Archive for low water plantings – Page 8

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

Dwarf Mugo Pine – Get the Right Plant for Your Landscape Design!

Posted by Carol

· January 20, 2016

The Right Dwarf Mugo Pine Can Be the Perfect Addition to Your Low Maintenance Landscape

For success in the landscape (which I define as “right plant right place”), it’s important to get the exact plant specified by your designer.

Pinus Mugo 'Sherwoods Compact' a client favorite low maintenance landscape plant.

Textured trio of ‘Sherwoods Compact’ dwarf pine, Sempervivum (hen and chick), Arabis (rock cress)

Early in my career I specified three dwarf Mugo Pine. I wanted a uniform pin cushion shape to contrast with ornamental grasses and succulents. I wanted the pines to stay small, and contrast with the grasses that would be two thirds bigger. This was my vision. What happened instead was three dwarf Mugo Pine ‘Nana’ grew into three different shapes and heights! None of them stayed small. The fact is plants grown from seeds can be as variable as your siblings. My brother and I have blue eyes, my sister has green eyes, I’m a redhead my brother a brunette and my sister’s a blonde.

I learned that seed grown dwarf pines are variable, only plants grown from cuttings of a named cultivar could be trusted. I knew this in theory but the industry was deceptive in labeling. I now knew to avoid any dwarf conifer called ‘Nana’! That was a secret code word for seed propagated.

Pinus Mugo ‘Slowmound’ is another favorite trusted dwarf pine

Then I was told that ‘Pumilo’ was a named variety and it stayed low. I was tricked again. The industry was also using seeds from ‘Pumilo’, not cuttings to produce a more affordable and (profitable) dwarf Mugo Pine. For many years I did not use any Mugo Pine at all, mainly because I was disgusted.

When specific size and shape uniformity are needed always select plants grown from cuttings or tissue culture. People who work at retail nurseries are sometimes ignorant of these finer points.

Mugo Pine with Hummingbird Mint, Sedum and Lavender

These days I need dwarf evergreens, particularly pines, for my clients because they are true low maintenance. They are low water, no pruning or candling required, they take hot full sun even next to concrete, and they look great year round. These true dwarf pines won’t get too tall in 10 years. So I had to find sources and growers I could trust.

The varieties I use and where I get them:

Oregon Small Trees is a private wholesale nursery/grower. The owner, Dave Leckey and his daughter, grow all of their plant material from cuttings. It takes many years to grow dwarf plants to a good size for the landscape. I also specify plants grown by Iseli Nursery and another resource is Buchholz & Buchholz Nursery. None of these resources are retail, you have to buy their plants through a plant broker or in the case of Iseli, those plants can be found at Portland Nursery, Cornell Farms and Farmington Gardens.

Notice the fine texture of this needled mugo pine.

Notice the fine texture of this needled pine.

Pinus Mugo ‘Sherwoods Compact’ is a favorite of my clients, they love the texture of the needles. I like Pinus Mugo ‘SlowMound’ a bit better for some designs. It’s a darker green. My favorite miniature Mugo Pine is called ‘Donna’s Mini’ and I’ll spend more money to get a larger tiny plant when I use ‘Donna’s Mini’. It grows less than 1 inch a year in ideal circumstances.

If you are interested in adding this or other low maintenance landscape plants to your property, contact us for more information on our design services.

Pinus mugo ‘Valley Cushion’ with Sedum ‘Xenox’ and Fountain Grass in the Grant Park neighborhood of Portland.

Categories : Design Basics, Garden Tips, Low Maintenance Landscape Examples, New Improved Plants, Plants I Recommend, Winter Gardening

Tags : curb appeal, drought tolerant plantings, low water plantings, texture plant

Low Water Landscape Design for Young Family

Posted by Carol

· December 2, 2015

After photo of colorful low water landscape design for Grant Park neighborhood front yard

After: New design includes drought tolerant plants and street tree.

Low water landscape design for young family: TJ and Lori had a new house in the Beaumont Wilshire neighborhood. They were planning the landscape long term for their son and future siblings. I love to design the landscape where my client’s children will grow up. It’s so satisfying! We are creating the places where important moments, family traditions and their children’s earliest memories will be made. Conserving water for the future was an important family value so a low water landscape design was very important.

Client Wish List

During the interview, I asked about edibles. They laughed and said in unison “Beans”! Green beans were important and there was clearly some family joke about them. Their wish list was extensive but the top 5 were curb appeal, low water use, Rain Garden for disconnected down spouts, no lawn, four season plantings and a screen to define their property from their neighbors without resorting to a fence…….and a special place for green beans.

Before photo shows beautiful Portland home with unattractive front landscape

Before Landscape Design in a Day

Curb Appeal

We solved the curb appeal issue by designing the parking strip as if it were part of the front yard. This added needed depth and gave the large front facade of the house the feel of a much larger front yard. The disconnected downspouts were served with a pseudo rain garden dressed with boulders and interesting plantings for drama to the front foundation scene.

The parking strip was 8′ wide so was treated as an extension of the front yard, and we need that 8′! The house with such a tiny front yard floated. The new design integrated the parking strip into the front yard and “planted” the house visually.

Driveway Doubles as Useful Family Play Space

Typically no designer, well this one anyway, would select the driveway for family quality time. Rules are made to broken. As we worked together it became clear that the deep spacious driveway was the perfect place for the edibles garden and play space. The driveway got a privacy treatment, and a large arbor set within a stone planter. The planter acts as art, adds curb appeal, and visually softens the size of the driveway . It’s also a functional divide between the properties and it can be seen from inside the house, replacing the view of the neighbors side yard and house wall. Guess what they grow on the curved iron trellis? Green Beans!! People tall and short sit on the planter cap to garden and talk or play.

Stone planter with edibles in Grant Park Low water landscape design

Stone planter with an arbor. Click here to see more stone planter options.

Other low water plantings:

Parrotia-Persian Iron Tree for parking strip

Garden planting of dwarf summer heather with summer daphne

4″ tall Summer flowering heather – Calluna vulgaris ‘Mrs Ron Green’

Butterfly and pollinator friendly Echinacea – Coneflower

Callluna vulgaris ‘Mrs Ron Green’ – summer heather

Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’ – cone flower

Dwarf Pinus mugo – Tru dwarf varieties

False Indigo - Baptisia S. 'Purple Smoke'

Baptisia A. Purple Smoke

Baptisia Australis ‘Purple Smoke’

North Portland Landscape Design parking strip

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

Stepable ground cover, Thymus praecox ‘Elfin Pink’

Categories : Before and Afters, Easy Edibles, Garden Tips, Low Maintenance Landscape Examples, No Lawn Front Yards, Parking Strips

Tags : curb appeal, Hardscape Design, low water plantings, No Lawn, stone planter, Stone planters, street plantings

Heather – The Perfect Low Maintenance Ground Color

Posted by Carol

· April 1, 2012

Heather is a Must in Your Low Maintenance Landscape Design

Mrs Ronald Gray heather is low maintenance for your landscape.

Specialty form of heather ground cover (photo from Singing Gardens)

Look at your landscape right now…Could it use a little ground color? A plant with full season color which prefers full day sun, stays low – think 4 inches tall (never higher) and best of all……..has the texture of 100 tiny fern sprays? Did I mention it is evergreen and fully drought tolerant after its first summer of careful watering? It looks great in the dreary spring monsoons with bulbs popping up through the evergreen textural sprays. It is cheery, plucky and graceful all at once.

Here are the super low varieties I use most often:

White Lawn – bright and green- the only white flowered form
Glenmorangie – whiskey colored foliage-gets bright!! in winter
Mrs. Ron Green – dark green w pale pink flowers
Golden Carpet – amazing texture-brilliant winter foliage color
Pat’s Dream- very similar to Golden Carpet

Tips for success: Heathers require good drainage so clay must be well amended. I have two different methods that work well. One is when the entire area has been prepped ala “True Grit” soil prep technique. The other is a “break all the rules” use of bark dust. Neither one can be safely explained in a blog. If you are one of my clients, or client to be, call me and I can walk you through it. It isn’t that hard but it has to be right.

Easy care? These low creeping mini heather fit into the true low maintenance landscape because they are the only heather that does not have to be pruned yearly. They also fit into a “passionate, lots of work, hot color, knock your socks off” garden because they can tolerate regular water. These varieties look great with Heuchera (Coral Bell) for instance. Please note they are not for use in rain gardens or at edge of ponds. I used this plant in a NE modern landscape design for the front yard.

These plants look great with masses of Hens and Chicks, dwarf conifers, those trendy new Echinacea (Cone Flowers) or with grasses. The heather holds the combination together. These heathers have flowers that stick out at a 90 degree angle which is an interesting extra hit of texture. Some of the plants listed have bright foliage in the coldest temps of winter which then holds into mid-spring.

A fall planting is the best, you will have fewer plant losses and you can relax a bit which you cannot do with heather planted in the late spring or in summer. Not relaxing!!!! My mother planted 30 plants in summer and didn’t lose a single one, but I nagged a lot. She was well tired of that by October. I was forgiven because they performed beautifully for many years and my mother does not hold these things against me.

Local source is Highland Heather in Canby or mail order is Heaths and Heathers in Shelton, Washington. Highland Heathers sells at the large local plant sales and via quality nurseries.

Please like this article on facebook or forward it your friends. Contact me if you would like to learn more about incorporating low maintenance plants like heather in your landscape design.

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

Tags : companion plantings for confiers, companion plantings for grasses, drought tolerant plantings, Evergreen groundcover, evergreen plants w color, Flowering evergreen shrub, garden coach recommends easy care plants, low water plantings, xeriscape plantings

Archive for low water plantings – Page 8

Low Water Landscape Design for Young Family

Client Wish List

Curb Appeal

Driveway Doubles as Useful Family Play Space

Other low water plantings:

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