meadows

How to Create a Meadow

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Have you thought about creating a meadow but don’t know where to start? Need some inspiration to get going? Take a hike through the breathtaking meadows in Lassen Volcanic National Park like I did recently and you’ll get all the ideas you need to create the meadow of your dreams in your own backyard.

A wildflower meadow in Mt LassenNature is not subtle when painting a scene and neither should you. In Lassen I hiked through waist-high meadows of blue lupine and pale lilac coyote mint. White corn lily spikes grew tall and majestic providing contrast and drifts of goldenrod and Indian paintbrush added just the right amount of  punch. The meadows took my breath away.  I marveled at swaths of mariposa lily, pussy paws, alpine aster, scarlet gilia. So many wildflowers – so little time. You can have the same thing each spring and summer. Here’s how.

Meadows can supply an ever-changing display of seasonal colors and textures. A natural meadow has grasses of varying heights, bloom times and colors. Self-sowing wildflowers mix in between perennials and grasses in drifts. Sure there are lots of different flowers in a meadow, but mixed throughout are drifts or large patches – and it’s the combinations of both that makes a meadow look natural. Around the borders of your meadow make sure to plant insect-magnets such as rudbeckia, agastache, monarda and Russian sage or other perennials.

Establishing a meadow requires a bit of patience but once you’ve gotten rid of existing weeds your drifts of wildflowers, perennials and small shrubs will take care of themselves with just a little follow up weeding. Weed control is essential and should be accomplished prior to planting. Now is a good time to start by working in compost, watering the area to bring up the weed seeds and then hoeing them off in about 3 weeks.

If you plan to include grasses in your meadow, get them established first before starting wildflowers from seed or the wildflowers will overwhelm the young grasses. You can mimic nature by using native shrubs to form the bones of your meadow. Try coffeeberry and toyon and then fill in around them with flowering natives such as monkey flower and monardella. A meadow of California natives might feature a colorful carpet of seaside daisy, golden aster, blue-eyed grass and checkerbloom or simply a blend of dune sedge and yarrow. Just remember to plant in drifts to get the most impact.

Another good combination for a hot, sunny meadow would be buckwheat, silver lupine, salvia and foothill penstemon. Or try combining rockrose, agastache, russian sage and gaura interspersed with some drifts of wildflowers. What about penstemon, gaura and Mexican primrose mixed in the lion’s tail?

Shade gardeners might enjoy a meadow of bush anemone,Pacific Coast iris, columbine and wild ginger. Or try combining salal, dicentra eximia, hellebore and campanula in the shade.

Some gardens have nearly year round natural moisture. Good choices for this type of meadow are miscanthus grasses, daylily, asters, monarda and cornflowers from seed. Wild columbine, hardy geraniums, gloriosa daisy and asclepsia also work in a moist meadow as would chondropetalum, yellow flag, calla lily and lobelia cardinalis.

Most meadows can be cared for with an annual pruning in early winter. Wait until some of the wildflower seeds have ripened before cutting to insure a new crop of wildflowers and grasses next year. Weed between plants until they have had a chance to become established and fill in. The shrubs and other perennials might need a little cleanup in the spring. too.

If you would like to see some of the other wildflowers I enjoyed, check out the Lassen National Park website.
 http://www.nps.gov/lavo/naturescience/Lassen-Wildflowers.htm

California Native Plants, garden design, perennials

Diamond Heights ceanothus, Sunroses & Ligularia

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Some plants have become the darlings of the garden while other perfectly good plants are being left in the dust ( no pun intended ) and ignored. Take Hot Lips salvia, for instance. Seems every garden now has a few. I know, I know, I’m as enamored with this variety as anybody and responsible for extolling its virtues but I want to give credit where credit it due to some underused but awesome plants. Who are these forgotten all stars?

One of my favorite groundcovers for sunny areas that looks beautiful as it fills in between other low water use plants is Ceanothus ‘Diamond Heights‘.  Carpet an area with a dense, low mat of golden yellow and lime-green variegated foliage that looks great year round.  The pretty light blue spring flowers take second place to the leaves.

This is one of those versatile plants, performing just as well in dry soils and tough situations as it does in sheltered gardens with partial shade and rich soils. If you want a spectacular effect, plant it as a group. Each plant covers 3-5 ft. Because the foliage makes a cover that weeds seldom manage to penetrate, it’s a real maintenance saver. Use it on difficult sites such as banks as well as in garden beds and raised beds. It’s also a stunner as a container plant, the foliage spreading wide on all sides.

What looks good with Diamond Heights? Try putting it with wispy, grey-blue lavender Little Spires perovskia and Hidcote lavender or Blue-eyed grass and coffeeberry.  It’s vibrant foliage also brightens the ground beneath native oaks.

Another perennial groundcover that I love to use in a tough, particularly problematic spot is Helianthemum or Sunrose. If you have enough thyme in your garden, it’s time to branch out and try this plant. Masses of colorful, inch wide flowers appear in early summer and last well into autumn. Colors include soft yellow, pinks, oranges, apricot and reds.

While the flowers are the main attraction, I find the range of foliage almost as wonderful. Some varieties have soft, grayish leaves, others a light green while some even have crinkled bright green foliage. Sunroses are work horses, hugging the ground and making an excellent low ground cover 2-3 ft across for a sunny location. They are very drought tolerant when established and don’t mind poor soils or even sandy soils.

My favorite cultivar is Belgravia Rose with its bright rose-pink flowers and grey leaves but compact Wisley Primrose covered with bright yellow flowers is also high on my list. This tough plants is rarely bothered by pests or diseases as long as there is good drainage and are attractive to bees and butterflies adding to their garden appeal.

Rounding out my list of favorite underused plants is one for shade gardeners. Because there are not many yellow flowers for the shade garden, Ligularia dentata Othello is a perennial that I like to include in a border. It’s like adding a little sunshine. This clump-forming perennial with bold leaves and 4" daisy-like golden flowers in July and August are born on plants that reach 2-3 ft tall and 2-3 ft wide. This variety likes moist soil. Plant them with other moisture loving plants such as ferns, hostas and Japanese forest grass. Ligularias are deer resistant.

These are just a few of the plants that I use in landscape designs to add punch to a garden. If you’re looking for something different in your landscape give them a try.

 

salvia

Salvia’s

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"Gardening is a way of showing that you believe in tomorrow."   Anonymous

And if Salvias have any say in the matter, there will be lots of tomorrows. This large genus of plants in the mint family contains about 900 species, excluding hybrids and cultivars. They are native to Europe, Africa, Asia, Mediterranean, and Central and South America including our southwest. The name salvia is from the Latin word, salvere ( to save ) referring to the long-held belief in the herb’s healing properties.

There’s a salvia of every color and purpose for the garden. Recently I enjoyed touring the salvia garden at Cabrillo College and also revisited my friend, the "Hillbilly Gardener", and his collection of salvias in Scotts Valley. I was joined by dozens of hummingbirds and even more happy bees. The showy display of flowers ranging from blue to red, apricot, soft yellow, purple, pink and even white was breathtaking.

Ernie Wasson, the nursery and garden curator with the Ornamental Horticulture Dept at Cabrillo, explained that they grow 150 types at the college all of them propagated there. Three years ago, he hosted a Salvia Summit which attracted many visitors from as far away as Kew Gardens in England, Australia and New Zealand.

Many salvias have hairs growing on the leaves, stems and flowers which help to reduce water loss. Sometimes the hairs secrete volatile oils that give a distinct aroma to the plants. This often results in the plants being unattractive to grazing animals and some insects. Other species are tolerant of wet feet and grow in boggy conditions.

Some of the standout varieties at the Cabrillo garden included Salvia gesneriiflora Tequila or Big Mexican Scarlet Sage. Blooming with huge red, tubular flowers in the shade we sampled the sweet nectar again and again. Two sages that smelled like Vick’s were Salvia somalensis from Somalia and African Blue Sage. The bees  loved Salvia Mystic Spires best while we loved the fragrant leaves of Salvia dorisiana or Tutti Frutti sage from Honduras. Salvia cinnabarina smelled like – well, you can guess – cinnamon. The truest blue plant in the world, the Gentian sage or salvia patens was a show stopper. It spreads slowly from tuberous roots.

Have a wet spot? Try salvia uliginosa or Bog salvia. Want a smaller variety that lasts for along time? Try a microphylla type like Hot Lips. Salvia greggii varieties, although stunning, do not survive as long in the garden. I learned that the famous Hot Lips salvia was brought back from Oaxaca, Mexico from cuttings by Dick Turner of Strybing Arboretum in San Francisco. The original plant was bought by a maid for a housewarming gift. If you’ve ever wondered why the flowers of this plant are sometimes bicolor and other times mostly red, it has to do with the season. When the nights are warm in summer, the new flowers are all red with an occasional solid white one. As fall approaches, the flowers again will be bicolored red and white.

Another showy variety growing both at Cabrillo and at my salvia aficionado’s garden in Scotts Valley was Salvia confertiflora or Red Velvet sage. This spectacular late blooming sage from Brazil grows 5-8 ft tall with large foot long flower stalks that work well in flower arrangements both as a fresh cut flower or dried.  It will grow in light shade under redwoods. Salvia chiapensis blooms from spring to fall in this Scotts Valley garden. Another long blooming favorite is Phyllis’ Fancy that has just begun to flower but will continue till frost. This lovely sage with lush looking foliage grows 4 ft tall by 4 ft wide and fits into most gardens.

I saw over 20 varieties of salvia in this Scotts Valley garden but I’m sure there are many more tucked away that weren’t blooming. From the brilliant red of Holway’s sage to the soft magenta of Louis Saso salvia to the compact Dara’s choice, this garden has a salvia for every spot and a spot for every salvia.

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