On the heels of our recent Garden Designers Roundtable on Inviting Nature Into the Garden, I wanted to share a resource that I’ve been finding incredibly helpful in recent months. While we all know that planting natives is a good way to attract more life into our gardens, if we only have space for a couple of plants, it can be hard to know which ones will have the biggest impact.

This list shares ten of the highest-impact natives you can plant to support multiple types of wildlife in your coastal Northern California garden.

This article is republished with permission from the author, Peter Haggard. It was originally published in the August 2009 edition of EcoNews.

Trees:

Red Alder (Alnus rubra):

Young red alders provide food for leaf- and root-feeding insects and mammals. As they age they provide food for larger populations of leaf- and root-feeding insects and mammals and food and homes for cavity-nesting wildlife, including woodpeckers, sapsuckers, owls, and flying squirrels.

Willows (Salix spp.):

Provide most of the same benefits as red alders but there is a large selection of species from which we can choose.

Shrubs:

Manzanita (Arctostaphylos spp.):

One of the first plants to flower in winter to early spring and as such it is extremely important to native bees and hummingbirds.

Ceanothus (Ceanothus spp.):

Produce flowers in abundance for beauty, and the pollen, nectar and leaves are relished by insects and mammals.

Twinberry (Lonicera involucrata):

Start blooming early and continue much of the summer if provided with water. Flowers provide nectar for hummingbirds and long-tongued insects. The berries are a much sought after food by fruit-eating birds.

California Wax Myrtle (Morella californica):

Fruits last into the winter and provide food for local and migrating birds when other foods are scarce.

Currant & Gooseberry (Ribes spp.)

Flowers, fruit, and leaves provide food for bees, birds, and butterflies.

Herbaceous Perennials:

Aster (Aster spp.):

Bloom mid-summer to fall when other flowers are scarce, and the leaves are larval food for butterflies.

Clarkia (Clarkia spp.):

Produce huge numbers of flowers when many native bees are active.

Wild Buckwheat (Eriogonum spp.):

Flowers and foliage are food for native bees and butterflies.

Notes:

Choose native plants endemic to where you garden.

For this list no wildlife (except Homo sapiens) was consulted.

Peter Haggard is the Garden Chair of the California Native Plant Society – North Coast Chapter, and co-author with Judy Haggard of Insects of the Pacific Northwest, published by Timber Press. His insect guide is my go-to book when I find a crazy new bug in the garden, and if you live in the Pacific Northwest, I highly recommend you pick up a copy.

Further Resources:

Podcast on Natives with Douglas Tallamy

Garden Designers Roundtable on Inviting Nature

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 some odd reason remind you of your oddly charming uncle, the one with the giant glasses and earnest surprised eyebrows.

Unfortunately so many of my favorites are juuust out of reach for my climate. I can grow a lot of these lovelies, but they usually spend half the year either melted and disheveled from the frost, or recovering from such. My idea of the tropics doesn’t include anything that turns to blackened mush at certain times of the year.

So anything I can get my hands on that’s both hardy in my zone 9 climate and looks drippingly lush? Surefire winners for me. If you’re the same, I’m sure you know about Fuchsias and Cannas by now, but I wanted to share a few lesser-known favorites you might not be growing yet:

Spanish Shawl (Heterocentron elegans, USDA Zones 9-11)

This plant looks rather unassuming when not in bloom, like a slightly larger-leaved version of Baby’s Tears. But put it in the ground and it is OFF! Everywhere I’ve planted these, I come back the next year to discover they’ve formed a clean-looking mat of fresh green leaves with surprisingly large fuchsia flowers ALL OVER.

They have little hairy red bracts that hold the flowers, and after each bloom falls off, you’re left with these adorable little red bits highlighting the plant. You don’t think fuchsia and red go together? Well, they do here!

Spanish Shawl will spread out indefinitely, but I’d hate to call them invasive because they seem to stop just short of other plants, so they don’t choke anyone else out – they just travel where there’s nothing and fill in the spaces. I also love the way they trail gently up walls and fences a little ways.

They’re great for part or full shade. The best part? After the first year or two you have a strong enough clump that it’s easy to give some to all the friends and neighbors who exclaim jealously over it.

The Third Harmonic Peruvian Lily (Alstroemeria ‘The Third Harmonic’, USDA Zones 7-10)

If you got last month’s Fine Gardening magazine, you’ve heard me exclaim over this unapologetically cheery plant.  It does brilliantly in sun or part shade, and it has orangey-gold blooms that make a long-lasting show in a vase with some Dahlias and Verbena bonariensis (it’s planted with a Spirea ‘Neon Flash’ above).

There’s an interesting trick to pruning them – instead of cutting them back at the base when a stem has died or when you want to cut some flowers for a vase – you instead grasp each stalk at the bottom and pull. The stalk makes a satisfying “pop” as it comes out, and this technique effectively divides the plant as you go, keeping it healthy.

Red Lobster Claw (Clianthus puniceus, USDA Zones 8-11)

Greg out at Xera Plants Nursery in Oregon assures me that his Clianthus overwinters beautifully despite their Zone 8 snow and frost. So why am I not seeing these gorgeous things planted EVERYWHERE in my Zone 9 area?

They are gloriously showy with huge red, salmon or white clusters of parrot’s beak or lobster claw-like flowers that are two inches long each! The flowers are in wild hanging clusters, and in the one specimen I found recently (growing in a neglected garden with terrible hard soil, no extra water, and with weeds all around), it was blooming its head off in March.

It seems to prefer about a half day of sunshine and good drainage. I love the lacy foliage and the way it tends to espalier itself against a wall. They get about 6 feet tall.

Brunette Snakeroot (Cimicifuga simplex ‘Brunette’, USDA Zones 4-9)

This lacy-textured black plant is refined enough to sit next to woodland shrubs or perennials, yet bold enough to hold its own next to the most wild foliage combinations. You can see it above chillin’ out with a dwarf Oakleaf Hydrangea – it also looks great with Loropetalum ‘Razzleberri’, Heuchera ‘Sashay’, most types of blue foliage, or anything with big leaves or a strong texture.

It does best with about a half day of sunshine and regular water, and in all the years I’ve been growing them, I’ve never had to divide them or seen any signs of pests or disease. When in bloom, they can reach nearly 6 feet with their white flower-spikes, but the foliage itself rarely tops 2’, so it’s a fun way of adding height to a small space garden without feeling overwhelmed by a great hulking plant-beast.

Phygelius or Cape Fuchsia, USDA Zones 5-10 (for the variety ‘Cherry Ripe’) or 7-10 (all other varieties)

This hummingbird-attractor is a quickly-spreading, exuberant thing with sap-filled trumpets that drip if you brush against them. They come in vivid reds, corals, magentas, and a more understated cream (‘Moonraker’) that simply glows by moonlight.

Because it’s such an energetic spreader, I usually either stick it in pots or put it in a place where there’s room for it to stretch out without interfering with other plants or features. I don’t set it near a walkway, because even though it’s neat to be able to see the hummingbirds a little closer, it’s not so neat when the trumpets drip on your pants as you walk past.

It blooms almost constantly through the summer, and once it’s established it seems to do OK with minimal water in part shade. If it’s in full sun, it will bloom more, but it will also want a bit of water in summer to keep it up.

***

I hope you’ve found a few new favorites to add a bit of that jungly feel to your garden. If you love this kind of plant as much as I do, check out the Encyclopedia of Exotic Plants for Temperate Climates by Will Giles. He’s got some amazing tips for how to stretch your zone to accommodate some usually-tender plants, and wonderful suggestions for hardy plants that look tropical.

Want to read some other designers’ perspectives on which plants are under-utilized? Check out the rest of the posts in this month’s Garden Designers Roundtable:

Andrew Keys : Garden Smackdown : Boston, MA »
Carolyn Gail Choi : Sweet Home and Garden Chicago : Chicago, IL »
Christina Salwitz : Personal Garden Coach : Renton, WA »
Debbie Roberts : A Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT
Douglas Owens-Pike : Energyscapes : Minneapolis, MN »
Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO »
Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK »
Pam Penick : Digging : Austin, TX »
Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In the Garden : Los Altos, CA »
Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT »
Susan Cohan : Miss Rumphius’ Rules : Chatham, NJ »
Tara Dillard : Vanishing Threshold: Garden Life Home : Atlanta, GA »

Rhododendrons are tough performers in our Pacific Northwest climate, and have become a standby for landscapers looking for a plant that’s sure to thrive.

But not all Rhodies are created equal; some are more suited to tough conditions than others, as evidenced by the horrible-looking Rhodies in so many local parking lots. Finding the right variety for the spot you have is key.

Recently, I asked Don Wallace of Singing Tree Gardens, our local Rhododendron expert, for suggestions of “bulletproof” Rhododendrons that I could use in tough spots where other plants might not thrive – like in windy areas, or in poor soils. He came up with a great list of tougher-than-usual Rhodies, which I have found so useful I wanted to share it with you here.

Small Tough Rhododendrons:

Aloha 2-3’, white with pink

Dora Amateis 2-3’, white

Noyo Brave 2-3’, bright pink, adorable foliage

Noyo Dream 2-3’, superbright pink with gorgeous foliage, early bloomer

Scarlet Wonder 3’ red, lovely habit

Winsome 2-3’, bright pink

Larger Tough Rhododendrons:

Anah Kruschke 8-10’, purple – VERY tough

Anna Rose Whitney 5-7’, pink with white

Bibiani 6-8’, red, great for privacy screens

Black Sport 5-6’, maroon, fast-growing for privacy screens

Dame Nellie Melba 6-8’, pink/ white, great for privacy screen

Hallelujah 4-5’, hot pink

Jean Marie de Montague 5-6’, red

Mrs. T.H. Lowinski 5-6’, white with rusty throat

Peter Alan 5’ dark purple that goes nicely with Nancy Evans (Nancy’s less tough, so put Nancy in a gentler position)

Pink Walloper 5-6’ tall, pink

Royal Purple 5-6’, purple with yellow-orange flare

Scintillation 4-5’, pink

Solidarity 4-5’, pink

Van Nes Sensation 6-8’, very pretty lilac-white flowers, great screen, fragrant

I’ve also found Yaku hybrid Rhododendrons exceptionally good at tolerating windy sites, even salty wind.

I think that’s because the white idumentum (hairy coating) that covers the new growth helps to protect the Rhody until it hardens off.

I love how the Yaku hybrids look like they’ve been snowed on in spring…

Looking for other plants for tough conditions? Check out my lists of plants that grow well on the seacoast for other ideas of plants that will take wind and other unfriendly conditions.

Shade-Loving Plants for the Sea Coast

Screens and Hedges to Block Wind on the Sea Coast

Ground Cover Plants for the Sea Coast

Perennial Flowers for the Sea Coast

If you’re gardening on the sea coast, the wind can make it hard to enjoy being outdoors. Using fast-growing hedges or screening plants can help you block the wind and enjoy hanging out and working in your garden.

How to use hedges and screens successfully to block wind:

• First, think of what direction the wind comes most strongly from, most often. Could you put a section of tall screening shrubs just along one side of your property and block the majority of the wind?
• Next, think about light: most screening plants will grow faster and thicker with full sunshine. Can you put your screening shrubs far enough away from any other plants or structures that they will get full sun? (What does full sun mean?)
• Consider the view. Obviously, you love the beauty of the ocean and don’t want to block your view! Think about whether you can create little “viewing corridors” from the places you sit most, so you can block a lot of the wind but not ruin your view.
• It’s possible to use fences or even large windows to block the wind. A number of my clients have decks that are surrounded with 6’ tall glass panels, so you can sit outside and enjoy the view without having sand blown into your coffee.
• It’s best if you can use a gradated effect to planting your screen, with 5’ shrubs leading to 10’ shrubs leading to taller ones as needed. This helps move the wind up and away from your garden and helps share the burden of the wind along more than one plant, preventing your plants from breaking during storms.

Which plants will work as a hedge or screen?

You want them to grow fast, be tough enough to take the salt wind, and grow thick and bushy so the wind gets stopped in its tracks. Here are a few good contenders.

California Wax Myrtle (Myrica californica) is a California native that not only helps support wildlife, but is an attractive deep-green screening shrub. It grows to 12’ fairly quickly (5-8 years), and responds well to hedging or natural pruning. This is one of the few screens I’d try in shade, but it grows faster in sun.

Purple Hopseed Bush (Dodonea viscosa ‘Purpurea’) A fast-growing evergreen shrub with lovely purple foliage and little pink seed-pods that glow when the sun shines through them. To 12-15’ in 3-5 years with good care.

Tough Rhododendron varieties can often perform well. Try ‘Anah Kruschke’, a  purple bloomer that gets to 8’ in ten years.

Escallonia is a common hedge that the honeybees and hummingbirds enjoy. If you’re sick of seeing the pink ones everywhere, there are some rather elegant white varieties that are harder to find but are every bit as tough, and the white flowers give it a much different appearance. Most get around 8’ tall in ten years.

Pittosporum tenuifolium is another hedging plant that performs well, but you might be sick of seeing. Fortunately, varieties like ‘Silver Sheen’ and ‘Variegata’ can provide some foliage interest while still blocking the wind.

Some other ideas are tough varieties of Bamboo, large Phormium or Flax varieties, Leyland Cypress sheared yearly into a hedge, Miscanthus Grass for a summer and fall screen, and shrubby varieties of Arbutus like Arbutus unedo ‘Compacta’, which does double-duty to feed the birds.

Want to read more about gardening on the seacoast?

Coastal Gardening Basics

Shade-Loving Plants for the Sea Coast

Ground Cover Plants for the Sea Coast

Perennial Flowers for the Sea Coast

Using groundcovers in sea coast gardens can give you easy low-maintenance color. I love to use ground-covering plants in masses because the waves of color kind of echo the broad waves of the ocean.

Planting groundcovers also avoids a lot of the issues found when planting individual shrubs or trees. When planted in masses, the wind blows up and over the groundcovers rather than catching the branches and constantly shaking the plants.

These plants can be used as groundcovers in the toughest of sea coast conditions:

(Click on a photo to view larger) Top row, from left: Cistus purpureus ‘Alba’/ White Orchid Rock Rose, Ceanothus/ California Lilac (many groundcover varieties), Erigeron karvinskianus/ Santa Barbara Daisy

Second row, from left: Cistus purpureus/ Orchid Rock Rose, Ceanothus griseus ‘Diamond Heights’/ Variegated Carmel Creeper, Calluna vulgaris ‘Velvet Fascination’ and ‘Dark Beauty’/ Scotch Heather

Third row, from left: Calluna vulgaris ‘Firefly’/ Scotch Heather, Calluna vulgaris ‘Sister Anne’/ Scotch Heather, Oreganum ‘Aurea’ and Geranium ‘Mavis Simpson’/ Golden Oregano (edible) and Mavis Simpson Hardy Cranesbill

Fourth row, from left: Helianthemum/ Sun Rose (many colors available), Lavandula stoechas/ Spanish Lavender, Grevillea lanigera ‘Coastal Gem’/ Coastal Gem Grevillea

Some other great groundcovers for the sea coast?

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi or Kinnikinnick/ Bearberry, a Pacific Northwest native

Rosmarinus prostratus or Creeping Rosemary which attracts honeybees and hummingbirds

Flower Carpet Roses, particularly the Pink or Appleblossom varieties which seem to be the most vigorous

Coleonema ‘Sunset Gold’ or Golden Breath of Heaven – the foliage has a pleasant nutmeg scent when brushed against!

Need more tips on which plants will thrive under tough seacoast conditions?

Shade-Loving Sea Coast Plants

Sun-Loving Perennial Flowers for the Sea Coast

Tips on Gardening in Coastal Conditions

Screens and Hedging Plants for the Sea Coast

Photo credits: Pink Rock Rose by Randy Son of Robert on Flickr, White Rock Rose by dichohecho on Flickr

Sea coast gardening is challenging enough in full sun, but choosing wind- and salt-tolerant plants for the shade can be downright daunting. Most shade plants didn’t evolve in unprotected, windy zones – they are used to the shelter of trees. Not to worry – there are a few beautiful plants that can help give your shady sea coast garden a bold, colorful look.

Designing with this limited palette can actually be really fun – paradoxically, sometimes reducing your options makes it easier to create a gorgeous garden, because you needn’t spend a lot of time considering options that simply won’t work. Instead, you can focus your time on selecting between the variations in color and form found within a few types of plants.

Here are a few favorite options for a shady seacoast garden:

(You can click on each photo to view larger) Clockwise from top left: Hydrangea ‘Blue Wave’/ Blue Lacecap Hydrangea, Fuchsia thymifolia/ Fairy Fuchsia, Persicaria ‘Red Dragon’/ Red Dragon Fleeceflower, Hydrangea ‘Nikko Blue’/ Blue Mophead Hydrangea, Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’/ Japanese Forest Grass, Daboecia/ Irish Heath (part shade only, not full!), Heuchera ‘Velvet Night’/ Velvet Night Coral Bells, Polystichum polyblepharum/Tassel Fern, Phormium ‘Tricolor’/ Tricolor Flax in center.

Some other great choices are our native Sword Fern (Polystichum munitum), native Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum), a few tough bulletproof Rhododendrons such as ‘Anah Kruschke’ (large) or ‘Dora Amateis’ (small), and Box Honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida), which tends to form more of a tight shrub in wind rather than its usual loose branching structure.

I also love Black Mondo Grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’), Variegated Sweet Flag Grass (Acorus ‘Ogon’), Variegated Red Campion (Silene ‘Clifford Moor’), and Silver Astelia (Astelia chathamica ‘Silver Spear’, best for part (not full) shade).

Want some more inspiration for your sea coast garden? Check out these other posts about which plants will thrive in tough coastal conditions:

Heathers and Heaths: Tough Plants for Your Seacoast Garden

Tips for Gardening on the Seacoast

Sturdy Perennial Flowers for the Seacoast

Hedges and Screening Plants for the Coastal Garden

Recently I discussed some of the challenges people face when gardening in windy coastal  conditions, and some counter-intuitive tips for gardening on the sea coast.

The biggest struggle is finding plants that will thrive and bloom even with all that wind and salt. Trial and error is a big part of gardening, but it’s nice to have some plants that you KNOW will work, too!

I’ve tested all of these in gardens that are right on the bluffs above the ocean and they are all tough performers:

(Click on each photo to view larger) Clockwise from top left: Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’/ Hardy Stonecrop, Geranium ‘Rozanne’/ Rozanne Hardy Cranesbill, Leonotis leonuris/ Lion’s Tail, Phlomis fruticosa/ Jerusalem Sage, Geranium ‘Patricia’/ Patricia Hardy Cranesbill, Salvia leucantha/ Mexican Bush Sage, Rosa x ‘Noatraum’/ Pink Flower Carpet Rose, Erigeron karvinskianus/ Santa Barbara Daisy or Fleabane, Euphorbia or Spurge in center.

Some other great choices?

Lavenders of every variety (If you want to plant a lot of different lavenders, you may like to check out this book, Lavender: The Grower’s Guide, which has some wonderful photos that allow comparison on flower/ foliage color and plant form.)

Colorful Culinary Sages (Salvia officianalis) like ‘Icterina’, ‘Tricolor’, and ‘Purpurea’

Shasta Daisies (Leucanthemum x superbum) like the yellow ‘Broadway Lights’, the shredded, wild ‘Crazy Daisy’, or the petite ‘Snowball’

Tough varieties of Artemisia like ‘Powis Castle’

Lamb’s Ears (Stachys byzantina) – check out FaireGarden’s lovely craft project to do with Lamb’s Ears!

Lavender Cotton (Santolina) with flowers like the petal-less centers of daisies

While many of these are common garden plants that you’ve seen before, if you choose unusual varieties, or combine them skillfully with heathers or ornamental grasses, there’s plenty of room to create new and exciting combinations so your garden feels like “you” – unique and personalized.

Want some more ideas on gardening on the sea coast?

Using Screens and Hedges to Block Wind on the Sea Coast

Shade-Loving Plants for the Sea Coast

Groundcover Plants for Coastal Gardeners

Perennial Flowers for the Sea Coast

Photo credits: photo of Leonotis by macinate on Flickr, Euphorbia photo by wlcutler on Flickr.

I first heard about the heather plant when I was 10, reading an old-fashioned British book about a group of children who escaped their abusive guardians and made a home together on a secret island. They built a willow house out of live willow stems, so their home grew lush and protected, and they used heather to make their beds soft and cushy.

(Can I step onto my children’s lit soapbox for a second, and say that any American parents who haven’t yet read Enid Blyton with their kids should rush right out and do so? She seems to understand how children feel and what they want in a book better than any other author I’ve read.)

So anyway, even before I knew anything about plants, I had a vision of what heathers were like – growing in gorgeous flowering expanses, and with a soft, pleasing texture. I was glad when I got into horticulture school and saw my first photo of a large heather garden – it was exactly what I’d imagined all those years ago in my book!

Heathers have become a favorite of mine now, because they’re low-maintenance, deer-resistant, most are winter-hardy, they’ll take wind and seacoast wind with no problem, they look great in containers, can tolerate low-water conditions in the ground once mature, and if you plan things right, you can have blooms year-round on evergreen plants with great foliage. All you need is decent drainage and some sunshine to do well with them.

I want to give you a rundown of some of the most common types of heath and heather and how they differ. They’re such fantastic plants, and I run into a lot of confusion when talking with would-be heather enthusiasts about which kind does what.

First – is it heath or heather?

When people refer to heathers, they’re usually talking about one of three types of plant – Calluna (Scotch Heather), Daboecia (Irish Heath), and Erica (Heath and Winter Heath). But most people just refer to all three kinds of plant as heathers, because to do otherwise takes unnecessary studying and is kind of geeky (pause for some innocent-sounding whistling).

Still, the three kinds of heather have very different uses and attributes, so even if you call them all heathers, you’ll want to have some idea of which type you’re after. It’d be rather disappointing to plant a heather for winter flowers and find you’d gotten confused and planted a summer-bloomer!

So how are the three kinds different? Which ones do I want?

Erica/ Heath (has summer and winter-blooming types):

Erica has the finest texture of all the heathers, and generally feels soft and fluffy. If you want winter flowers, check into some varieties of Erica darleyensis or Erica carnea , which can take you from November through May if you select your varieties carefully for continuous bloom.

There are also some Bright! Pink! Fluffy! summer-blooming heathers that are like the Britney Spears of the heather world (well, before the drug addiction and all of that. Hmpht. Moving on!). The other summer-blooming heathers have a slightly stiffer habit and a gentle feeling of dignity to them, while these are just cheerful, soft, and did I mention the flowers are Bright! Pink! And magenta!! Look into Erica cinerea if you find the summer-blooming Callunas too stiff for your taste, or just want that exuberant splash of color.

Daboecia/ Irish Heath (big flowers, blooms spring through fall, tolerant of part shade):

Daboecia (pronounced duh-bee-shuh) are the easiest to slip into any type of garden design. Their foliage is a rich green color, they have a neat habit that walks the line between stiff and fluffy, and the flowers come in colors of lavender, magenta, and white that harmonize well with other plants’ colors.

Plus, they’re happy in part shade AND full sun, so they work perfectly in those areas where you are transitioning from shade-lovers to sun-lovers.

The deep green of the foliage and the large bell-shaped flowers (well, large for a heather!) look great in woodland settings, near water features, in a flower garden where you need some evergreen structure or longer-lasting flowers – I’ve even seen them looking beautifully at home in a Japanese-style garden – sheared every year to take on a neat shape. They bloom spring through late fall so can carry the garden through some dull, no-flower patches.

Calluna/ Scotch Heather (late summer to fall bloomer, some varieties have fancypants new growth or vibrant winter foliage color):

Callunas are the big guns of the heather world, and there is the most variety here for playing with foliage color and plant shape. There are flat 2” tall groundcovers, teensy little bun-shaped ones for rock gardens or troughs, wild spreading ones with tangling, tumbling stems, and neat, upright-growing spreaders.

Then the foliage colors – flaming red new growth in spring, creamy-white new growth in spring, gold or silver and every shade of green, and vivid red or cinnamon-bronze in winter…

There is plenty of room to screw up your foliage combinations with all the varieties available, but if you take the time to set different combinations of heather next to one another and see how it all looks – there’s the most potential for creating stunning and unusual combinations, too.

These guys bloom in that dead period at the end of summer and early fall when so many of your summer perennials have paused in their flowering. If you’re planting for blooms, I’d tend to avoid the red and bronze ones as they’ve been bred more for foliage, and besides, pale pink blooms on red foliage is kind of not hot. If I’m in a bad mood, that color combo really offends me and I’ll sometimes just cut the flowers off.

My favorites are the green ones with white/cream new growth in spring and white flowers in fall (talk about a multi-season plant! Look for ‘Spring Cream’, ‘Japanese White’, or ‘Ruby Slinger’), the silvery-grey ones that make such a striking companion for the darker greens of other heathers (‘Velvet Fascination’), and the insane flaming ones with gold foliage that go red-tipped in winter.

If you want to learn more about heathers and how to garden with them, check out these resources:

Gardening with Hardy Heathers by Small and Wulff (a fantastic book with everything you need to know to design, propagate, and generally get geeky with the heather world)

The International Heather Society’s online heather encyclopedia

Video on how to prune heaths and heathers

Fall-blooming heathers for autumn color

Small plants for winter color (some winter-interest heather suggestions)

Photo credit: both photos of Erica plants courtesy of Singing Tree Gardens Nursery

The city of Victoria, British Columbia has the most decadent flower baskets hanging from the lamp posts in the shopping district all summer long. They’re bright, they’re cheerful, and most importantly, they guide tourists down the streets and show shoppers which areas they’re likely to find most interesting.

How can you use this idea at home?

Well, one of the problems I see often as a landscape designer is that a lot of folks have confusing entryways. Clients often complain of their “before” garden that people are coming to their kitchen or back door instead of their front entry, and then they have to guide guests past the dirty breakfast dishes on the way in! Hanging baskets are an easy way of drawing people’s attention where you want it.

Even within the garden, if you have some views that are less sightly than others, you can lead people’s eyes to your small fountain or pretty statue by placing a bright hanging basket on a pole nearby, instead of letting their eyes wander to your crumbling vegetable bed or needs-to-be-weeded wilder area of the garden!

What you need to know before deciding a hanging flower basket is right for you:

They need water. Lots and lots of water. That’s every day, or close to it. (Unless, of course, you go for an all-succulent basket, which can be every bit as eye-catching and year-round, too!) You can hook up drip irrigation to it by running the tubing up the pole or, if it’s on your patio, along the underside of your eaves and down one of the chains that holds the basket up, but most people just make hand-watering a routine.

They need to be replanted seasonally. Container plants are reliant on you to make sure they aren’t root-bound and have enough nutrients. Most flowers that people use in hanging baskets are also either annuals or short-lived perennials, so they don’t last year-round. That means you’ll need to replace some plants every six months or so, and you’ll want to refresh the entire basket – potting soil and all, once a year or whenever it fills up solid with roots. That costs money, dudes.

They need to be fiddled with. Annuals and flowery things often need their spent flowers removed. It’s just biology – once annuals have set seed, they think their progeny are off to the races and it’s time to die (good thing people aren’t like that!). So you’ll need to take off the dead flowerheads every few weeks and possibly give things a mid-season trim-up if they’re getting scraggly. You’ll also need to apply either a liquid fertilizer very often or a slow-release fertilizer such as most granular organics every six weeks or so.

So – you’ve got some spare cash, you like to putter around with your flowers, and if you’re planning on going on vacation, you either have an automatic watering system or a pet-sitter who can water. You’re all set!

Here’s how to do it:

The city of Victoria BC offers a fantastic brochure on how to make your own hanging flower baskets, with how-to photos and the planting design they use for sunshine.

Or, Fine Gardening has a great step-by-step tutorial.

But what plants do I use?

Well, Proven Winners has an awesome website with page after page of suggestions for flowers that work together in hanging baskets. This one’s my favorite (so girly!) but there are lots of color combos.

Or you can put something together yourself at the nursery. My top picks?

For sunshiney baskets:

Trailing Lotus/ Parrot’s Beak

Calibrachoa/ Million Bells

Wave Petunias or Supertunias (I love this lemon-colored one)

Trailing Verbena

Paludosum Daisies

Cuphea

Bidens

Alyssum

Some crazy Nasturtiums like ‘Evelyn’, ‘Margaret Long’, or ‘Canary Creeper’

Scaevola

Helichrysum petiolare/ Licorice Vine

And don’t overlook the succulent section!

For part-shade baskets:

Bacopa

Lobelia

Golden Creeping Jenny (do not plant this in your garden later on – this is a basket-only plant, guys.)

Violas

Variegated Vinca (yet another vigorous spreader in the ground – leave this to the containers!)

Campanula

Some hybrid Fuchsias like ‘Baby Chang’

Nemesia fruticans ‘Bluebird’ (seems to be the most shade-tolerant of the varieties I have tried)

Tuberous Begonias

Alchemilla/ Lady’s Mantle

Regular old bedding Impatiens (The fancy New Guinea ones are only good for the top of the pot, not the sides, as their habit is too stiff)

Edible baskets to grow near your kitchen:

Strawberries (Alpine are my favorite – sooo tasty!)

Nasturtiums and Violas with edible flowers to add to salads

Lettuce – red, speckled and green – but avoid head lettuces like Iceberg as they’re way too heavy for growing on the side of a basket!

Parsley, curled or flatleaf

Basil, purple and others (on top only – their stems sometimes rot if they’re on the sides of a moss basket)

Thyme, variegated or not

Want some more ideas?

Check out Life on the Balcony’s hanging salad bowl or her beautiful long hanging baskets (with instructions).

Fellow landscape designer Andrew Keys has a drought-tolerant hanging basket design.

The Houston Chronicle has a cool video on how to make hanging baskets.

Most folks just plant hanging flower baskets in summer and take them down in winter, but if you’d like to plant in fall, here are some winter-blooming annual flowers that will give you gorgeous color fall through spring.

Photo credits: starmist1 on Flickr , NettasNursery on Flickr, starmist1 on Flickr, all via Creative Commons

Douglas Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home, wants to change the way we landscape- radically. He’s a native plant buff and makes a scientific case for planting more natives in our gardens to preserve biodiversity.

This five-part podcast (it’s only about 45 minutes long all put together) presented some game-changing info that’s making me really re-think how I garden.

Some highlights:

Bugs are good. They pollinate, birds eat them, and much as some folks don’t like them, it’s not overstating things to say us humans would be in serious danger without them.

Bugs are also very picky. They can sense the chemical composition of plants with their legs, and when it comes time to reproduce, many bugs will simply die if they can’t find a plant with the exact chemical signature they are looking for.

If a bug wants to lay eggs on a milkweed and there are only roses around, many bugs will die without laying those eggs. They’ve evolved over a long period of time to have relationships with specific plants, and without those plants, the bugs don’t reproduce. No bugs – no pollination, no birds, no tasty peaches for us to eat.

This whole bit about the chemical signature was kind of game-changing for me. I thought the arguments for biodiversity were about preserving native plants, which I have sympathy for but seems less connected to what I plant in landscapes, since I’m not planting endangered wildflowers anyway, I’m planting shrubs for the most part.

Hearing that it’s about making sure bugs reproduce, so they can take their rightful place in the food chain and the ecosystem, made it a lot easier to understand what a difference it can make to plant even a few native plants in a garden otherwise barren of them.

The problem is that there’s a lack of information on which plants have the biggest impact, how native is native, and can cultivated varieties of natives (like the white variety of our native flowering currant) still have the same good effect on nature? We simply need more scientific data on it as a lot of the info out there is emotion- and speculation-based.

Tallamy’s book is important for the concepts and explanations, but his specific plant advice is based on east coast natives, I hear. I’m hoping to find a guide to help us out here on the west coast…

Anyway, I LOVE plants and I am such a ridiculous plant geek that I can’t imagine ever throwing my beloved non-native plants under the bus. But if by incorporating a few beautiful natives into appropriate spots in the garden, I can have a big impact on our ecosystem and food chain – well, it doesn’t seem like too much of a sacrifice. I mean, have you seen our California and Pacific Northwest natives? Some of them are hot!

I’m going to be reading more about this to try and pinpoint which plants in our areas have the biggest impact, and then figure out how to effectively landscape with natives in a way that’s gorgeous and still fits with our expectations of what a pretty garden looks like.

Do you have any tips for native plant learning, beyond Doug Tallamy’s book? Leave your book rec’s and website info in the comments below!

Further Reading/ Listening:

Timber Press’s Doug Tallamy Podcasts

New York Times Interview with Tallamy

Buy the book: Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants, Updated and Expanded

Scott Hokunson’s Blue Heron Landscapes Blog: Review of Tallamy’s Book

Town Mouse and Country Mouse’s California Native Gardening Blog