Use the flowers and foliage of annuals to spark summer’s show
I think of myself as a purist , so when I started my recurrent border some years ago , I want nothing but perennials . After all , I conclude , a perennial border should contain only perennials , should n’t it ? But , as time move by , I added several compatible shrubs to my garden and start out shout it a mixed margin . That fresh definition liberated me to add a few annuals . Even so , I felt up a lot less conscience - stricken when I determine I was n’t the first to employ annuals in a perennial borderline . My horticulture betters had paved the way long ago .
Ever since the introduction of the herbaceous border in the days when William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll ruled most of the know horticultural world , it has been considered legal to fulfill in gaps in a perennial or mixed molding with annuals . It is almost inevitable that dull areas — and even blank , empty spot — will happen in a perennial border as the summertime wears on . Perennials with nothing to contribute but their efflorescence stop flower . Then , there are those perennial that are subject to unsightly afflictions if the summer is too soaked — or too wry .
Even when you carefully organize the garden so that delicious combinations of colour and texture will provide an ever - delightful symphony from early spring to belated autumn , those nettlesome interruption will come about . Perhaps cony ate the blue star ( Amsonia tabernaemontana ) or deer the delphinium . Maybe the wildly exchange springtime weather did in some of the roses . Whatever the cause , your symphony has been deprived of important notes and , in some case , whole themes . It ’s then that you take annual .
Subtle annuals look right at home in borders
Annuals , yes , but not just any sure-enough yearly . The answer wo n’t be found , unless you are amazingly golden , in a few six - packs from your local garden center . Most yearbook raised for “ the trade wind ” are bred for maximal impact . They are , shall we say , “ assertive . ” Their bold red , bouncy yellows , and burnished oranges are rarely compatible with the soft pastel of a typical recurrent garden .
Instead , I look for annual with more refined hues and , if potential , fragile — or , at least , attractive — foliage . These kinds of annuals are seldom found in garden shopping centre , so I comb through seed and plant life catalog to regain young candidates and one-time favorite , then call down those that I can from come in early saltation under Christ Within . There are countless annuals to choose from , but I ’ll discuss those I ’ve grown and used in my own garden .
Blend yellows and blues into the border
One of the best annuals I ’ve find for blending with other yellows in a margin is a chrysanthemum , C. coronarium‘Primrose Gem ’ , a 12- to 15 - column inch - tall works with lacy foliage whose upright stem apply corymbs of minor , soft white-livered , semi - double daisies with aureate centers . Fresh and lovely , they facilitate carry the garden through the dog day of August . It ’s hard to find a perennial with which it does n’t harmonise .
Another yellow gem is the Mexican tulip poppy ( Hunnemannia fumariifolia ) . It ’s not a very pale yellow-bellied , but the burden of its elegantly veer , silver leave of absence and its 3 - inch , silky cup glistening in the sunlight , is one of delicacy and free grace . Members of the poppy family do n’t like to be move , so plant their seeds in peat flock or directly in the ground early in May . flimsy new industrial plant to stand 7 to 8 inch apart .
Some dispirited annuals also look stunning and immingle well in perennial borders . One spring I planted a flat of sky - dreary Chinese forget - me - nots ( Cynoglossum amabile ) . Their hoar - green leave and cloud of tiny , cobalt flowers were such a joy that I preserve the germ and sprinkled it along the front of the border in the fall . The plants keep issue forth up all the next summertime .
More and more salvias are recover their way into borders , and with just reason . I ’m remember of tender perennials or yearly such as blue mealycup sage ( Salvia farinacea ) , a perennial in USDA Hardiness Zone 8 and south , but an yearbook in my Zone 5 garden . This fork , 18 - inch flora bears never - ending spikes of purple - blue heyday . There are several named salmagundi , but the best of the lot is ‘ Victoria ’ . Every yr I also implant seed of gentian sage ( S. patens ) , perhaps the gamey efflorescence around . Even though it ’s not hardy here and I have to gather seeds every fall , gentian sage has earn a reserve section in my garden .
Other cooperative guinea pig that I ’ve discovered admit bachelor ’s button ( Centaurea cyanus);Tweedia caerulea , with its cerulean star ; and love - in - amist ( Nigella damascena ) .
Some annuals are best at the edge of the border
Pinks ( Dianthusspp . ) smooth at the very border of the garden . you’re able to come up the shock or magniloquent ( 12- to 15 - column inch ) , tufted sorting in white , pink , and uprise , either solid or bicolors , with either greenish or silvery , blue - gray leaf . Nearly all of them have a spicy fragrancy . I think that the best cultivars are from the Ideal and Telstar series . They bloom in the first year from come but comport otherwise like proper — though rather tender — biennial . They should get through at least a 2d time of year in area where winter are not very severe . you could get seeds for separate colors . This summertime I ’m trying ‘ Ideal Crimson ’ and ‘ Telstar Dark Purple ’ .
Having been daze by the sight of a sea of depressed salad burnet ( Anagallis monellii ) growing gloriously amongst the grey-haired rocks of the Kabylie Mountains in Algeria , I once tried them on the sharpness of my borderline . That summer we broke records for estrus , humidity , and drought and my poor burnet bloodwort pined away and died . However , they are most suitable plants , especially for nurseryman searching for pure blue . A perennial in Zone 7 and south , it make a 9 - in mound that will sit down chummily amongst your clumps of pinks .
Great foliage earns these annuals their place
Annuals with honorable leaf put up a lot to the perennial garden . I ’ve devoted one section of my border to combination of gloomy burgundy - red and yellowish green . I used a ruby - foliaged Nipponese barberry ( Berberis thunbergii‘Atropurpurea Nana ’ ) , and the lovely Japanese forest grass ( Hakonechloa macra‘Aureola ’ ) , and enriched the area with yearbook including a few sumptuous fresh coleus ( Solenostemonspp.)—wine - colored ones such as velvety ‘ Plum Parfait ’ and ‘ Mars ’ , a globe - shaped plant life with light , maroon leaves . flame nettle have add up a tenacious means since your grandmother grew those frightful red and green thing on her windowsill .
I had another new thrill when I planted a clod of non - dauntless reddened fountain grass ( Pennisetum setaceum‘Rubrum ’ ) against the wonderful gray annual , Plectranthus argentatus , actually a bush that is fearless in Zone 10.When the grass produced its fluffy , buff - colored flowers , and the tender repeated Salvia microphylla ‘ Trinidad Pink ’ on its right covered itself with small rosy blossoms , I thought that I ’d been very clever indeed . I should n’t have been so self-satisfied - I fail to give the plectranthus enough room and it squashed another salvia completely . It take an area 2 - 1/2 feet improbable and wide .
I also used licorice plant ( Helichrysum petiolare ) last summer . The average silver one , placed in the front of the border , made a stunning companion for a dark - foliaged snapdragon ( Antirrhinum majus‘Black Prince ’ ) .
Annuals look best as part of a repeating theme
The veridical challenge of using these temporary tenants of the repeated margin is placing them effectively in established plantings . I adjudicate to combine coloring material , manikin , and grain of both annuals and perennials felicitously , go on in judgement rule number one of any successful composition , whether it ’s a novel , a picture , a piece of medicine , or a garden — repetition of theme .
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Silvery licorice plant looks good with almost anything. The author planted some next to a dark-foliaged snapdragon.
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Silvery licorice plant looks good with almost anything. The author planted some next to a dark-foliaged snapdragon.
Some annuals make thrilling combinations by themselves, as in this grouping where the foliage of ‘Plum Parfait’ coleus serves as a foil for Japanese forest grass.
