My Growing Perennial Border
My new perennial border located across from my vegetable garden and chicken coops is thriving here at my Bedford, New York farm.
Last year, I decided to expand my hydrangea bed to include a variety of different perennials. You may have seen a segment on this garden transformation in season 1 of my show, "Martha Knows Best." The area had long been home to beautiful and colorful hydrangeas including a collection of mature mopheads transplanted from my Lily Pond home in East Hampton. Now, it is also filled with lots of other wonderful plantings, such as irises, ligularia, phlox, Aruncus, Euonymus, catnip, and more.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Back in June of last year, I decided I wanted to expand this border, so we cut out the sod and tilled the earth in preparation for planting.
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- And then we planted a selection of perennials I knew would do well in this location with sunny mornings and shady afternoons.
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- This space was already planted with hydrangeas. I love hydrangeas and have been collecting them for quite a long time. Hydrangeas are popular ornamental plants, grown for their large flower heads, which are excellent in cut arrangements and for drying.
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- Here is a beautiful large white hydrangea flower head. Hydrangea is a genus of at least 70-species of flowering plants native to southern and eastern Asia and the Americas. By far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably China, Japan, and Korea.
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- Hydrangeas are long-lived, and extremely vigorous specimens that offer lavish and varied blooms. The most common garden hydrangea shrub is the bigleaf mophead variety, Hydrangea macrophylla. The name hydrangea originates from two Greek words – “hydro” meaning “water” and “angeion” meaning “vessel” or “container.” Together, the rough translation is “water vessel” which refers to their exceptional thirst for water.
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- The secret to the hydrangea’s color is in the soil, or more specifically, the soil’s pH level. Adjusting the measure of acidity or alkalinity in the soil can influence the color of the hydrangea blossoms. Acidic soils tend to deepen blue shades, while alkaline environments tend to brighten pinks.
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- In addition to the mopheads, there are also hydrangeas that bloom in lovely lacecaps.
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- The lacecap is very similar to the mophead, but instead of growing round clusters of showy blossoms, this hydrangea grows flowers that resemble flat caps with frilly edges.
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- Everything looks great this season. This plant is called ligularia. Ligularia is a genus of Old World herbaceous perennial plants in the groundsel tribe within the sunflower family. They have yellow or orange composite flower heads with brown or yellow central disc florets, and are native to damp habitats mostly in central and eastern Asia, with a few species from Europe.
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- I love the foliage of ligularia with its glossy, deep green leaves. The foliage can be quite large and round to heart shape to thin and deeply serrated.
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- Another plant with large, deep green leaves is Astilboides. It is valued by gardeners more for its unique foliage and architectural interest than for its flowers.
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- These are the small young leaves of lupines. The foliage resembles palm leaves with seven to 10 leaflet segments each. Lupinus, commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally as bluebonnet etc., is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes more than 199 species, with centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur in North Africa and the Mediterranean. We grow many lupines from seed in my greenhouse every year.
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- Phlox is a genus of 67 species of perennial and annual plants in the family Polemoniaceae. They are found mostly in North America in diverse habitats from alpine tundra to open woodland and prairie. Some flower in spring, others bloom in summer and fall. The colors range from dark pink to blue, violet, bright red, or white.
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- Do you know what these are? These are the seed pods of Baptisia – the flowering herbaceous perennial plant with pea-like flowers, followed by inflated pods. Baptisia is native to the woodlands and grasslands of eastern and southern North America.
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- Euonymus is a genus of woody flowering plants, mostly native to eastern Asia and portions of Europe. It is a broadleaf evergreen shrub that can also serve as a climber or spreading ground cover. This variegated variety has attractive dark green foliage edged in creamy white.
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- Remember the showy white flowers of the viburnum? In summer they show off attractive fruits. These masses of bright-red berries often persist through winter.
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- Here is a closer look at the berries. While the fruits of some varieties are edible, others can be mildly toxic.
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- Iris is a genus of 260–300 species of flowering plants with showy flowers. It takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow, which is also the name for the Greek goddess of the rainbow, Iris. Irises come in just about every flower color, both solids, and bi-colors.
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- Here’s another beautiful iris in bright pink.
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- Catnip is a member of the mint family. I grow catnip in a few different areas around the farm. It is an aggressive herb, so it spreads very quickly. Cats love the smell of the essential oil in the plants’ stems and leaves. I dry a big batch of catnip every year for my dear kitties.
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- Aruncus dioicus, known as goat’s beard, buck’s-beard or bride’s feathers, is a flowering herbaceous perennial plant in the family Rosaceae, and is the type species of the genus Aruncus. It has alternate, pinnately compound leaves, on thin, stiff stems, with plumes of feathery white or cream flowers borne in summer.
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- I also have Cotinus planted here – those beautiful smoke bushes from the family Anacardiaceae, closely related to the sumacs. I shared many photos of my smoke bushes in yesterday’s blog.
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- And this is jewelweed – a widespread and common plant that occurs in moist, semi-shady areas throughout northern and eastern North America. It often forms dense, pure stands in floodplain forests and around the forested edges of marshes and bogs. It has showy orange flowers and the juice from the stem before flowering can be used topically to treat poison ivy rash.
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- I am so pleased with how well this garden is doing – I am sure it will look even more beautiful as the years progress. What is blooming in your garden this week? Share your comments with me below.
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