Plants I Recommend Archives - Page 17 of 20

Archive for Plants I Recommend – Page 17

Top 5 Stepable Path Plants For Portland Landscapes

Posted by Carol

· May 20, 2015

North Portland Landscape Design parking strip

Becky Clark Design Thymus Praecox ‘Coccineus’ ablaze w flower in north Portland parking strip

Selecting Stepable Path Plants for Portland Landscapes

Maybe it’s not fair that most people don’t know the finer points of selecting stepable path plants. The truth is planting between pavers successfully without insider knowledge rarely ever results in a thriving and attractive result let alone a planting that qualifies as low maintenance. It’s a little like ‘Goldilocks and The Three Bears’, the plant has to be just right. Remember? The chair and the bed had to be the right size and the porridge had to be the right temperature. If the plant you select is not right for the job, your path or patio can have weed problems that will take a complete do over to solve.

Most people don’t want to trial and error plants. They want to know it will work before they put in their time and effort. That is the advantage of hiring a Portland landscape designer. We know what works here and what doesn’t.

Portland landscape designer walking on stepable plants

Step on these plants. This keeps them growing low and dense.

Here’s how I think about selecting stepable path plants.

I want a plant that doesn’t grow higher than 1″ or 2″ tall maximum.

Many stepable plants tend to grow into a hump and must be walked on regularly to keep it from growing into a hump and being a trip hazard. Stepping on the plants frequently will cause them to grow dense and shorter. My grandson Rain helped me plant my flagstone patio. I stepped away and his friend came running in and said “I keep telling him they’re stepables not stompables.” I looked up to see my grandson stomping on the freshly planted ground covers. Surprisingly, the plants survived just fine.

Leptinella = Black Brass Button stepable groundcover

I want a plant that doesn’t grow over the flagstone too quickly.

If you plant a type of stepable that grows too vigorously you will be constantly cutting the plant off of the flagstone. Untended it will completely cover your flagstone. A slower plant might need a trim every year or two.

What do Stepable Groundcovers Need?

Weeds are the enemy. Prevent weeds.

Most stepable plants require good drainage in order to grow thickly and repel weeds. If they don’t grow thickly, and have bare patches, weed seeds will be able to reach the soil, germinate and thrive. I fertilize my patio plantings with half strength fish fertilizer several times a year to keep them growing thickly and I rake or sweep leaves and debris off the plants so they can get as much light as possible. These actions help keep the plants growing vigorously which is another way to thwart weeds.

I’ve listed plants below for part sun and full sun. I don’t have a stepable plant that thrives in strong shade, regardless of what the plant labels say. I’ve tried several that manage to stay alive in dappled shade but don’t grow thick enough to repel weeds.

Another tip: Don’t plant in an area that was infested with weeds. You will need to tackle the weeds first before you plant your stepables.

Here’s a close up of ‘Platt’s Black’ Brass Buttons with Star Creeper.

Stepable Plants for Part Shade/Part Sun:

Leptinella squalida – New Zealand Brass Buttons. The variety I prefer is ‘Platt’s Black’. The other variety of Brass Buttons I like, ‘Leptinella P. Verdigris’ is a a little fast for pavers but I have used it for paths. I don’t grow either of these in full sun. They spread until they find an environment they don’t like. In my patio they run into too much shade and the strong roots of sword fern and they stop there. These are spreaders so think before planting.

Mentha requienii – Corsican Mint This is a crowd pleaser because it smells good when you step on the plant. This plant needs some sun, and needs good drainage, too much shade and soil that is too wet in the winter will kill this plant. Full day sun is typically too much for this plant. I’ve seen it in full sun but when I tried it, it failed.

Stepable Plants for Sun:

Thymus Serpyllum ‘Elfin’ or ‘Elfin Pink’ – I love this plant and it is truly a flat mat if you step on it regularly. It does get weeds growing into the middle so it’s not maintenance free, but only garden magazines talk about maintenance free landscapes. When it is successful you will have to cut it off of flagstones some but I find it quite manageable.

Stachys densiflora ‘Alba’ – Alba Lambs Ear First of all this plant looks nothing like the traditional cottage garden plant (silver furry leafed) Lambs Ear. The tiny leaves are fully evergreen, dark green and leathery.

Stachys D, 'Alba' with attractive seed heads and Thymus P. 'Elfin Pink"

Seed head is a rust red and very attractive.

I love this plant because it doesn’t let weed seeds infiltrate the tight mound of leaves. Plant it on the edges of your path or step on it every day, otherwise it will mound up. It takes full sun easily and the long flowering period is fantastic! The seed heads that follow are interesting as well.

Stepable ground cover in Irvington neighborhood, Portland, Oregon

Cushion Bolax ‘Nana’ – Emerald Cushion is my favorite stepable for sun.

My Favorite Stepable Plant

Azorella Trifurcata ‘Nana’ – Cushion Bolax I have this plant at my vacation house in full morning sun (so 4 hours) and it will take full day sun as well. It occasionally has a dandelion sprout in the middle, but other pesky weeds don’t invade. I find it to be very low maintenance and perfect for a place I only visit every month or two. It will creep over your pavers so plan to trim once every year or two. It’s my favorite filler plant for pavers, paths and as a foreground plant in a planting bed.

My dog Barley looking at freshly planted Cushion Bolax.

I love the texture. It goes through a change where the little needles feel like a plastic carpet (which sounds bad but is fun) and then it softens into a ‘pettable’ surface. The yellow flowers are tiny fat buttons and cute.

Let’s work together and get you off to a great start

Are you looking for a Portland landscape designer who knows what plants and materials will work in your landscape? We know how to put it all together and get you on the path to your new attractive and manageable landscape. Contact us and let’s create together.

Categories : Dog and Cat Friendly Gardens, Garden Tips, Low Maintenance Landscape Examples, New Improved Plants, Parking Strips, Plants I Recommend, Shade Plants

Tags : curb appeal, dog friendly, flagstone in the garden, garden design with stone, garden tips, Hardscape Design, how to gardening tips, No Lawn, stepable plants, street plantings

Portland Rain Garden with Year Round Color

Posted by Carol

· April 1, 2015

Portland Rain Garden Plants with Year Round Color

Downspout disconnect rain garden in Raliegh Hills. Designed by Carol Lindsay and D & J Landscape Contracting

Downspout disconnect rain garden in Raleigh Hills. Designed by Carol Lindsay and D & J Landscape Contracting

As a Portland landscape designer I like my rain garden designs to have year round color. Many Portlanders have rain gardens in the front yard so it’s important to have year round color. Without careful plant selection rain garden plantings can look forlorn in the winter months with no leaves or color present. I love a good hit of color to offset our typically gray winter season.

To select plants for a rain garden I start by thinking about the areas of a rain garden that have different degrees of wetness. There are fewer evergreen plants that work well in the wettest areas and a wider range of plants for the sides and the top which are less wet. Knowing which plants will thrive in this situation ensures I select the right plant for the right place.

Rain Garden Planting Design in Raleigh Hills, Portland, Oregon

Southwest Hills Portland Rain Garden Plantings used: Miniature Golden Sweet Flag is a 4″ tall chartreuse evergreen blade. Use the Latin name, Acorus gramineus ‘Minimus Pusillus Aurea’, to get the right plant. The evergreen narrow gold tufts form a somewhat flattened pinwheel which adds interesting texture. It will take standing water that drains away so it’s perfect for the wettest areas of a rain garden. If the area is a lake for a week at a time, that is too wet. Miniature Sweet Flag is unique because it also thrives in dryer sunny areas. I don’t use it in heavy shade designs.

Flowering Tree with Beesia, Fatsia, Hosta plantings underneath

Beesia can also be used as a ground cover in partial shade here in a NE Portland landscape design.

False Bugbane – Beesia deltophylla has glossy evergreen heart shaped leaves. It’s a perfect companion plant for the narrow blades of the Miniature Gold Sweet Flag; together they make a perfect year round color combination. The Beesia would die planted in the lowest wettest area so I plant it above the Golden Sweet Flag in a rain garden.

Designers know Compact Inkberry Holly – Ilex Glabra ‘Compacta’, will survive temporary standing water but there are few if any other choices for the Pacific Northwest. I’ve used Compact Inkberry Holly, on the sides of a rain garden. It works as a house foundation planting too. Don’t be fooled by the word “compacta”. It will happily grow to 4′ tall. Fortunately you can prune this shrub once or twice a year and keep it 2’ by 2’.

North Portland Rain Garden Landscape Design

Ilex Glabra (Inkberry) is a great plant for rain gardens because it is evergreen. Few wet tolerant plants are evergreen. Photo from Proven Winners

Not convinced about wet soil and evergreen shrubs? I will restrain myself to listing just 5 evergreen that die a sad little death in overly wet winter soil: Azaleas, Escollonia, Pieris, Rhododendron, and a variety of conifers to include expensive little dwarf Hemlocks. Ouch!

Portland courtyard entry rain garden with red twig dogwood, boulders and Acorus grass

New rain garden design gets rid of the winter lake in this entry courtyard. My client built it herself.

Portland Courtyard Rain Garden Planting Design

A winter lake flooded this small entry courtyard every year for weeks at a time. My client installed her own rock and plantings from my design but had the pipe that carried away the water installed by professionals. After the rain garden was installed we added two vine maple on either side. The vine maple trees on either side of the rain garden would be dead instead of showing their glorious fall color. Vine maple hate poor drainage and prove it by promptly dying.

Dwarf 16″ tall red twig dogwood “shrublets” Cornus Sericea ‘Kelseyi’ and a 12″ tall Golden Sweet Flag called Acorus gramineus ‘Aurea’ adds interest and year round color.

Get the Right Plant for Your Rain Garden

Lots of people love red twig dogwood. It’s a great plant for year round color and its important to get the right plant!

Some varieties of dwarf red twig dogwood get 6′ tall. Other red twig dogwood can get 15′ tall. Cornus sericea ‘Kelseyi’ is 12″ to 18″ tall. This dwarf dogwood variety has short colorful red twigs in winter but can get unattractive fungal leaf spots in spring. I don’t know of a dwarf variety of red twig dogwood that is free from spring fungal leaf spots. It’s a very useful plant. Life is too short for spraying plants with chemicals and really dear reader, who has time to intelligently apply fungicides?

Rain garden in Willamette Heights Portland Oregon with ferns, grasses, and boulders

Dry stream bed in Willamette Heights Portland Oregon with ferns and grasses

NW Portland Hillside Rain Garden Plantings

This hillside garden was designed to be seen from the master bedroom. There is a lot of water that moves through this hillside so it has a dry stream bed to collect the water with a drain at the bottom. It doesn’t have any plants inside the winter water area so I don’t consider it a true rain garden. The plants were installed behind a low retaining wall which is hidden by the plants foliage which spills over the walls. These clients are gardeners so I use a wider variety of plantings for their design than I would for non gardeners. Ferns carry the garden for 9 months of the year. Evergreens such as native Oregon Oxalis – Oxalis organa, Japanese Soloman’s Seal Polygonatum Falcatum (evergreen Soloman’s Seal), Hardy Geranium – Geranium Macrorrhizum and Carex grass provide year round color. Toad Lilly – Tricyrtis hirta, provides exotic color in the fall. Out of all these plantings only the Carex grass can handle excessively wet winter soil. See more about this NW Portland Natural style Landscape.

Industrial/Modern rain garden design style for downspout disconnect. Designer Barb Hilty

Portland Industrial Modern Style Rain Garden

Landscape Designer Barb Hilty designed this rain garden using no plants at all. The full season interest relies on the ornamental rain chain, the shape of the steel boxes and the black rock to carry the day year round and allow this home owner to disconnect the downspouts in style.

Contact us

We love to work with Portland rain gardens and naturalistic dry stream beds as part of an overall design for your property. Contact us for a collaborative approach. The best design comes from talking at the kitchen table.

Categories : Garden Tips, Gardening Green, Low Maintenance Landscape Examples, Plants I Recommend, Rain Garden, Winter Gardening

Tags : downspout disconnect garden, dry stream bed, hillside dry stream bed, plants for rain garden, Rain Gardens

Winter Flowers Feed Bees

Posted by Carol

· February 17, 2015

Saving Bees? Feed them. Plan for flowering plants from early spring until mid-fall. Don’t use any pesticides. Then you don’t have to try to figure out if the claim that it won’t harm bees is true or not.

Winter flowers feed bees. It’s easier to provide flowers for bees in our cool early springs than you might think. What we are learning about saving bees can be made very simple. Feed them! Use a diverse plant palette with flowers from early spring until mid-fall. Don’t use any pesticides and then you don’t have to try to figure out what is safe and what isn’t or who to trust.

I have always found summer easy to provide a diverse collection of flowers for all kinds of bees but early spring requires thought and planning. My beach house landscape on the Olympic Peninsula is a great example of a very low maintenance and bee friendly garden. The plants I list in this article are from my experiences there and from my landscape design practice here in Portland, Oregon.

Erica darleyensis ‘Mary Helen’

If you’ve read any of my blogs, heather comes up a lot. I love to use heather in my personal landscape and for clients where we can create good drainage. By the way, I had to learn how to grow it well. The fact that many varieties of spring heather feed bees at a critical time is a huge bonus to an already great plant. Deer don’t bother it, and it’s a glorious and tough ground cover. Spring heather, native plants and early flowering Spanish lavender feed bees in late winter and early spring. I start out with heather varieties that flower in late January and into early spring. These plants Erica Carnea – spring heather not summer heather – are especially great for our native bumble bees who are out and about earlier than honey bees. The bumble bees can protect themselves from sudden changes in temperature by nestling down in the thick foliage if they get too cold. I’d use the word cuddle but my inner 5 year old who hated the heather at our front walk because it was buzzing with bees . . . won’t let me! Heather provides a lot of nectar for the bees because of the hundreds of tiny flowers on each plant. The flowers are just the right depth for different sizes of bees. Some tube like flowers are better for hummingbirds but the heather flower (which is a tiny little tube) is just right for bees. Here are some early flowering spring heather varieties I like:

‘Bells Extra Special’
Foliage goes to a whiskey color with flecks of orange in the cold, the flowers are a strong purple red and best of all it’s only 4 inches high. It spreads to about 16” wide January to May. This short compact plant is unusual among the spring heather, most are 6 to 8 inches high.

December Red
Clean dark green foliage with Cabernet red flowers – 8” high and spreading to 18” November to April.

Adrianne Duncan
Has a strong violet purple flower and is more compact than typical, 6” high by 18” spread. It flowers later than Bells Extra Special. I like to put these two together for foliage contrast.

Erica darleyensis ‘Mary Helen’
Sports an interesting gold bronze foliage in winter and lots of flower power in February to April. These plants are grown locally by Highland Heathers in Canby, Oregon. This grower supplies retail nurseries, special plant sales such as HPSO Hortlandia spring plant sale and you can buy directly if you make an appointment. You won’t find these varieties at a big box store. The common varieties get too big for most landscape situations and then you end up hacking at them and then they are ugly and out they go.

Three things to pay attention to for success with heathers

Soil prep
Proper watering
Yearly Pruning

A lot of my other early spring flowering plants are Pacific NW natives. Rubus spectabilis, Salmon Berry, has a spectacular colorful spring flower with 75 to 100 stamens which will keep bees busy for a long time. This flower calls the early bumble bees by the droves. This shrub has thorns and needs a bit of room so think first and plant second. Our Oregon grape, Mahonia aquifolium, my evergreen huckleberry, Vaccinium ovatum, and the hot pink red flowering current edge the light woods around the house and provide for the various local bees. Some people don’t like Oregon grape because the leaves can get winter damage and have ratty looking leaves by early spring. I say no problem, let them flower to provide for wildlife and then cut them down to the ground. They will re leaf into glossy and good looking foliage for the rest of the year.

We know English lavender is great for bees in the summer. Like heather, all lavender has hundreds of tiny flowers and is an abundant source for nectar. Spanish lavender flowers much earlier than English lavender and provides for mid spring to early summer nectar. We need good drainage to be successful with with Spanish lavender but this often just means mounding up a few inches. Don’t over water Spanish lavender. I water mine once a month and am not sure it even needs that now that the plants are old.

Lavender at Joy Creek Nursery

Lavandula stoechas ‘Winter Bee’

There is a newish variety called ‘Winter Bee’ grown by Blooming Nursery, a local wholesale grower. They claim it flowers 3 weeks earlier than other Spanish lavender and have named it accordingly, Lavandula stoechas
‘Winter Bee’ PP #20,840.Up at my vacation house my Spanish lavender flowers in early April to mid summer. I have seen flowers on them in March. After the main flowering, I cut it back about 1/3^rd and get another lovely hit of flowers in late summer into early fall. Here are three spring flowering Spanish lavender varieties I have grown: ‘Blueberry Ruffles‘, ‘Hazel, and ‘Mulberry Ruffle’s‘. Blooming Nursery sells to many of the larger garden centers but don’t look for their plants at a box store; they won’t be there.

This unusual variety is compact and flowers earlier than most Spanish Lavender.

This unusual variety, ‘Mulberry Ruffles’, is compact and flowers earlier than most Spanish lavender.

Last of all, the best early flower for bees at our beach property isn’t what you would think of as a flower probably. It has to be the huge old Oregon Big Leaf Maples down at the edge of the beach. When they flower, the sound of bees is a low roar, I am not kidding. My grandkids are a little nervous and tend to stay out of that area for a while. Bees will earn respect if need be but otherwise I find them easy to get along with. I do flinch when a bumble bee takes a dead run at me… and then I scold them for being bossy. There is enough room in the garden for everyone.

Categories : Garden Tips, Gardening Green, New Improved Plants, Plants I Recommend, Spring Gardening, Winter Gardening

Tags : bee friendly garden, Erica Carnea, heather, long blooming flowers, saving bees, spring flowers, Winter Color in the garden

Unusual Flowers to Attract Hummingbirds

Posted by Carol

· February 4, 2015

Unusual Flowers to Attract Hummingbirds

Today I want to share “Hummer” plants with hot colors for summer that are unique. I will also list a few very colorful plants that feed the overwintering hummingbirds in winter.

Hardy Fuchsia may be considered common for feeding hummingbirds 8 months out of the year. Here are 3 varieties that are available locally (Portland, Oregon) that are a little different. This type of fuchsia is a perennial and not anything like the fuchsia baskets that live in shady patios. These fuchsias need sun and will come back year after year with simple care.

‘Golden Gate’ Hardy Fuchsia has hot gold leaves and shocking red pink flowers. It is much smaller than the typically ‘Aurea’ and is an upright shrub instead of a wide vase shape. It will fit into a smaller garden much better than ‘Aurea’ which can grow 4′ across easily. We have a local source, a wholesale grower, Jockey Hill, who sells retail at Scappoose Saturday market.

Fuchsia Magellnica ‘Isis’ – this is great against a wall and while the leaf and flower are tiny, it can become a tall column (8′ – 10′) or it can be cut back hard every year and kept in the 4’ range. Hundreds of flowers will interest many varieties of the larger bees as well as hummingbirds.

‘President’ Hardy Fuchsia. It has a dark maroon leaf which is very unusual. This can be hard to find. We have a local wholesale grower, Jockey Hill, who sells retail at Scappoose Saturday market. It grows into a wider than tall shrub with purple and red flowers.

Agastache, also called Hummingbird Mint, are hot plants for long flowering summer color and for hummingbirds. My old favorite variety is called ‘Apricot Sunrise’ and is an Agastache aurantica. There are many new varieties of Agastache that I am very excited about. ‘Summer Fiesta’, ‘Summer Sunset’, ‘Kudos Manderin’, and ‘Kudos Coral’ are newer varieties that are more compact. All of these Agastache are fragrant and smell strongly like mint or apple mint depending on the variety.

If you provide good drainage (think about planting on a low mound of soil), and don’t over water or fertilize …… it can live for years. I often mulch around these plants with a cup of tiny crushed rock or pumice and I also tend to plant Hummingbird Mint in a raised planting. Even 4” above the rest of the soil will improve drainage.

Agastache ‘Summer Glow’ did very well in a client’s garden until a local rabbit ate them to the ground one too many times. I love this exact variety, ‘Summer Glow’, because even after the glowing creamy yellow flowers are gone, the mulberry calyeces (under each tubular flower) stay on the plant until frost. This color is soft but truly does glow especially in the evening. This variety, like the hummingbird magnets above, results in 3 months of color in the garden. It’s not red so isn’t as attractive to Hummers.

Here are three great hummingbird attractors for winter:

Camellia Sasanqua ‘Springs Promise’

Hybrid ‘Springs Promise’ is a new vivid rose red winter flowering Chinese Camellia.

Correa ‘Dusky Rose’

Correa ‘Dusky Rose’ Australian Fuchsia is available locally at Cistus Nursery on Sauvie Island.

‘Arthur Menzies’ Mahonia – photo from Forest Farm.

Mahonia x media ‘Arthur Menzies’ Think small tree so 15’ by 8’ wide. The fragrance alone is amazing. It is a coarse but attractive blue green leaf, the flower is a soft but strong yellow and is beloved by the Anna Hummingbirds. At times you can find it at Portland Nursery, Cistus Design Nursery or Xera Plants, Inc.

You can also order a small plant from Forest Farms

For typical plants that attract hummingbirds go to my video for About.com. http://landscaping.about.com/video/Best-Flowers-to-Attract-Hummingbirds.htm

Categories : Garden Tips, New Improved Plants, Plants I Recommend, Summer Garden Tips

Tags : food for hummingbirds, long blooming flowers, plants to attract birds

Planning for a Cheery Winter Landscape

Posted by Carol

· December 10, 2014

Let’s start with art. An art object does not need pruning, watering or fertilizing. Art, particularly large art, is a way to get a powerful all season effect in the landscape. Place it so you see it from the most used room of the house. Add a little night lighting and really get your money’s worth.

Shapely trees and large shrubs with attractive branch structure will make 75% of your most dramatic winter picture. Buy trees or shrubs already pruned and shaped beautifully. There are specialty growers who do this as part of their marketing niche, or hire a landscape gardener or an arborist to turn your trees and shrubs into winter beauties. Out here in the NW it’s Nancy Buley with Treephoria and while her plants are grown way out in east county she comes in to some of the farmers markets to make it easier for you to connect with her.

Red Camellia in L. Waldron Garden

Here’s a series of shapely shrubs/small trees with cheerful bright winter flowers. My favorite of the chinese camellias is still Camellia Sasanqua ‘Yuletide’ but the growers have created a whole line of plants similar to Yuletide but in different flowering colors and different flower timing. Here are a couple of new ones I’m excited about. ‘Springs Promise’ a chinese camellia from Monrovia has an unusual orange red flower, a color hard to find in winter. The tree can be trained into a vase shape, an espalier or a thick shrub. We will see if the hummingbirds like it as much as they do the true red of the Yuletide variety. ‘Pink a Boo’ also has the smaller dark green glossy leaves (like Yuletide) but is that perfect frosty intense but pale pink. Camellia Sasanqua ‘Marge Miller’ is the only plant with a weeping shape. I’ve only used it once and am eager to get photos this January when my client Karen’s plant starts to flower.

calluna-vulgaris-robert-chapman360 port nursery

Calluna Vulgaris ‘Robert Chapman’ lights up in winter cold.

To have a cheery winter landscape we need plant color low on the ground with a dark mulch or hemlock bark to dress the raw earth. Too much mulch or raw muddy earth looks unfinished especially for a front yard. In the back yard your dog will happily churn up that mud and bring it in so I like to see it covered. Many people here in the Northwest like to have the soil covered with plants to conserve water, lessen the chore of weeding and for style. Others find it too busy and want to see the space around the plants as part of the design. No one wants mud so we all agree on that. Plant selection: Use plants that turn on the color in winter cold. The foliage of heathers light up in reds, russets, ambers, and golds.

Calluna Vulgaris ‘Winter Chocolate’

Cornus Sanguineum ‘Midwinter Fire’

For a January pick me up, we cannot beat a red twig dogwood or scarlet willow, although planning for space is an issue with these plants. The twig dogwood shrubs and small trees light up in hot reds, burgundy and yellow.

Notice what is going on outside. If you have become a person who never ventures out in the winter……give yourself a gentle little shake, put on some warm clothes and get out there and see what is going on. Slow down enough to notice light on the tree stems, chilled dew on a leaf, and the leaf buds swelling on your Japanese maple in preparation for spring. This is good for our spirits and our minds.

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

Tags : curb appeal, dramatic winter plants, Winter Color in the garden

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