Thanks to someone

bev2009

12 years ago

Someone posted this link to an article on a planting design for under trees. I struggle with the design part of gardening and thought this article was great. I was having trouble under my River Birch. This article had great pictures and I had some of most of the plants suggested in the article. I cleared the area in a couple of hours and in a couple of hours more, had all the plants pulled from other spots in the garden and planted. I am very happy with the results. I was hesitant to pull all my ginger from the back yard in case it didn't like it out front. If it is happy next year, I will pull more of it and incorporate into the new plan as the article suggested. I know it will look better next year, but was so happy, I had to share now.

I used:

3 Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola' (I already has these sitting in 5 gallon buckets all summer waiting for a new home)

3 Heuchera (different cultivars)

3 Hosta (different colors and leaf shapes)

1 Jack Frost Brunnera

1 ginger

3 pink Columbine I WSd this year

1 pink and 1 blue Dianthus

In addition I moved some pink sedum to mix with the pink Chelone behind the tree. I'll continue working my way around this garden this fall.

Here is a link that might be useful: 10 thoughts on successful gardening

Comments (8)

flora_uk
12 years ago
Going to look very good when they've filled in. I'm intrigued by the 'blue dianthus'. Never heard of one of them. And what is the plant on the left of picture with the pink flowers? I can't match it up with anything on your list.
crackingtheconcrete
12 years ago
Just read the article and am saving it for future reference! It's awesome, thanks :)
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ogrose_tx
12 years ago
Oh, that looks good, Bev! I like the article, very informative and I think I will try to redo my bed off the patio that is under a tree. Mine usually looks good for a couple of years, then becomes a hodge podge of different things. This makes a lot of sense, and this will be easy, get rid of a few things, and repeat, repeat on what's there.
bev2009
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks for the encouragement! I'm glad the article was helpful to you as well. The dianthus is Dianthus amurensis 'Siberian Blues'. I WS'd it from seeds I got in a trade this year. It didn't bloom and spent the summer in a milk jug, but we are having a mild fall so I am hoping it roots well for next year. (Maybe it would have bloomed this year if I had gotten it out of the milkjug and shade sooner. LOL) The pink flowers are the Chelone or turtle head. They appear much smaller than they really are and they were already there.
Margie Crawford
12 years ago
Hi Bev, I was the original poster. Your bed looks AWESOME! Margie
bev2009
Original Author
12 years ago
Margie, great, I can thank you directly. Thanks! I tried to find the original post but couldn't. The article mentioned not doing a 'ring around the rosie' and that is what I was doing with blue balloon flowers. It wasn't working. Now I must confess, I have another tree out front where I am doing the ring thing with geranium, short sedum and coreopsis. It doesn't look great, although a lot of color. So next I will try the principals on that garden.
Margie Crawford
12 years ago
Bev, I have some areas that need to be re-worked also. You've inspired me to tackle at least one or two this fall. The 'ring thing' can look great but it can be fun to try something else. My problem is starting lots of plants from seed and then not exactly having a place for them. I stick them somewhere with intentions to get back to it 'later'....
bev2009
Original Author
12 years ago
Onedaylily,

I think the ring thing would look good if things were more filled in. My balloon flowers were just one thin line of them around the tree. I was trying to get them to propagate and be able to divide them and it was taking forever. I should have just WS jugs of them and maybe it would have looked better. LOL

"starting lots of plants from seed and then not exactly having a place for them"

That's what I have been doing for 5 years. I now know where things like to grow in my gardens, when they bloom, etc, so now I am trying to move everything around so it looks good!