In every garden I've planted there has always been a few plants that I find myself hovering over, fascinated by the beauty of them. Other plants I love because they are so hard-working and garden-friendly. They look good and make other plants look good, sometimes blooming over several months. I'm going to share some of these over the next few days and tell you why I love them.
All of these are perennial plants, that is, you plant them once and they come up every year. Sometimes they seed in your yard and make more plants. Many just come up, bloom like crazy (think fireworks), then finally lose their flowers and wait until next year. The poppy below falls into that category, as do peonies, columbine, and hollyhock. But there are some special ones that bloom all summer, and I really like to include lots of those. Many roses are examples of this, like the China Rose below. There is also purple wallflower (love, love, love, sometime I'll tell you why.) My garden is full of hardy geraniums for this and other reasons. Some plants bloom once but have continued interest throughout the growing season like St. John's Wort, Hydrangea, and Lungwort (Pulmonaria). I have a lot to say about Lungwort but that's for another day.
All of these are perennial plants, that is, you plant them once and they come up every year. Sometimes they seed in your yard and make more plants. Many just come up, bloom like crazy (think fireworks), then finally lose their flowers and wait until next year. The poppy below falls into that category, as do peonies, columbine, and hollyhock. But there are some special ones that bloom all summer, and I really like to include lots of those. Many roses are examples of this, like the China Rose below. There is also purple wallflower (love, love, love, sometime I'll tell you why.) My garden is full of hardy geraniums for this and other reasons. Some plants bloom once but have continued interest throughout the growing season like St. John's Wort, Hydrangea, and Lungwort (Pulmonaria). I have a lot to say about Lungwort but that's for another day.
China Rose
China is a single-petaled, old garden rose that was introduced in the 18th century, and was popular then because it blooms throughout the summer. It has multiple colors on a single bush, because the older the petals get, the darker they get. It is graceful, almost airy, but gets fairly tall (6 ft.)
It is also known as the "Butterfly Rose" and if you see one you will know why. I'll try to upload a better picture eventually. Here's a web site with a good overview of antique roses.
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| papaver orientale 'Beauty of Livermore' |
Oriental Poppy
(papaver orientale)
Sadly, these have finished blooming in my yard but were so beautiful and photogenic that I had to include them. This one is actually a bit darker than in the picture, actually blood red, which is a better fit for my garden than the bright orange or orange/red you usually see.I also have a more muted, purple/mauve one called 'Patty's Plum', but it looks pretty pathetic next to this one.
St. John's Wort
Varieties of this plant, taken internally, are an herbal remedy for depression. But it lifts my mood just to look at it. I received this plant as a small cutting from my cousin Shari. It's now about 3' tall. Shari got her plant by noticing that the stem, included in a bouquet of flowers, was growing roots. Score! |
| St. John's Wort Shrub with a few hardy geranium flowers mixed in. |
I love this plant. (Thank you Shari!) It gets little exotic-looking yellow flowers first, and then when the petals fall off, it has light, then dark coral berries. Eventually, they turn a burgundy-red. Beautiful. Don't confuse this with the more aggressive ground-cover variety. This plant is about 3 feet tall, and very well behaved.
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