August pleasures

Planting combinations — August 4, 2012May 25, 2023

perovskia and eringium sm — Perovskia and Eryngium

These drought-tolerant perennials, Perovskia and Eryngium, make a great pairing for late summer sparkle, just when many border perennials are looking past their best. Grouping later summer performers together enhances their impact and helps create a focal point that can distract the eye from other, tired plantings. Although there are more striking Eryngiums, the species E. yuccafolium, seen here, works particularly well with the linear form of the Perovskia bloom. Its round, silvery seedheads remain attractive long into winter. Pairings that rely on contrasts of texture will, in general, have a longer season of interest than those relying on bloom colour.

Garden Journal

Lost Horizons farewell

Inspirational nursery, treasure trove of botanical diversity, enticement to garden adventurously, vendor of plant delight. With much appreciation, thank you!

Early Spring Pleasures

When bees come to visit the earliest flowers, I know that spring is truly here. … Read More

The Lowly Spirea at its Loveliest

Even the lowly (because ubiquitous) spirea can surprise you with loveliness on a blustery day in April. My main complaint is that it has too many merits, requires too little of us, which seems churlish just now, when spirea is the first shrub to leaf out most bravely. … Read More

Spring of 2020

Galanthus, more commonly: snowdrops, are one of the earliest garden pleasures in the year, often breaking through the snow long before February is over. And now in mid-March they are still looking splendidly sturdy. They are a welcome sign that spring is indeed progressing and that renewal can happen. Again. … Read More

Garden reading

Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass (2013) is a book that will astonish in its subtle weave of forms of knowing our world and in its homage to the generosity of the plants that surround us, made us, and can save us. … Read More