavender as a centerpiece to fill the air with fragrance. 

(Antibes, France; May 2010)

I love to see lavender growing in fields. 

(Sunshine Lavender Farm, North Carolina; June 2010)

I love to learn about lavender planting from Annie Greer Baggett. 

(Sunshine Lavender Farm; June 2010)

I love to eat lavender ice cream made by Maple View Farm. 

(Sunshine Lavender Farm)

I love to bake lavender scones at home. 

(home kitchen, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; December 2008)

Most of all, I love to grow lavender for the wonderful honey bees.

Our neighborhood lost two wild bee hives over the winter. One hive is being rebuilt. 

My garden is far too quiet this year without all of the honey bees. 

(home garden, Chapel Hill; April 2009)

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Twelve Hours of Summer Sun

Just how much heat and sun can a plant handle? Most gardeners define "full sun" as six hours or more of sunshine. My garden easily receives twelve hours of full sun in the summer. The temperature exceeded 100°F recently. Our heat index has been well over 100° on several days. We've had no significant rain in weeks while the 90°+ temperatures have pounded the garden and the gardeners.

My garden is filled with plants that can handle tough heat, but even camels eventually need a drink in the desert. It was time.

I had to water the garden last evening to prevent a meltdown! We do have a deep well. Still, I don't like to water the garden and I really don't like to water a garden in the evening—but, I wanted the water to soak into the soil instead of evaporate in the morning sun.

My husband said "you can almost hear the sigh of relief from the garden."

This morning, I rushed out at 6:30 am, hopeful for a recovery. It was hot. Too hot. I was glad that I hadn't waited until morning to water the garden because I couldn't handle the heat!

My camera lens had to clear up as it was fogged by the transition from air conditioned comfort into the inferno.

The garden put on a perky face for me. All was well—at least on the surface. The soil is still very dry, but my thorough watering revived the garden for a few days.

So, which plants performed best in this unplanned trial of dry, hot torture?

Salvia guaranitica 'Black & Blue' with wide, bright green leaves was definitely looking sad. A little water did the trick and all the plants were back to normal all day today. Salvia 'May Night', 'Caradonna', 'Marcus' and 'Sensation Rose' were fine. Salvia greggii, in all colors, looked totally undaunted by the heat.

The new varieties—salvia chamaedryoides and salvia pachyphylla—were especially pleased with the dry conditions and hot temperatures, so I carefully avoided giving those two any water at all! Sounds cruel, but I won't mess with happy plants!

Most agastache varieties were real troopers, but 'Golden Jubilee' with wide, light green leaves really had to be watered. The big surprise was that the companion to drumstick allium, agastache 'Cotton Candy' (pictured above) needed no water. 'Cotton Candy' was added in September 2009 and has been blooming since April. If it continues to perform well, it is going to move into first place as my favorite agastache.

The buddleia leaves have drooped during the heat of the day, but each morning (so far), they have looked fine. No extra water has been given, but that may change as we expect another 100° day on Sunday.

The coneflowers, ageratum, joe pye weed, ironweed and daylilies needed water. I lost a few volunteer tall garden phlox planted beside the stone walk inside the cottage garden. Other patches of phlox, planted among other perennials, are fine. Sedum were fine. A few lamb's ear plants were suffering, but the older ones are doing great.

Gaillardia, lavender, ornamental grasses, flax, Russian sage, santolina, verbena and all of the coreopsis varieties were fine before the watering. I'm not sure they appreciated my efforts to drag several hundred feet of garden hose around the garden. The drip irrigation has never been extended to the drought-loving plants.

Another plant that has received no supplemental watering must have a tap root long enough to reach down to the water table. Perennial heliotrope 'Azure Skies' (that blooms six months) is simply amazing! It has been an edger in the cottage garden, and I started adding it along the edge of the outer gardens. Although all of the heliotrope in the south garden was planted since April, it is blooming like crazy, loving the heat and untouched by deer.

When I finished the watering chore (2 1/2 hours), I took on another chore last evening and worked until the moon was up.

As difficult as it was to endure the heat myself, I decided it was much better than working in the sun. I deadheaded as many spent flowers as possible, as well as cutting a few nice blooms to bring inside to enjoy. In times of little rain, I try to make an extra effort to deadhead to hopefully reduce stress on the plant.

It is these trials by nature that test both the garden and the gardener.

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. Deer and rabbit resistance varies based upon the animal population and availability of food. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

An Affordable Flower Combination

Buying plants can be an expensive endeavor. Whether you are a beginning gardener or an experienced one who has large sections to plant, you can make your money go a long way by selecting plants that will increase in number. Perennials that can be reproduced from seed or through division will stretch your investment.

You may have noticed that some plants have patents or trademarks. Propagating patented plants through division, layering or cuttings (known as asexual reproduction) is prohibited without permission from the patent owner. Offspring resulting from seeds are not prohibited. However, with most patented plants, the seeds will not be true to the parent.

A trademark, on the other hand, is ownership of a registered plant name. A registered (®) trademark (™) protects a company brand, series, or plant name. You can propagate or divide the plant into more plants, but you can't give it the same name if you sell the offspring.

Two perennials that make an affordable and beautiful pairing are coneflowers (echinacea purpurea) and bee balm (monarda didyma).

The purple coneflowers have been blooming since late May. I am deadheading regularly now in order to keep the blooms coming on strong. When the flush of blooms ends, I'll leave the seed heads to dry on the plant, both for the birds to eat and for seed collecting.

My coneflower of choice is the open-pollinated 'Prairie Splendor' for the abundance and size of blooms, the rebloom and the fact that I can collect seeds and grow more. There are also a few echinacea rubinstern 'Ruby Star', another self-seeder, among the mix. Not all coneflowers can be grown true from seed, but the offspring from seed of 'Prairie Splendor' and 'Ruby Star' are like the parent plant.

I am gradually increasing the numbers by planting the seeds in the low part of the garden in rich, moist soil. When the seedlings are mature enough to bloom, I transplant them into my design plan.

Someday, I'll have the desired effect in large masses. This budget-conscious gardening takes awhile, but I cannot see buying more plants when I know that I can grow my own. It takes a little patience and the planting of filler annual flowers, also inexpensively grown from seed, to keep from being too impatient.

Bee balm is another smart choice for creating big swathes of color in the garden. Take one bee balm, give it rich soil and moisture and it will spread quickly. In only a year, you'll have a nice clump. By the third year, you'll not know what to do with all of the plants!

The cool colors of bee balm are just now in bloom and catching up with the early coneflowers. There are two colors that I like to pair with purple coneflowers. Monarda didyma 'Raspberry Wine' is my favorite for impact, but monarda didyma 'Blue Stocking' is my favorite for widespread use as the color seems to work well with so many perennial and annual partners. In another part of the garden, I grow the bright red and tall 'Jacob Cline' that blooms earlier and is currently going into a second flush of flowers after being deadheaded. There are many colors of bee balm and shorter varieties on the market.

If you select flowers that can easily be grown from seed or plants that spread quickly and can be divided, the cost is then reduced to a few cents per plant to grow a large garden of flowers!

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. Deer resistance varies based upon deer population and availability of food. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Repeat: Yellow Flower Power

Due to formatting issues with the new template, some readers could not view the text in Flower Power: Yellow. This is a repeat of the same information, with larger photos. Thank you.

Yellow flowers light up my garden, shining all day and into the early evening hours. Pale yellow works especially well with purple, blue or white companion plantings. I love the varieties that have long bloom seasons with little maintenance that can handle the full sun and well-drained soil in zone 7b. Of course, to be on my list, these have been reliably deer and rabbit resistant.

Shasta daisy (leucanthemum x superbum)

Leucanthum 'Broadway Lights' ™This shasta daisy begins with pale yellow flowers that turn white. It is perennial in zones 5-9. This shasta dots my garden path. Blooms summer to fall with deadheading and I find the white varieties to also be deer and rabbit resistant.

Green santolina (Santolina pinnata)

The mass of pale yellow buttons on the emerald foliage of green santolina stands up to the heat and humidity better than gray foliage varieties. This drought tolerant perennial is suitable for zones 5-11. The foliage is evergreen, but too much heavy rain can create an interesting "part" in the middle of this mounding plant. I love it in spite of the interesting hairdos!

Blanket flower 'Yellow Queen' (Gaillardia x grandiflora)

Even after the petals fall, I love the yellow pom-pom seed heads. Deadhead to keep the blooms coming and control the self-seeding. Use this drought-tolerant perennial in zones 3-10. It looks especially great when paired with agastache 'Purple Haze' or salvia 'May Night'. Long-blooming all through the summer and into autumn. There are more colors, too!

Tickseed (Coreopsis verticillata 'Creme Brulee')

This little coreopsis would probably rather be in your garden instead of mine! I have moved and divided it several times in the last three years. Nonetheless, it puts up with my indecision and keeps on blooming. It really needs a well-drained location to get through the winters in zones 4-9. I have two new coreopsis that I planted in 2009—both with changing colors. So far, I'm very excited about coreopsis 'Autumn Blush' and coreopsis Big Bang™ 'Redshift'.

Yarrow (Achillea 'Moonshine')

For bright yellow-gold in spring, this achillea puts on a big show when grown en masse. Drought-tolerant achillea likes tough conditions in full sun and lean soil in zones 3-9. In my zone, 'Moonshine' cranks up in late April/early May and blooms well into June when I cut back the stems to the basal foliage.

There are a few more yellow blooms in my garden—such as spring-blooming daffodils, snapdragons and California poppies that are beautiful and ignored by rabbits and deer. Still, your experience may vary with any plants on my list, depending upon the critter population and availability of food in the wild and your neighbor's garden.

If you'd like to read more about my garden in print—here's a note from The Grumpy Gardener at Southern Living Magazine:

There's a great story about your garden in the July 2010 issue of Southern Living! I don't know who wrote it, but obviously the guy's a genius! Everybody should pick up a copy.

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Flower Power: Yellow

Yellow flowers light up my garden, shining all day and into the early evening hours. Pale yellow works especially well with purple, blue or white companion plantings. I love the varieties that have long bloom seasons with little maintenance that can handle the full sun and well-drained soil in zone 7b. Of course, to be on my list, these have been reliably deer and rabbit resistant.

Shasta daisy (leucanthemum x superbum) Leucanthum 'Broadway Lights' ™This shasta daisy begins with pale yellow flowers that turn white. It is perennial in zones 5-9. This shasta dots my garden path. Blooms summer to fall with deadheading and I find the white varieties to also be deer and rabbit resistant.

Green santolina (Santolina pinnata) The mass of pale yellow buttons on the emerald foliage of green santolina stands up to the heat and humidity better than gray foliage varieties. This drought tolerant perennial is suitable for zones 5-11. The foliage is evergreen, but too much heavy rain can create an interesting "part" in the middle of this mounding plant. I love it in spite of the interesting hairdos!

Blanket flower 'Yellow Queen' (Gaillardia x grandiflora) Even after the petals fall, I love the yellow pom-pom seed heads. Deadhead to keep the blooms coming and control the self-seeding. Use this drought-tolerant perennial in zones 3-10. It looks especially great when paired with agastache 'Purple Haze' or salvia 'May Night'. Long-blooming all through the summer and into autumn. There are more colors, too!

Tickseed (Coreopsis verticillata 'Creme Brulee') This little coreopsis would probably rather be in your garden instead of mine! I have moved and divided it several times in the last three years. Nonetheless, it puts up with my indecision and keeps on blooming. It really needs a well-drained location to get through the winters in zones 4-9. I have two new coreopsis that I planted in 2009—both with changing colors. So far, I'm very excited about coreopsis 'Autumn Blush' and coreopsis Big Bang™ 'Redshift'.

Yarrow (Achillea 'Moonshine') For bright yellow-gold in spring, this achillea puts on a big show when grown en masse. Drought-tolerant achillea likes tough conditions in full sun and lean soil in zones 3-9. In my zone, 'Moonshine' cranks up in late April/early May and blooms well into June when I cut back the stems to the basal foliage.

There are a few more yellow blooms in my garden—such as spring-blooming daffodils, snapdragons and California poppies that are beautiful and ignored by rabbits and deer. Still, your experience may vary with any plants on my list, depending upon the critter population and availability of food in the wild and your neighbor's garden.

If you'd like to read more about my garden in print—here's a note from The Grumpy Gardener at Southern Living Magazine: There's a great story about your garden in the July 2010 issue of Southern Living! I don't know who wrote it, but obviously the guy's a genius! Everybody should pick up a copy.

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Dotted with Daisies

In the beginning, there were only three clumps of shasta daisies in the cottage garden. Although the daisies looked great with the sunny yellow daylily 'Happy Returns', I was spending too much time watering all of those perennials. Wrong plants in the wrong place. I began converting that area to xeric plants. The daisies and daylilies needed a new location so that I could replace them with lavender, salvia greggii, agastache, stachys and sedum.

In September 2009, I moved the daisies to the deer resistant garden. The three clumps were divided into small pieces and planted wherever I could find a bare spot along the garden path. I considered the arrangement temporary—just a holding area. I planted between perennials and between the spirea (top photo, click to enlarge). I had to plant all along the path because the three clumps quickly became nine clumps.

There was so much rain in the winter, I was sure they would drown. Not so. The daisies loved all that moisture. Each clump grew quite large and I even made a few more divisions in April. Since the foliage looked so healthy and happy, I decided to leave the daisies alone for this year.

The daisies are quite enjoyable when strolling along the path. The blooms are large and flat and the viewing is cheerful. It wasn't until I started taking photos that I realized the funny arrangement.

Now that the daisies are in full bloom, the resulting design (or, lack of) looks somewhat like polka dots along the path!

The more I look at the photos, the more I realize that the white dotted pattern (nearly every other plant is a daisy) is really quite noticeable. There are only a few clumps shown in the photos below, so you can imagine how it looks for the entire length of the path!

Given that this was to be a temporary holding location, I'm not beating myself up about it. I'll eventually rearrange the daisies into mass plantings. While I now have the right plants in the right place—I have the wrong design!

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

My Deer Garden is Full of Flowers

There's no mistake—the deer are here. The herd grazes and sleeps in the meadow, only a few feet above the garden. Several fawns have been born in the last few weeks. But, the deer haven't been in the garden in months.

Can it be that the deer are convinced there's actually nothing good to eat in the deer resistant garden?

The deer resistant garden includes all plants outside the cottage garden fence.

The flower garden wraps around the front and one side of the house and includes a large section of cool colors, a hot colors butterfly garden and a fragrance garden.

The fragrance garden includes sweet bay magnolia, gardenia, ginger, jasmine and pulmonaria. Then, there are deer resistant plantings along the front walk and driveway that include crape myrtle, coreopsis, ice plant, stachys hummelo, nepeta, buddleia, monarda, Japanese irises and nepeta.

Not a nibble anywhere. Not a hoof print among the flowers or the garden paths. What's going on? Is there no scarcity of food in the wild, or are they munching somewhere else?

The garden is edged with a French drain consisting of round rock and concrete edgers. However, the drain is only one foot wide, so they can easily step over it.

The first plants the deer encounter are reliably deer resistant—agastache, buddleia, coreopsis, lavender cotton, gaillardia, nepeta, perennial heliotrope and salvia—for example.

There are many more, but these perennials are used extensively in my garden where plants must also be drought and heat tolerant in full sun.

The long and wide garden slopes down toward the house with a garden path of flagstones at the bottom. When I created the garden in 2007, the deer still had their own paths down the slope. Now that the garden is more mature and heavily planted, I have erased their favorite access points.

I do not use deer repellents or netting. The deer have simply broken their habit of foraging for food in a garden that hasn't rewarded them with their favorite snacks. Along the path in the front garden are coneflowers, shasta daisies, spirea, perennial ageratum, monarda, Japanese irises, ginger, milkweed and many other perennials, annuals and shrubs.

Among the hot colors in the top of the butterfly garden are more coneflowers, coreopsis, gaillardia, verbena, nepeta and crocosmia. The coneflowers are easily reached by the deer, but as you can see in the photos, the blooms nearest the meadow edge are also untouched. Farther down this edge there are rudbeckia, lantana, salvia, bronze fennel, ornamental grass (miscanthus) and clumping bamboo.

Along the lower path below the butterfly garden, I planted a mish-mash of tall purple verbena, red monarda, red and orange cannas, orange cosmos, orange zinnias and orange gladiolus. I cut those beautiful, undamaged gladiolus today and brought them indoors to enjoy! I had no browsing of zinnias or cosmos in 2009, so I'm trying larger swaths of those annuals—grown inexpensively from seed, so if there is damage, it won't be a financial issue.

I've had a positive experience with my deer resistant garden for three years now. Of course, the food supply can change and the deer herd is growing larger. My deer are not hungry or desperate right now, but your local herd may be hungry enough to try anything.

For my deer garden—it has been a very good summer so far!

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. Deer resistance may vary in your garden. The information provided is based solely upon my experience with the deer herd and an unprotected garden where plants are either selected for known deer resistance, or I am conducting my own tests.

You Can't Beat these Drumsticks (Allium)

With a garden featuring spires of hummingbird mint, I like to use globes to add variety and interest. The round blooms of ornamental onion (allium) are perfect, but most flower here in April and are gone by the time the hummingbird mint (agastache) blooms in summer.

In autumn 2009, I planted two test patches of drumstick allium (Allium sphaerocephalon) in an area of agastache 'Cotton Candy', 'Blue Fortune', 'Summer Love', 'Salmon & Pink' and 'Heat Wave'. 'Cotton Candy' was the first agastache to bloom—and the fluffy pink spires have been going strong since April.

Each test area is planted with 25 allium bulbs. I waited in anticipation to see the burgundy umbels of the drumstick allium with the agastache. The magic has happened and I'm thrilled with the resulting combination!

There's much more than agastache with the alliums—Brazilian sage (salvia guaranitica 'Black & Blue'), autumn sage (salvia gregii 'Dark Dancer'), shasta daisies (leucanthemum x superbum 'Paladin'), cornflowers (centaurea cyanus) and blue flax (linum narbonense 'Heavenly Blue') fill out the rest of this garden area.

This is the same area shown in the story Meadow Madness that highlighted the annuals adding color while waiting for the summer perennials to bloom.

Allium sphaerocephalon is suitable for USDA zones 4-10 and blooms in June or July, depending upon the zone. The blooms are reported to last for 3-4 weeks, but I've found the foliage and the forming umbels to be attractive while awaiting the burgundy color. The 2-3 foot high stems should be straight in full sun. In partial shade, the stems may lean or sprawl to find the sun. The blooms attract bees and butterflies. Plantings should multiple quickly and the seeds can be collected. If that's not enough—allium is deer and rabbit resistant.

As more agastache varieties begin to bloom, I'm happy with the other color combinations, too. The 'Blue Fortune' blooms are down the slope from the allium, but I was able to snap a photo (below) to show the potential for planting these closer together in the future.

I will definitely add more drumstick allium this fall. I'm thinking how great they'll look with coreopsis, coneflowers, stachys—so many plants!

Leucanthemum x superbum 'Paladin', agastache 'Cotton Candy' and 'Summer Love' were provided by Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc. Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks/copyrights/patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Silver Foliage—A Perfect Foil for Purple

The silver leaves of lamb's ear provide a shining background for the blue-purple buddleia blooms. This contrast is why I love to use silver foliage to enhance the color purple.

The soft and gentle lamb's ear is a perennial that keeps on giving. Starting with only one plant five years ago, I have divided and transplanted stachys byzantina 'Helen Von Stein' more times than I can count.

Given the number of stachys available in my garden, I use it in combination with the purple blooms of buddleia 'Adonis Blue, lavender (multiple varieties), larkspur 'Gailee Blue' and verbena 'Homestead Purple'.

While the silver stachys looks perfect with purple, the coolness works well with lilac, blue or pink—from light pink of dianthus to the magenta blooms of salvia greggii.

Not only stachys, but silver-blue sedum 'Blue Spruce' or white-silver dusty miller combine well with purple foliage plants—sedum 'Purple Emperor' and tradescantia pallida 'Purple Heart'—as well as purple blooms of flowering annuals or perennials.

On the shady side, I use the silver-frosted pulmonaria and Japanese Painted Fern. Persian Shield, an annual, is a perfect punch of purple against these lighter background perennials. The pulmonaria is an early spring bloomer, but the foliage continues to add impact in the shade garden in summer. The pulmonaria is my deer resistant alternative to growing hosta. A nest of lacy Japanese Painted Fern provides texture.

All of these plants work well in containers, too. In fact, two of my pulmonaria were transplanted from the garden to my front porch urns; while all of the Japanese Painted Ferns lived in a planter for three years until I transplanted those into the garden this spring.

I love the versatility of silver foliage and it is especially lovely in evenings or by moonlight. While my favorite combination is silver with purple—what creative combinations do you grow in your garden?

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks/copyrights/patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Book Review: Bloom's Best Perennials and Grasses

As with many North American gardeners, I am often inspired by English gardens and the only thing more enjoyable than browsing photos is to visit in person.

Bressingham, in particular, is fascinating to me because I grow several perennials that originated at the nursery, have browsed the online garden photos many times, but have never actually toured the gardens.

Adrian Bloom, author of Bloom's Best Perennials and Grasses, is a past owner of the world-renowned Blooms of Bressingham® Nursery. He currently manages Foggy Bottom and other gardens at Bressingham in Norfolk, England.

When the book first arrived from Timber Press, I was sure that it was either a "coffee table" photo book or intended for European gardeners. But, the book is a practical one, intended to be used by gardeners in both Europe and North America.

Bloom includes an extensive directory of plants and advice along with garden inspiration that can also be used on this side of the pond. He is quick to add the extra nuggets of insight regarding the growing of the plants in North America and even translates our USDA Hardiness Zones into Equivalent UK Conditions.

The hardcover book is nicely presented with big views of garden designs as well as explanations for problems solved, plant choices and maintenance levels.

As with any garden book, I look for the underlying message that resonates with me. The chapter, Take Twelve Plants: A Key to Successful Gardening, hit the right chord.

Bloom is obviously a hands-on gardener and nurseryman. He grasps the challenges of gardening—whether it is time, skill or the overwhelming number of plant possibilities from which to choose:

Over the years, I have come to understand that in the garden less can often be more...

Reducing the focus to twelve tried-and-tested plants allows us to study and learn about a small group, each capable of creating drama in almost any garden, especially when enhanced by clever plant combination and good design.

The author continues to describe his twelve choices and the versatility of the perennials and grasses in various design vignettes as as well as seasons of the year.

Of the twelve plants, I am actually growing three of the well-known perennials in my garden:

Geranium 'Rozanne'
Crocosmia 'Lucifer'
Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii 'Goldsturm'

The book isn't limited to the highlighted twelve plant choices. In fact, there is a directory of over one hundred pages of plants that are among the author's favorite perennials and ornamental grasses.

Bloom realistically puts design inspiration and how-to instructions into context for gardeners. In other words, he provides the reader with real-life examples for designing, creating and maintaining a garden, whether large or small. And—the photos of the English gardens are quite enjoyable, too!

The book in this review was provided by Timber Press. Book jacket image provided by Timber Press. Words by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks/copyrights/patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Big Bang—Blue Blooms!

Everything is happening so fast. It seems as if the entire garden is blooming at the same time.

Much to the delight of the hummingbirds, the salvia guaranitica 'Black & Blue' is putting on a big show.

There are many more of this salvia in the outer gardens, but the rich soil and warmer micro-climate in the cottage garden has produced the big blooms first.

If you had a shirt in this cobalt blue color, you could wear it with anything in your closet! Wouldn't that make it easy to get dressed each day?

Likewise, in the garden, you can plant this salvia with white, yellow, orange, pink, purple, red and even other blues—such as the blue cornflowers in the next photo. The cornflowers were sown from seeds last autumn and selected to let the blues sing together.

But, what is on the other side of the salvia? The tall stature of salvia 'Black & Blue' makes it a perfect candidate to use as a backdrop for shorter plants, such as coneflowers.

The coneflowers (echinacea 'Prairie Splendor') will soon be joined by blooms of bee balm (monarda 'Raspberry Wine') for a favorite combination. If you look closely on both sides of the salvia, you may notice that there are also a few plants of rose campion in the mix.

Of course, I shouldn't ignore the attributes of the lush foliage! The wide leaves of deep lime look especially refreshing on hot summer days.

If you garden in zones 7b-11, salvia guaranitica 'Black & Blue' is a perennial. They are late to emerge in spring and just when I give up on them, I'll spot a shoot of green a few feet away from the mother plant. Yes, it can travel quite aggressively in the warmer zones. Since I garden in 7b, I don't always get a repeat of all of my plants, but I grow enough that I can usually keep the plantings going year-after-year.

As for rabbits and deer, I've not experienced anything beyond an occasional bloom nibble. Of course, your experience may vary, depending upon the hungry critters in your neighborhood.

When happy, 'Black & Blue' can grow anywhere from three feet to a towering six feet in height. Definitely place it at the back of the garden in the warm zones.

Other companions that I'm using in the outer gardens with salvia 'Black & Blue' include purple fountain grass (annual here), Russian sage, agastache, and buddleia.

I've even used the salvia in containers, but doing so in my zone (or colder) requires overwintering the container in a garage. When overwintering in the ground, I do not cut the stems back in the fall. Placing stones or rocks around the base of the plant will also help soak up winter sun and provide a bit of warmth.

I can't imagine my garden without salvia 'Black & Blue', even with the extra precautions.

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel.