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Craving Design Color By Elizabeth Petersen
My mishmash style of designing with plants took a trying turn. Bulldozers transformed my sloping lot into a series of terraces, anchored with boulder walls. Tim, my husband and hardscape guy, had envisioned the transformation for years. He had drawn the job and tried to explain it to me by means of words and arm gestures, something about “cut here” and “flop there.” It involved bringing in tons of material. The site would be a real showpiece and I would be able to reintroduce my plants. So when the schedule pronounced “go,” I dug and potted up plants to be relocated to the new, improved garden. Then I turned to garden designer Lucy Hardiman of Portland’s Perennial Partners for help. When Lucy first came to assess the new garden, she was impressed by the rockwork and the potential. A look at my inventory of plants, though, revealed the challenge: “Boy, you’ve got a lot of perennials!” Which meant “no shrubs, no trees.” This wasn’t entirely true, since the garden is bordered by towering fir, pine, cedar and big leaf maple trees. The comment referred to the lack of structure in individual plantings, though. Although stuffing and cramming perennials into a garden is fun, designing a garden requires structural pieces, shrubs and small trees, I learned. A design was hatched. Cotinus coggygria ‘Grace’ joined Hamamelis × intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’. Buddleia balanced berberis. A sophisticated amber grass calmed and connected the others. Unifying elements carried the red foliage from here to there, and the perennials came back in from the staging area around the edges.
I’m telling you
this because in the seven years since, I have continued and extended the
color themes of rich red, sparkling blue and cheery yellow foliage in the
always-improving garden. I have added a number of Proven Winners®
ColorChoice®
shrubs, all of which were selected for great color, easy care and
comfortably compact forms. Recently, I had occasion to seek Lucy’s garden
design comment again. This time I interviewed her for an article about
using bright colors in gardens for the Oregon Association of Nurseries
magazine, Digger, (January, 2007). I picked up some great
information. “Think foliage first,” Lucy told me. “Colors in a design are predicated by foliage first and then by bloom color,” she said, “so the design plan has to be defined structurally first by plant forms with colorful foliage.” Lucy and I pulled out the Proven Winners ColorChoice shrubs catalog and shared thoughts about some excellent choices for playing with red foliage to add to my colorful collection, plants that are making big names for themselves in the nursery industry. Lucy pointed out Black Lace™(Sambucus nigra), which has lacy purple-black foliage with massive pink flowers, and the showy Summer Wine® (Physocarpus opulifolius), which combines compact branching with deeply cut, dark crimson-red leaves. Both shrubs are great for close-up viewing, where the delicacy of the features can be seen. I like to site dark, red foliage where it can be back-lit by the sun, which brightens the depth of the color. With those lessons to consider, I am looking for a place where the sun can shine through the new, brighter Coppertina™ (Physocarpus opulifolius), which was a party favor brought home from a recent GWA (Garden Writers Association) meeting in Portland. It came to me compliments of Oregon grower, Van Essen Nursery, one of the Gold Key producers of these great shrubs. Perhaps it will go on the bank above the patio or lower lawn, where the afternoon sun will show off its colors. Lucy and I talked about the use of gold, yellow and chartreuse foliage too. I have distant shady borders and perennial gardens that continue to benefit from a burst of bright. These light colors can be tremendous accents to draw the design eye and do great things with darker colors behind. I am watching out for most for underdoing vibrant yellows, though, which seems to be one sign of my amateurish designing. I have planted and then moved some gorgeous yellow-foliage plants that seemed randomly stuck into the design, to the benefit of neither it nor nearby plants. When the colors find their places, though, I love the gleaming in the garden. I am studying now for the perfect site for some highly acclaimed Lucy suggestions. One is Golden Lanterns® (Leycesteria formosa), a cool shrub that starts out bright yellow-green tinged with red, produces amazing, exotic clusters of red-purple bracts and white flowers in summer. I hear the show continues with dark purple berries in autumn. Lucy also raved about Sunshine Blue® (Caryopteris incana) with “glowing, sunny yellow foliage with rich amethyst blue flowers,” and another new Proven Winners selection, the compact Chardonnay Pearls™ (Deutzia gracilis) that produces “brilliant yellow foliage and loads of bright white spring flowers.” She said that Little Henry® (Itea virginica) has “astonishing fall foliage too and makes a dramatic presentation in mass plantings.” Two garden writers: one an experienced designer, and the other a plant nut looking to learn design. I told Digger readers, “Plant breeders bring out new choices every year, stocking garden stores with an impressive array of well-mannered, easy-care brightly colored shrubs and choice, do-it-all container plants.” I love the challenge of playing with these colorful, easy plants. It helps to gather up helpful design tips, experiment with new selections in containers, where plants teach me their ways, and then move them into the greater garden scene as they define their spots in the scape.
About Elizabeth: Elizabeth Petersen draws on her roots as a lifelong Oregon gardener to write for gardeners and garden businesses. She tends a sloping one-acre garden in West Linn. Contact her at gardenwrite@comcast.net. Access her work at www.oan.org in the Publications, Digger current and archive section.
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