The Importance of Yellow

Vignette of my front border with yellow accents provided by Allium moly and yellow dutch iris

     I have previously written about the boost that orange gives to a garden.  Today I want to focus on a similar effect achieved by the use of yellow.  I have in my front border at this time of the year a lot of flowers in the pink, magenta, purple, and blue shades, but not much in the way of yellows.  So I have been consciously trying to add more yellow because I think it adds a great deal of punch to the composition.  Try to imagine this scene without the yellow and I think you will see my point.
     I particularly like lemon yellow as opposed to a more orange yellow, and two plants which meet this criterion, and are also deer resistant and drought tolerant (which they have to be to exist in this border) are Allium moly and yellow dutch irises.  I would highly recommend Allium moly--most bulb suppliers carry it, it is inexpensive and it provides a nice shot of lemon yellow at a time to coincide with the great flower extravaganza in this border.  I have had more mixed results with the dutch irises.  They are also inexpensive bulbs carried by most bulb suppliers, but I have found that they tend to disappear from the garden over time.  I suppose I could remedy this by getting more each year, but I want the plants in this border to be self sustaining over time.
     Other plants in the photo above are Eremurus 'Roford', Allium 'Globemaster', Papaver orientale 'Bolero', Eryngium bourgatii, Echium vulgare, Papaver somniferum, and Nasella (Stipa) tenuissima.  As you may be able to see from the photo, particularly if you click on it and view it large, the flowers of the Eryngium bourgatii are nothing to write home about.
     One plant which would provide a shot of yellow at this time of the year, and that I do not currently grow is any kind of Euphorbia.  I have, in the past, grown every kind of Euphorbia that is hardy in our climate, and I have gradually gotten rid of them for one reason or another, so that I am now Euphorbialess.  The main reason I don't grow them in this front area anymore is that after the bloom time is over the flowers become incredibly ugly and you have to cut off the flowering stalks to keep the garden looking good.  In a garden the size of mine not only is this an onerous chore, but the white sap the cut stems exude can be downright dangerous.

Papaver orientale 'Manhattan"

Papaver orientale 'Manhattan' blooming now in my garden

     I have been very busy lately and so have not had time to process many of my photos.  My garden, especially the front border,  is coming into its peak right now and so I will be posting photos of that soon.  Since this is the only recent photo I have had time to process, here it is; Papaver orientale 'Manhattan'.  For a more in depth discussion of oriental poppies, see my entry from last year here.
     This poppy is in my front border, where it has grown for at least 7 years.  The deer never eat it and I never water it.  This is probably my favorite Oriental poppy.
     This is a focus stacked image meaning it is a combination of 4 shots with different focus points.  This, as I have explained before,  allows the entire flower to be in focus while keeping the background out of focus.

Hummingbird Magnet

Eccremocarpus scaber growing on trunk on dead Trachycarpus

     Last year I wrote about Eccremocarpus scaber here, and in that post I had a picture of this vine just starting to grow up a dead Trachycarpus trunk in my garden.  If you compare the picture from that entry with the one here, you will see how much growth this vine has made since last year.  Of course, it was helped by our very mild winter, since the Eccremocarpus never did die all the way back like it sometimes does.  Anyway, this vine has made a great cover up of the dead trunk and the hummingbirds thank it for that!

Bearded Irises

Closeup view of Sunrise Elegy

One of the yellow/orange irises I ordered from Schreiner's Iris Gardens last fall

Sunrise Elegy again

Two more of the Schreiner's irises

Yet another of the Schreiner's irises

     As I said I would in a previous entry, I am posting pictures of some of the bearded irises I got from Schreiner's Iris Gardens last fall. As a photographer, I love these flowers! The first image above is of one called Sunrise Elegy, which was a bonus plant they sent me.  It just goes to show you that ones that might not appeal to you in a catalog turn out to be great.

A Riot of Flowers

Side pathway in my garden with bearded irises, alliums, Scilla peruviana, and California poppies

View of that area from another direction with unknown species peony in the foreground

Closer view of Scilla peruvianas and California poppies

     There is an area in my garden which comes into view soon after you enter the main garden gate.  It is accessed by a couple of pathways, including the pink pathway you see in the first picture above.  In the last few years I have completely changed the planting in this area, primarily because it used to be much shadier due to an arbor which has since been removed and due to the removal of a large native willow. 
     One of these beds contains a large Trachycarpus, and I have underplanted that tree with a lot of Scilla peruvianas which I moved from the front border to protect them from the deer.  Last year I planted a few California poppies around these scillas, thinking that they would make a good contrast to the scillas, and sure enough, they do!  I like the straight orange California poppies the best because that bright clear orange makes everything else in the garden pop.  I often hear people say that they do not like orange in the garden, but they are missing out if they do not use it.  There is nothing like orange to make other colors sing.
     One thing about California poppies is that you only have to plant one or two and let them go to seed to have mass quantities of them the following years!
     The first picture above also shows some of the bearded irises I bought from Schreiner's Iris Gardens last year.  I will have a future post with some closeups of these irises, but suffice it to say they are all wonderful.
     These pictures are a good illustration of how my planting style has changed over the years.  I used to plant in blocks of plants of one kind.  I no longer like to do that.  Instead, I like to have lots of plants that I like, but spread out and mingled with other compatible plants to make a more naturalistic look.  I want the garden to look like it just naturally sprang up, even though it did no such thing.

Stipa Gigantea

Stipa gigantea beginning to bloom behind a blue bearded iris in my front border

     I was recently reading an entry on one of the blogs I follow--Rhone Street Gardens-- about a visit to Wind Dancer Gardens, a nursery (now closed, I believe) specializing in grasses.  While I have never been to that nursery, it reminded me of my love for grasses and how my use of them in my garden has changed over time.  It used to be that I loved grasses so much that I tried to grow every one that I could get my hands on.  I went through miscanthus phases where I grew all sorts of them, then cortaderia (Pampas grass) phases, then carex phases, then New Zealand grass phases... You can get the picture.
     Anyway, over time, and for various reasons, I have cut back on the kinds of grasses I grow.  Probably the number one reason for this is that many of them--particularly the big ones-- got to be too much work.  They required much labor in cutting them back in the spring, and if they ever needed dividing, like some miscanthuses do, then God help you.  Pampas grasses were too messy looking in the winter and also too much labor.  Others seeded themselves about too much, such as Anemanthele lessoniana.  Still others I removed because they declined over time as my bamboos grew and shaded them out.  Also, since I have so many bamboos in my garden, the shape and form of most grasses is redundant.  Finally, as I got into photography I wanted more flowers, so grasses made way for more flamboyant flowering plants.
     This brings me to the present, where I am only growing a few grasses and those can be summed up with the words Stipas and Hakonechloas.  I grow three types of Stipas in my front border.   Stipa gigantea, Stipa tenuissima ( I still refer to it this way, rather than as Nassella which is its new name), and Stipa barbata.  In my fenced in garden I grow a lot of Hakonechloa and I have previously written about the Hakonechloa 'All Gold' that I grow in pots here.
     Today's post is about one of those stipas in my front border--Stipa gigantea.  This is a great plant for a sunny, dry site.  As you can see from the picture, the blooms are starting to emerge now, and they make a wonderful airy backdrop to all the flowering plants in the front border.    The basal foliage of this stipa is only about a foot tall, but the flowering spikes extend a couple of feet above that.  Over time that base will exceed a couple of feet in diameter.  Since this grass flowers relatively early for a grass in this region, it coincides with the big flowering extavaganza which occurs in this border in June.
     This grass looks pretty good all year long, but I cut it back to the ground every spring.  This neatens it up and it quickly regrows from that haircut.  By the way, I am often asked by gardeners if they can cut something back that looks bad.  My advice always is to cut it back, whatever it is, if it is ugly.  The worst that can happen is that you will kill the plant, but if it is ugly, who cares?  If it lives, you will have improved it quite a bit.
      I find seedlings here and there of this grass, but it is not a major weed like some other grasses I have grown including Stipa tenuissima.  Stipa gigantea is also quite long lived for a grass.  The one in the picture has probably been there for about 10 years.
    

Eryngium Blue Jackpot With Bees

Eryngium Blue Jackpot with five bees on it at once

     I have previously written about one of the best eryngiums I have grown here,  Eryngium 'Blue Jackpot".  I have a number of these in my garden and they are just now coming into bloom.  I noticed that on one of the most advanced of these flowers there were five bees at once busily harvesting whatever it is they harvest!  These eryngiums seem to be great flowers for attracting bees. 
     Another great group of plants for attracting bees, I have noticed, are the echiums.  My Echium amoenum, which I wrote about here is virtually covered with bees.
     Speaking of wildlife, for those of you who expressed concern about the baby deer in my garden which I wrote about in my last entry, at a little after 9:00 that evening, the mother came and took it away with her.  They have not been seen by me since.