Archive for Dramatic Flowers – Page 2

Portland Garden Designer’s Holiday Gift Ideas

Posted by Carol

· November 2, 2017

Portland Garden Designer with Favorite Tilly Hat

Tilly Hat on Portland Garden Designer Carol Lindsay

Portland Garden Designer’s Gift Ideas

Here are my favorite items to give as gifts. The Tilley hat, favorite therapeutic hand cream, inexpensive gloves, Garden Design Magazine, plants as gifts and pruning tools.

The Tilley Hat

You can buy a Tilley hat at REI, Bonnet in NW Portland at Bonnet or on line. I love my summer (Hemp fabric) Tilley hat because whether it’s picking peaches or playing with my dog, my hat stays on, it’s easy to wash. I am around a lot of dirt and it is still a cream color. It protects my face from the sun (is recommended by some dermatologists for that purpose) and it’s not too hot to wear in the summer.

Hand Care

http://www.crabtree-evelyn.com/collections/gardeners/60-second-fix-for-hands/Gar-Fix-For-Hands.html

Great Hand Care Product

My favorite hand care product is Evelyn and CrabTree 60 second fix for hands. It has 2 products, the Ultra Moisturizing Hand Therapy and the 2nd product called Hand Recovery. There are more heavy duty hand products out there but this one has a light fragrance and penetrates the skin. It’s therapeutic. I handle art supplies and garden so I like a good hand product. Andalou Naturals Hand Cream is also nice but doesn’t penetrate the skin nearly as well.

Gloves

I love having A LOT of gloves. I’m a person who misplaces gloves and as a child I resented that nursery rhyme about the kittens who lost their mittens because clearly I was going to be one of those kittens. I have 20 pairs of inexpensive work gloves. Gloves are great stocking stuffers.

Garden Design Magazine

Garden Design magazine readers are garden enthusiasts! They love the full-length stories (some run 10 to 20 pages to include lots of glorious photography) on plants, gardens, and design ideas for you to put to use—all presented without ads.

There are no ads in Garden Design. Yes, you read that right—no ads. Just 148 pages of beautiful gardens and plants delivered to you each quarter. These are more like books. I’ve given this magazine to gardening clients and they are over the moon and tend to subscribe on their own the next year.

Give a gift link: https://www.gardendesign.com/subscribe/gift

Plants As Gifts

North Portland Garden Design Itoh Peony North Portland Itoh Peony in Garden Design

Itoh Peonies are so popular this year (2017) that wholesale and retail sources sold out completely. The variety called ‘Cora Louise’ was the most popular and the first to be gone from retail and wholesale sources. Why are Itoh Peonies special?

They are tough enough for low maintenance landscapes so they are not just for serious gardeners……..and serious gardeners have simply lost their minds over these beautiful and sturdy stemmed plants. If you have a gardener in your life who loves big colorful flowers……..this gift will express your love for years. A gift certificate to a local retail nursery with a photo would do it. Expect to spend $125 to $150 for a 5 gallon plant. Here are links to Portland Nursery gift card, Cornell Farm gift card and a video explaining more about Itoh Peonies.

Another popular plant for gardeners that you can buy in December are Hellebores and the big garden nurseries will have these for sale starting in December through March. These are somewhat toxic so don’t leave them where small children or pets can get them.

Pruning Tools

Pruners – I love Felco and Corona tools the best. Cheaper but very lightweight pruners and clippers from Fiskar are popular too. Here is a good one called PowerGear. Felcos are for the gardener in your life. I still love my #6 Felco hand pruner for smaller hands and think they fit most women better than a #2 Felco hand pruner. Utube video on how to select ergonomic pruning tools for people who want to learn how to prune their trees and shrubs. The right tools make a big difference in the outcome for your plants.

Categories : Designers Journal, Dramatic Flowers, Plants I Recommend, Seasonal Event

Tags : cutting flowers, dramatic flowers, long blooming flowers, low maintenance plants, summer flowering plants

Colorful Cape Fuchsia Makes Beautiful Summer Memories

Posted by Carol

· December 14, 2016

Add Cape Fuchsia to Your Modern or Cottage Portland Landscape

NW Portland roof garden with cat Cracker Jack

My cat loved to watch hummingbirds.

Hummingbirds love Cape Fuchsia for the nectar. I love to use it in designs because it adds so much color, is easy to grow and the new varieties work well with modern and cottage garden styles. This plant is a crowd pleaser and I use it frequently.

I planted my first Cape Fuchsia, Phygelius x rectus ‘Salmon Leap’ on my roof garden in Portland’s West Hills. It was at 900 feet and we had snow every year. The house was designed so that the third floor master suite had easy access to and a view of my roof garden. It had a hot tub that was 20 feet from my bed, a big overstuffed outdoor sofa with an overhead cover and plenty of Cape Fuchsia! In spite of the colder winters, the Cape Fuchsia (native to South Africa) never flagged or failed in the 12 years I lived there. I loved my roof garden and the only family members who loved it more were the 4 leggeds, Barley, Cee Cee and Cracker Jack. One particular day everyone was curled up on the sofa. I was reading and pets were napping. All was peaceful. I heard a strange whirring noise. At first I didn’t see anything unusual. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my pets’ heads were going up and then down and then up, I saw a small blur. What was happening?

My roof garden 2006.

Humming Bird Mating Ritual

We were witnessing a hummingbird mating ritual. The male made a 90 foot oval flight pattern to within an inch of his intended. She was steadfastly ignoring him and drinking nectar from my Cape Fuchsia. There wasn’t even a flicker in his direction. The buzzing sound was made by his high speed downward trajectory. It abated on the way up. It was mesmerizing. It was one of those beautiful summer garden memories that I treasure. Just us mammals all watching the entertainment together.

Phygelius ‘Salmon Leap’ (Janet Loughrey Photo from Joy Creek Nursery)

Cape Fuchsia Varieties for Hummingbirds

If you would like to have some close encounters with hummingbirds or you just love colorful plants, the Cape Fuchsia is the perfect addition to your garden. The best hummingbird attractors are the older varieties because they flower in the most intense coral red shades. My favorites are ‘Devils Tears’, ‘Salmon Leap’ and ‘African Queen’, but they can a bit too rowdy for a small yard.

New Varieties of Cape Fuchsia

The new varieties are more compact and a little tidier in habit. The flower colors are available in more traditional flower petal shades. When these new colors first came on the market I was annoyed. I felt like they had dumbed down a great plant by removing the coral shades…….but then I saw it wasn’t an either or. I now had more choices and that is always a good thing for a garden designer.

If you love modern landscape design style but don’t want to give up color, these new Cape Fuchsia are perfect because they are smaller. They look great in a mass.

2006 2 new varieties from Skagit Gardens:

Full sun easy care yellow sovereign cape fuchsia for modern landscape design.

Skagit Gardens ‘ Yellow Sovereign’

'Croftway Purple Prince' Cape Fuchsia for your modern landscape with intense dusky violet magenta colors

Cape Fuchsia ‘Croftway Purple Prince’ by Skagit Nurseries photo

Skagit Gardens’ Phygelius aequalis ‘Croftway Purple Prince’ has that intense dusky magenta violet color. I think it looks really good with Black Mondo Grass………Morticia Adams where are you now? The magenta violet glows in the evening light. ‘Croftway Purple Prince’ is cold hardy for the Pacific Northwest and listed as zone 6 Yay!

Phygelius Aequalis ‘Croftway Yellow Sovereign’ is 18 to 24 inches tall by 24 inches wide. Many plants with soft yellow flowers burn in full sun but ‘Yellow Sovereign’ can take the sun and heat.

Barbara Ashmun, Portland garden writer has a great article about Cape Fuchsia’s. It’s an older article but most excellent.

I don’t tend to use the older coral red colored varieties of Cape Fuchsia in front yards as the winter appearance is too ragged without a major trim. If you love this plant like I do, simply cut it to the ground in mid December for a tidy look. People who like a very tidy landscape may want to pass. It will seem too messy for them.

If you’re interested in adding Cape Fuchsia to your landscape or are interested in a colorful modern landscape design, contact me.

Categories : Dramatic Flowers, Garden Tips, New Improved Plants, Plants I Recommend

Tags : dramatic flowers, food for hummingbirds, long blooming flowers, low water plantings, plants to attract birds

Hummingbirds Favorite Summer Flower

Posted by Carol

· November 16, 2016

Cape Fuchsia's tubular coral scarlet flower is a hummingbird magnet

Phygelius – Cape Fuchsia ‘Passionate’

Cape Fuchsia, Phygelius, is a colorful, low maintenance long blooming summer flower for the Pacific Northwest. I use it in landscape designs for clients who love color and watching hummingbirds. It’s a personal favorite of mine and rates at least 2 blogs.

Cape Fuchsia Practicalities

If you are a person who wants a tidy landscape that looks perfect all year long, this is not your plant. I consider this plant to be low maintenance but not no maintenance. Clients who love the color and the hummingbird show simply cut it to the ground in December eliminating the messy twigs.

Photo shows Cape Fuschia is tough enough for full sun in a parking lot.

Mass of Cape Fuchsia at local Portland coffee shop

It can spread some. In the spring if the plant is taking more territory than you want, simply pull on the stem that is straying. Pull it out of the ground and cut the root off near the mother plant. It is very easy, I promise. Give it lots of sun, decent soil and water the first year. It will need less water the following year. Some clients water it about once every two weeks.

By the way, there is nothing wrong with needing a calm and low maintenance landscape. We are all unique and a plant that makes one person feel delight can make another person feel claustrophobic. I notice clients who grew up in climates where plants tend to be sparser can feel uncomfortable with the full flush of plantings possible here.

Design creates masses of color to offset the swimming pool

Mass planting of strong plant colors including Cape Fuchsia, and a path help to break up the lines of the pool.

Cape Fuchsia used for Mass Plantings in Swimming Pool Garden Re-Design

The first time I used this plant was for Art and Linda in SW Portland. They had a 1960’s swimming pool in the backyard that dominated. It visually ate the backyard. They wanted a cottage garden style with lots of color. My design solution successfully put the pool in a subordinate position to the landscape. I created some great paths and shapes for the planting beds that broke up the lines of the pool visually. We needed masses of strong plant color in the backyard to offset the powerful aqua rectangle. I’m not a big color wheel garden designer but colors like coral and salmon are opposite the wheel from aqua. The Cape Fuchsia flowers are perfect for this situation because they flower in these colors and they flower all summer, hitting their stride during hot weather. My clients enjoy hanging out by the pool and are entertained by the antics of hummingbirds. Hummingbirds are strongly attracted to the hot coral red tones of the Cape Fuchsia.

Morris before back yard landscape design 1996

Art and Linda’s back yard needed some color to offset the aqua of the pool water.

Fav Planting Combo is American Switch Grass with Cape Fuchsia

My favorite planting combination for this design was Panicum Virgatum, American Switch Grass ‘Heavy Metal’ with the Phygelius x recta ‘Devils Tears’. They are a perfect contrast combination! The Switch Grass blade is a fine silvery blue texture. It contrasts with the Cape Fuchsia’s dark green leaf and hot colored tubular flowers. The inside of the tube is a mellow lemon yellow but mostly the hummingbirds are the ones who see this.

If you research this plant on the internet, you will read that Cape Fuchsia are not cold hardy here since they are native to South Africa and they need a lot of water. Not true for Portland, Oregon. I have grown them at 900 feet on a roof garden and only watered them every two weeks. They were successful for 12 years and were still there when I moved.

I’m always advocating for low water use so planting Cape Fuchsia with American Switch Grass results in a very low water landscape pairing.

New Varieties of Cape Fuchsia

While I love the old fashioned varieties, the new varieties of Cape Fuchsia are shorter and flowers are in softer more traditional colors. These new Cape Fuchsia are more versatile and can work well for small properties and containers. But when you select a softer color over the intense coral red, hummingbirds are not nearly as attracted but you still get a great plant. Check out other great hummingbird plants.

Are you wanting more out of your landscape? More color, more interactions with nature, more privacy? Your landscape can be made to suit your lifestyle with a thoughtful landscape design process. Go to my contact page and let’s talk soon.

Categories : Before and Afters, Dramatic Flowers, Garden Tips, Low Maintenance Landscape Examples, Plants I Recommend

Tags : dramatic flowers, food for hummingbirds, long blooming flowers, low water plantings, plants to attract birds, swimming pool plants

Entry Presence with Winter Red Foliage for Portland Landcapes

Posted by Carol

· October 20, 2016

‘Sizzling Pink’ Chinese Loropetalum is the focal point plant for a Willamette Heights Landscape Design in a Day client’s entry.

Entry Presence with Winter Red Foliage for Portland Landscapes

Exciting Winter Color Shrub

As a Portland landscape designer I have many clients who want exciting winter color in their landscapes. When new clients fill in their landscape preference survey they often circle the option for burgundy foliage and add little hearts! Sadly most burgundy leafed plants are not cold hardy enough here in the Pacific Northwest to look picture perfect in winter.

My Favorite

My favorite choice for dark red or eggplant purple foliage is called Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum or Red Chinese Loropetalum. Plain Chinese Loropetalum has green foliage and white flowers. I love the Red Chinese Loropetalum. It has amazing thick hot pink fringe flowers in early spring. The spring foliage emerges burgundy red or dark to medium red pink depending on the variety. Other varieties are dark red to an eggplant purple through the year.

Unique plant but tricky to site properly

My NW Portland landscape design clients, Dave and Rhonda loved this plant. It provided a very attractive color echo of their eggplant front door and visually softened the adjacent concrete area. It looked good until January and then for several years the leaves burned and they didn’t grow back in until July!. The love was there but it took too long to recover for an entry focal point plant. Their plant, facing east, got sun from 6 am in the winter until 1 pm. They had good drainage and were careful and consistent with watering. Perversely, I have seen other plants simply glowing with health, facing east, in February in the same exact siting. Can you tell I had a little trouble giving up on that one? I avoid 6 am winter sun for best outcome.

Spring flowers (Photo courtesy of Monrovia)

So why bother with this plant?

It is the wonderful purple red foliage color, the soft arching shape of the branches and the hot colored fringe flowers in spring. Its well worth it if you love purple foliage. If the plant gets cold east wind in winter, the leaves will burn (desiccate) and it may look terrible until May or June. Year round good looks is all about proper siting and a bit of luck.

Proven Winners variety called Loropetalum ‘Jazz Hands’

Two good choices

These two old varieties are still easy to find and are what I’m most familiar with: ‘Sizzling Pink’, which is also called ‘Burgundy’ (cold tolerant to 15 degrees), and ‘Pippa’s Red’ (hardy to 10 degrees). ‘Pippa’s Red’ is not as dark a red leaf as ‘Sizzling Pink’. I’m interested in ‘Hines Purpleleaf’, ‘Zhuzhou Fuchsia’ and ‘Jazz Hands’ but wasn’t able to find them to purchase.

There are many new varieties but most were hybridized (designed) for the southern states and are not tested here in the Pacific NW.

I love to drive around Portland and see them thriving. They saw it, bought it, and just happened to plant it in the right spot!! Whoever they are, they don’t even know its supposed to be a little tricky. I would be willing to try it in colder areas like Gresham but only where it is 100% protected from east wind. Even then, I’d consider it an experiment. A whole landscape of plant experiments is called gambling and is not typically the result we want in a landscape design. Most of my clients want a sure bet plant when it comes to their entry landscape.

I love to create welcoming entry landscapes, so contact me.

Categories : Dramatic Flowers, Garden Tips, New Improved Plants, Plants I Recommend, Winter Gardening

Tags : burgandy foliage, color echo, curved steps, dramatic flowers, dramatic winter plants, entry plant, entry walk, evergreen plants w color, Pink Spring flowers, Red foliage, Winter Color in the garden

Diversity of Dogwoods Part II

Posted by Carol

· June 1, 2016

Portland Landscape Designer Appreciates Diversity of Dogwood Trees

Overlook neighborhood has Dogwood 'June Snow' in parking strip - close up of flower.

We recommend this 30′ wide tree for back yard or front yards not parking strips but here it is doing well in a parking strip in Overlook neighborhood of North Portland.

The diversity of dogwoods is well illustrated by these two trees: Cornus Kousa ‘Summer Gold’ and Cornus Controversa ‘June Snow’.

Bright cream flowers are backed by colorful leaf variegation of ‘Summer Gold’ dogwood. Photo courtesy of Heritage Seedlings

Colorful Summer Privacy Tree for Small Properties – Korean Dogwood ‘Summer Gold’

I love ‘Summer Gold’ partially because it’s so different from other dogwoods. ‘Summer Gold’ has narrow bright green and gold leaves and an upright narrow shape. The shape fits into urban settings much better than a round headed typical dogwood. The foliage will be a delight from spring into fall and this tree is a narrow vase shape perfect to put between your patio and the neighbors to achieve attractive privacy.

Traditional dogwoods (Cornus Florida and Cornus Kousa) have a wide oval solid green leaf and a 20′ or more wide round canopy. ‘Summer Gold’ was created by local Crispin Silva who is a delight. His curiosity and enthusiasm about plants has inspired many people in Portland including me. People here refer to his plants as “Crispin’s Creations”.

Elegant Branch Structure Cornus Controversa ‘June Snow’ Perfect Light Shade Tree

The flowers of ‘June Snow’ giant dogwood float above the graceful branches in Overlook neighborhood.

‘June Snow’ can be the single tree in your small city backyard because she has it all, grace, fall color, and an amazing floral display.

‘June Snow’ Dogwood matures at 30′ tall and spreads to 40′ wide. She has an arching shape and while bigger than typical dogwoods She has the most graceful silhouette even in winter. I use her to create light shade for medium to medium small landscapes. Too big for your typical row house back yard that is only 20′ wide, with another ten feet she can be the single beloved tree. She was introduced by J. Frank Schmidt Company also near Portland, Oregon.

Her branch structure is incredibly graceful and open and for a shade tree she is typically limbed up so it is easy to walk and play under this tree.

Cornus 'June Snow' fall color in NW Portland

The fall color of ‘June Snow’ dogwood at Portland’s Legacy-Emanuel Hospital in The Children’s Garden.

When she flowers in June these flat topped clusters (which often exceed 6 inches) seem to float above the foliage. The fall color on ‘June Snow’ can compete with any dogwood. The color show starts with orange yellows and moves into intense purple red and purple as fall deepens. The fruit that develops from the flower clusters are quite tiny and not messy. The local birds will eat them.

Studying trees is what Portland landscape designers do so we can bring you the best choices. Ok and we are geeky about plants. Read more about dogwood trees….. Diversity of Dogwoods Part 1

Cornus Controversa 'June Snow' as a border tree in NW Portland

More beautiful branch structure of ‘June Snow’ Dogwood. This tree used for a border keeps its’ lower branches. (ANLD Garden Tour)

Categories : Design Basics, Dramatic Flowers, Garden Tips, New Improved Plants, Parking Strips, Plants I Recommend, Shade Plants, Tree Selection

Tags : city trees, dogwood trees, dramatic flowers, fall color, pink flowers, Small shade tree, street trees

Archive for Dramatic Flowers – Page 2

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