Irises are a bulbous or rhyzomatous native to northern temperate regions all over the world. Their distinctive flowers consist of three inner petals or “standards” nested inside three outer petals or “falls”. But other than these characteristics, iris flowers vary enormously in terms of size and color. Irises are usually propagated through division. Divide every year and the intrepid gardener can achieve similar effects!
Piet Oudolf creates a delicious composition with drifts of perennials knitted by tall grass. The strong colors are particularly effective against the green of the meadow. To reproduce this effect in your own garden you’ll need some amount of space; a certain depth . A tremendous amount of plants are used. For cost reasons alone, seeds are the way to go, with the perennials started in seed trays and then transplanted, and the grass self-sown.
Piet Oudolf’s wife Anja has a nursery on the premises, but the intrepid gardener can achieve this with some preparation and effort.
This charming annual and California native, Collinsia heterophylla, received the name “Chinese houses” due to the fact that the whorls of flowers on long stems resemble pagodas. They are delightful viewed up close and spectacular planted en masse . These grow naturally on the margins of oak woodland so they can take some dappled shade and add sparkle to the semi-shade border. If it likes your garden it reseeds! Plant in generous drifts for optimal effect.
Plants can be purchased from: http://www.anniesannuals.com/ and purchase seeds from: http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/annuals/chinese_houses.html
Borage (Borago officinalis ) is a native to Syria. Perhaps a Crusader brought back seeds of this plant back with him to Europe. Certainly this was a fixture in Medieval gardens, with references made of it by Culpepper and Gerard: “Those of our time do use the flowers in sallads to exhilerate and make the mind glad. There be also many things made of these used everywhere for the comfort of the heart, for the driving away of sorrow and increasing the joy of the minde. The leaves and floures of Borage put into wine make men and women glad and merry and drive away all sadnesse, dulnesse and melancholy, as Dios corides and Pliny affirme. Syrup made of the floures of Borage comforteth the heart, purgeth melancholy and quieteth the phrenticke and lunaticke person”
You do not need to be a “Lunatike person” to experience these desirable effects. An infusion of the leaves in a tall glass is an ingredient of the traditional Pimm’s cup http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimm%27s_Cup
This prickly plant with its star shaped blue flowers certainly makes the bees merry, as they are quite attracted to it.
Reason enough to grow this in the garden. This is easy to grow from seed and can be purchased here: http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/herbs/borage.html
I love shirley poppies. I had great success last year from seed and I have planted this variety by seed this year: Papaver rhoeas “mother of pearl”: in shades of grey, lilac, mauve and white.
This can be purchased from Select Seeds: http://www.selectseeds.com
Place the (very tiny) seeds in a mixtue of horticultural sand and sow in good, moist but well-drained soil. Place a light top dressing of soil on top of the seeds. Keep the bed evenly moist throughout the days of germination (about two weeks).
The Shirley poppy was created from 1880 onwards by the Reverend William Wilks, vicar of the parish of Shirley in England. In a corner of his garden where it adjoined arable fields, Wilks found a variant of the field poppy that had a narrow white border around the petals. By careful selection and hybridization over many years, he obtained a strain of poppies ranging in colour from white and pale lilac to pink and red, and unlike the wild poppies these had no dark blotches at the base of the petals.
Celia Thaxter writes in “An Island Garden”, 1894
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/thaxter/garden/garden.html:
“On one low bookcase are Shirley Poppies in a roseate cloud. And here let me say that the secret of keeping Poppies in the house two whole days without fading is this: they must be gathered early, before the dew has dried, in the morning. I go forth between five and six o’clock to cut them while yet their gray-green leaves are hoary with dew, taking a tall slender pitcher or bottle of water with me into the garden, and as I cut each stem dropping the flower at once into it, so that the stem is covered nearly its whole length with water; and so on till the pitcher is full. Gathered in this way, they have no opportunity to lose their freshness, indeed, the exquisite creatures hardly know they have been gathered at all.”
And for a succession of bloom:
“I am always planting Shirley Poppies somewhere! One never can have enough of them, and by putting them into the ground at intervals of a week, later and later, one can secure a succession of bloom and keep them for a much longer time, –keep indeed, their heavenly beauty to enjoy the livelong summer.”
The tall stands of Russell Hybrid lupines that are seen in English gardens
do not do well in the San Francisco bay area. Glorious stands of these flowers
are possible with these new varieties available at Annie’s Annuals.
This coastal variety can be gathered by seed and planted in the Fall.
We used to gather these seeds along the Mendocino coast and they were
planted in the meadow garden. This is not attractive to deer and copes
with wind and drought!
Bishop’s lace on the verge.
Bishop’s lace (Ammi majus) is rather similar in form to Queen’s Anne’s lace (Daucus carota). except that it is not an invasive, noxious weed banned in many states!
Purchase seeds at Renee’s Garden (renneesgarden.com).
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