Show #31/6505. Choosing The Right Plants And Trees

Specialty Plants That Add Color And Interest

After we've established our structural plants and we basically have the bones of the garden, or the landscape set, we start looking at wonderful specialty plants that we can plug in that will give us a pop of color or interest. Eric has several he would like to highlight.

The first is hydrangea quercifilia Gatsby Star. It's a very reliable landscape plant, a double bloomer and at the end of each petal it has nice little points. It's a very interesting plant, has reliable fall color with deep hues of red and purple.

Another hydrangea that we will work into this design is Hydrangea serrata Tuff Stuff. This is a hydrangea ideal for folks that may have had problems with hydrangeas. If you've maybe not had the best of luck with hydrangeas, this is a plant for you. It's a great reliable, repeat bloomer, also a compact plant. It will only get 2 or 3 feet tall, 2 to 3 feet wide. It's a lace cap bloomer, a spectacular bloomer, with blooms ranging from blues to pinks, all nice, delicate blush tones.

Eric also likes a native, Callicarpa Pearl Glam. Callicarpas really shine in the winter, that's when the nice purple berries are exposed, the leaves have dropped. But this is a Callicarpa for all year round, it has beautiful purple leaves and stems, nice pink flowers, so year round interest. It is also a great cut plant, you can bring in those stems with the purple berries, enjoy them in your flower arrangement.

Last but not least is a great landscape rose, called At Last. One of the things very different about this rose is that it is fragrant. Fragrance has been bred out of a lot of the more interesting roses, especially in the arena of landscape roses. This is a beautiful apricot tone, disease free, and super compact 2 and 1/2 to 3 feet tall.

These plants will all work well with our design.

To learn more about these plants visit Proven Winners-Spring Meadow Nursery.