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Editor's Note: Thanks to all of you who participated in our Reader Survey.
You provided us with lots of topics to address for next year.
David Salman, President/
Chief Horticulturist
Ava Salman, Marketing Director
Cindy Bellinger, Editor
Kerry Kirkpatrick, Designer
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Flower Bulb Sale!
You will be rewarded with Months of Floral Delight when you plant our SPRING BLOOMING BULBS and BULB GARDENS! How can you resist with many bulbs 20 to 40% off!
Good through 11/20/05 or while supplies last |
Gardening for Fragrance
By Cindy Bellinger This time of year it's easy to become nostalgic about the whiffs of scents that lifted from your garden on hot summer days. But this time of year can also be useful in planning for next year's fragrances.
 If you live in the region of azaleas and madly climbing honeysuckles, count yourself lucky. If you live in the Western hard-scrabble parts of the United States, don't despair. Our scented native plants are subtle but if you apply a few tricks-of-the-trade, rich fragrances can be designed into any garden.
Instant Scents
Create a quick but fragrant garden by inserting large pots of annuals into existing beds. A good mix of perfumed annuals includes:
- Sweet Peas, Stock, purple Petunias, Dahlberg Daisies, Nicotiana
- English Primrose, Dianthus, Miniature Carnations, Sweet Alyssum
Many perennial flowers are also known for their scents. These are:
 Chocolate Flower (Berlandiera), Lilies, Soapwort, Creeping Phlox- Garden Phlox, Hostas, Dianthus Firewitch and Horatio, Sweet Violets, and many Peonies
- Candytuft, Wallflower, Four O’Clocks, Evening Primrose (Oenothera)
- Dame’s Violet, Forget-Me-Nots, Passion Flower, Bee Balm (Monarda), Lupine
Throughout the landscape bulbs can also be planted for fragrance. Some wonderfully scented bulbs include:
Evening Scents
During the day flowers absorb heat, which builds up fragrances. Come nightfall those fragrances are released. Planting flowers and placing containers strategically around the garden--such as near patios and other sitting areas--creates pleasing aromas for evening gatherings.
 Some of the evening scented flowers include:
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Scented Foliage
Many plants have aromatic leaves that add fragrance to gardens, especially if brushed or touched. Some of these are:
Fragrant Trees
Catalpa and Linden trees, both reaching 40 feet, have intensely fragrant flowers that can permeate a whole garden. Other fragrant trees are the Amur Maple, Golden Chain Tree, and Purple Robe Locust and the lesser known, Yellowwood. The flowering crabapples and cherries also abound with fragrance.
Fragrant Shrubs
For guaranteed fragrance in the garden all summer be sure to plant English Roses. Bred from old roses for their fragrance and hybrid roses for their ever-blooming quality, the result is a fragrant flower that blooms all season.
Some of the hybrid roses that have wonderful fragrances are:
- Mister Lincoln, Double Delight, Angel Face, Iceberg Chrysler Imperial, George Burns, Scentimental
To further benefit from plant fragrances, place plants where they'll be easy to smell: under your windows, near the patio or within sniffing distance of your garden paths. Protect the scented garden from wind, as it will quickly disperse the delicate plant fragrances. Fragrance adds another dimension to the landscape. A garden may be pleasing to the eye, but an unexpected fragrance will enhance its value. Special fans of fragrant landscapes are people with limited eyesight and young children, with their wonder of all things natural.
Katherine O'Brien, Nursery Manager and Landscape Consultant for Santa Fe Greenhouses, contributed to this article.
Design Tip #11 -- Leaf Texture in Flower Beds
By Mary Ann Walz
Using color as a design consideration is pretty well understood by most gardeners. Even the different colors of foliage receive attention. However, leaf texture as a design consideration often is ignored or happens by accident. Take a look at your garden and see if you can get some ideas for improving or incorporating this element into your landscape.
In plant taxonomy leaves are classified into a number of shapes, but this can get rather technical. To simplify things, I've included my own easy classifications.
 Swordlike or Spikes: Grasses, Iris, Allium, Kniphofia, Hemerocallis, Hesperaloe- Feathery or Fern-like: Artemisia, Coreopsis verticillata, Diascia
- Large: Rhubarb, some Hostas, Cannas
- Medium: Heuchera, Echinacea, some Sedums, Peony
- Small: Veronica, Thymus, Aster, Agastache, Nepeta
- Fuzzy: Lambs’ Ears, Marrubium
 Perhaps the main rule of thumb is try not to have all the same type of leaves together.
Below are a few combinations I've used that have worked well:
Countless combinations of leaf textures exist and when visiting other gardens, it’s always worth noting the combinations you find there. On a recent art studio tour, I found myself gazing at a large drift of Sedum 'Autumn Joy' combined with two tall varieties of ornamental grasses, Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster' and Sporobolus wrightii. I caught myself making mental notes about possible areas in my landscape where I could place a similar combination.
Designing with leaves is another way to add interest to any garden.
Plant Combination
This month features two bulbs that you’ll welcome next spring. Both are early bloomers and often poke through the snow.
 Crocus ancyrensis 'Golden Bunch' is only 3" tall. With its deep golden yellow flowers, it almost looks like a miniature poppy when blooms. This is a favorite because it’s very early to flower and spreads easily. Zones 3-9.
Iris reticulata 'Harmony' is in our Wildflower Iris Collection and is another small, early spring delight. At 4” tall, it’s a particularly strong spreader in the garden and it’s great for indoor forcing as well. 'Harmony' will create a carpet of bright blue in just a few seasons. Zones 3-9.
Our November Garden Game
This month our Garden Game is a Wordsearch. To print it out click here.
Gift Certificates and Gift Gardens
High Country Gardens wants to make gift giving easy for you and a delight for friends and loved ones. In addition to our traditional Gift Certificate, we now offer special gift packages--our most popular Plant Collections and Pre-Planned Gardens.
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It's easy to become nostalgic about the whiffs of scents that lifted from your garden on hot summer days.
