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view the 5 great gardens photo tour (or click on images below)
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Home&Garden feature article summer 06
See how these gardens with different goals achieved their objectives through plants and placements. Text and photos by Lauren Springer Ogden There are all types of gardens—and gardeners, for that matter. Whether your goal is to sow seeds and watch what comes up or create a more lavish arrangement with definite plant groupings, you’ll benefit by knowing what grows where and the various attributes of flowers and shrubs. Here, garden author, designer and lecturer Lauren Springer Ogden discusses five gardens she created and the plants she chose for each. Perhaps you’ll find inspiration for your garden in her creative designs. Cottage Garden This private garden is in a semi-rural subdivision. The preexisting split-rail fence and lilac bushes gave the property a casual country feel that I expanded into a profuse Cottage Garden with easy-care plants. Adaptable, low-maintenance shrub roses ‘Lawrence Johnston’ (large yellow), ‘Ghislaine de Garibaud’ (cream), and ‘Stanwell Perpetual’ (low blush pink) form the anchor, along with a young apricot tree (Prunus armeniaca) grown mainly for its lovely pink flowers in early spring and brilliant orange-red fall color. The fruit, when and if they occur in our climate, are an added bonus. A group of long-blooming perennials ensures color for much of spring and summer. Blue flowers include catmint (Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’) and garden sage (Salvia nemorosa ‘Blue Hill’). Western columbine (Aquilegia chrysantha) and hardy snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus) contribute golden blossoms, while Spanish foxglove (Digitalis thapsi) throws in rose-pink vertical accents. Here, the two-year-old garden bursts forth in a June floral extravaganza, but when the bloom cycle wanes, foliage plants carry the composition. Most prominent of these are the non-flowering selection of silvery lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina ‘Silver Carpet’) along the edge of the planting, hardy mounding Artemisia absinthium ‘Lambrook Silver’, blue avena grass (Helictotrichon sempervirens, also known as blue oat grass) and striped bearded iris (Iris pallida ‘Aureovariegata’). Watersmart Garden Along the imposing south side of the conservatory at Denver Botanic Gardens is a Watersmart Garden I designed to showcase native and adapted drought-resistant plants. The narrow, sloped, long planting strip called out for a meandering path to allow more intimacy with the plantings. Crushed, packed gravel works well as the surface of this much-used public path, lending a comfortable feel underfoot without the physical and visual harshness or formality of concrete, brick, or solid stone. Mature pinyon pines (Pinus edulis) and a powerful swath of banana yucca (Yucca baccata) were already on site, lending a western spirit to the area and helping to dwarf the architectural backdrop. What the garden really needed were plants with floral abundance and appealing softness. Old favorites, such as pink and white dianthus, spill onto the path and offer spicy fragrance. Billows of rose-red Greek valerian (Centranthus ruber) and blue catmint (Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’) hold up well in the fierce sun and heat. Frothy white snow daisy (Tanacetum niveum) mingles in the background, and self-sowing orange California and horned poppies (Eschscholzia californica and Glaucium corniculatum) add spots of brilliant color. Tall silver spires of woolly mullein (Verbascum bombyciferum) and hair-like Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima) weave throughout the planting. The Watersmart Garden remains one of the most popular and influential gardens at Denver Botanic Gardens, and boasts a water use of one-fifth or less than that of a lawn, typically needing only seven irrigations per year. Romantic Garden At Denver Botanic Gardens, small gazebos beckon as shady resting spots in a complex of plantings known as the Romantic Garden. My job as designer of this particular space was to stay true to that name. Certainly that meant full plantings, lots of flowers and a sense of abundance. However, my idea of color flew in the face of common consensus that expected soft pastels. I wanted rich, strong colors that smoldered in the intense sunlight of our summers to draw attention away from pathways and structures to the plants—the deserving stars. The planting beds were woefully small and narrow to accomplish any sense of profusion. To give much-needed height, a tall plant would also have used up much of the bed space. Instead, the narrow, colorful concrete columns designed by Seattle artists George Little and David Lewis anchor the plantings. Containers filled with tropical and purple-leaved foliage plants, like tender New Zealand flax (Phormiums sp.) and Euphorbia cotinifolia, help make up for the lack of planting space and lend lushness to the garden. Deeply saturated colors dominate the scene: maroon hollyhock (Alcea rosea ‘Nigra’), rose-pink coneflower (Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’) and orange pokers (Kniphofia x ‘Alcazar’) hold up to the strong lines and column colors. Self-sowing deep-blue annual larkspur (Consolida regalis) and several grasses give the planting a less-studied, looser feel. Fragrance Garden This public garden features fragrant flowers and aromatic foliage plants, among other plants. Located at Denver Botanic Gardens, the Fragrance Garden is enclosed by a wall that enhances scent by diffusing wind and trapping air. The perimeter bed pictured here is raised to allow close inspection and aromatic encounters. While the walls and the built-in bed enhance the olfactory experience, they could easily overpower the space with their structure. So I selected plants with exuberant, slightly unkempt habits to soften the architecture. This technique is often found in English perennial gardens, where strong structural lines from paths, lawns, walls and/or hedges delineate a framework in which a profusion of seemingly casual flowering plants cavort. Many people respond deeply to this contrast of control and ebullience, and it works here as well. Lavender-flowered annual sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) and verbenas (Verbena spp.) cascade over the bed’s edge. Long-blooming pale-yellow yarrows (Achillea x ‘Moonshine’ and ‘Anthea’) mix with airy white apple blossom grass (Gaura lindheimeri), also a very long-blooming perennial. Pink Penstemon palmeri, one of the only penstemons with fragrance, pops up in front. Wild and woolly annual pale-yellow sunflowers (Helianthus annuus ‘Italian White’) and blue bog sage (Salvia uliginosa) flower from early summer past frost. South Garden My home garden offered a beautiful natural site with minimal water available. The rolling terrain on the south side became a naturalistic garden, where I incorporated native granite boulders into the design. Several more boulders were placed in strategic spots to highlight curves in the path and to slightly obscure the way ahead, adding to a feeling of exploration. In private gardens that deal with minimal human traffic, narrow paths like this one create a magical sense of immersion and personal invitation. That’s why I laid only one course of native Lyons red flagstone directly into the soil. This garden receives no additional irrigation. The boulders ground the frothy melee with their calming, settled forms, while flowery mounds and spikes intermingle. Western native penstemons are prime players: coral-pink Penstemon superbus, indigo-blue Rocky Mountain penstemon (Penstemon strictus) and pale-yellow Penstemon pinifolius ‘Mersea Yellow’. Native fringed sage (Artemisia frigida) offers year-round silver filigree, while white-flowered silver sage (Salvia argentea) is grown for its fabulous furry silver leaves. Biennial Verbascum olympicum offers bold silvery foliage rosettes as well, with striking candelabra-like yellow flowers. Blue drumstick flowers of a non-edible onion bulb (Allium azureum) are playful additions. Lavender-blue catmint (Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’) is a favorite for sunny dry gardens, thanks to its long bloom time and ability to attract bees, hawk moths and hummingbirds. Alyssum markgrafii forms tight, foamy yellow mounds throughout. Small drought-tolerant bunch grasses, such as blue fescue (Festuca glauca) and needle-and-thread grass (Hesperostipa neomexicana), help the planting blend into the natural grassland and chaparral beyond.
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