Garden Design and Installation

Plants to Love: Dwarf Fleeceflower (Persicaria affinis ‘Dimity’)

September 1, 2010
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This low-maintenance perennial forms a slowly spreading mat of thick green foliage, and at the end of summer bursts into bloom with a multi-colored show. The buds start out pale pink and fade to deep rose, eventually turning a rich rusty brown for fall. The foliage too gives a fall show, getting a bronzey-red tone [...]

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Plants to Love: Snowmound Spirea (Spirea x nipponica ‘Snowmound’)

August 25, 2010
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‘Snowmound’ Spirea (USDA Zones 4-9) is a lovely thing, with deep green leaves, reddish stems, a graceful arching habit and rounded form. It loses its leaves, but doesn’t make a mess about it, and the white flowers in spring make you forget that you missed it all winter. ‘ Snowmound’ needs full sun to do [...]

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Attracting Wildlife: Simple Things You Can Do (Garden Designers Roundtable on Nature)

August 24, 2010
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Recently I was talking with a native plant aficionado, and she was telling me that the turning point for her in going native was when she looked around her gorgeous landscape, and realized it was barren of animal life. She had a garden simply brimming with flowers and beauty – but very little of the [...]

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Plants to Love: Rozanne Hardy Cranesbill (Geranium ‘Rozanne’)

August 18, 2010
Geranium Rozanne

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ (USDA Zones 4/5-9) is a lovely tumbling plant that gets between 4 and 5’ around, and about 2’ tall. She’s been the darling of the landscape designer crowd since being introduced a few years back, and even though we all plant her all the time, we’re sticking our fingers in our ears and [...]

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Are You a Drifter?

August 14, 2010
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As a garden designer, many of my design requests from clients come with a list of plants as long as my arm that I must somehow cram include in the garden plan. Being an inveterate plant addict lover myself, I always find it fun to help these folks fit each of their plant friends into [...]

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Plants to Love: Neon Flash Spirea (Spirea ‘Neon Flash’)

August 11, 2010
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Spirea ‘Neon Flash’ (USDA Zones 4-9) is a Bright! Magenta! Pink! flowering shrub to about 4’ tall, which loves full sun and blooms off and on throughout the summer. It does lose its leaves in winter and gets a bit of reddish-yellow fall color, but the fall color isn’t anything to rave about. I love [...]

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Plants to Love: White Parahebe (Parahebe linifolia)

August 4, 2010
Parahebe linifolia

White Parahebe (USDA Zones 8-11) deserves to be one of those plants like Geranium ‘Rozanne’; a plant that’s totally overused but nobody’s actually sick of because it is so ridiculously charming. It has deep green, glossy foliage that’s evergreen and very attractive, its delicate white blooms are lacy yet sturdy and incredibly profuse – and [...]

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Plants to Love: Purple Pixie Hebe (Hebe ‘Mohawk’ or ‘Purple Pixie’)

July 28, 2010
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This Hebe is a lovely little evergreen thing which gets to about 3’ around and blooms off and on a good part of the year. It takes shearing well and usually comes back well from hard pruning during the growing season, though I try to avoid pruning into the wood if I can avoid it.

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Shamelessly Tropical: Hawt Plants for a Variety of Climates (The Garden Designers Roundtable on Under-Utilized Plants)

July 27, 2010
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I admit it. I’m in zonal denial. I love the huge tender leaves of bananas, the glorious hanging trumpets of Brugmansia, and anything so wild and lush that it makes me feel like I’m on vacation to the kind of rainforest-y tropics that have monkeys and great winding green snakes and crazy bugs that for [...]

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Plants to Love: Autumn Fern (Dryopteris erythrosora)

July 21, 2010
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I LOVE the Autumn Fern. Orangey foliage in spring and summer? Cinnamon-colored spores on the underside of the plant? A neat habit and a plant that’s simple to prune down in winter? It’s got it all.

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