End of August Favorites

I'm fudging this post a little bit. Technically, the end of the month favorites meme, hosted by Loree at The Danger Garden, is supposed to be posted on the last Friday of the month. But last week was so hot that I stayed inside and put together a post on my North Cascades trip instead of going outside to pick out favorites. As it turns out, though, I'm just going through the results of my prolific photo-taking this summer to find those favorites. I could have done that on Friday!

Trachelium caeruleum 'Hamer Pandora' has been a favorite all summer. This picture from last month shows it at its peak. It's beginning to wind down, but I'm eagerly watching the seed heads develop so I can grow more!

Picking favorites this summer has been quite a task in my garden, anyways. It's funny. I remember a time just a couple years ago when I only had a handful of favorites. It wasn't hard to pick one or two plants to feature. This year, my garden is so full of plants that I love every time I see them, it's hard not to repeat myself.

Another favorite whenever it's in bloom: Lapageria rosea. The heat last week washed the color out of the flowers a bit, leaving them more pink than usual. This vine and I are kindred spirits. Neither of us is fond of heat, or extreme cold, for that matter.

So, for my favorites post this month, rather than worry about repeats, I'm mostly going to share a few of the plants that have been prominent in my mind lately. I have several large areas I've been preparing to plant this fall, and much of my mental capacity has been bent towards planning those areas. And, rather than coming up with ideas of all the plants I could buy to fill those areas, I've been examining the plants already in my garden to see what I could propagate or move into these new areas. Oh, there's been plenty of buying, too, now that nurseries are starting to discount their plants.

Calluna vulgaris is a perennial favorite of mine despite how common it is in the Pacific Northwest. I think it's highly under-rated and misunderstood. Most people think this plant needs a lot of moisture, but it's actually quite drought-tolerant. In nature, this species ranges from the moist moors of the British Isles to the dry oak woodlands of Spain. In my garden, this adaptable shrub grows in full sun to part shade; in soils ranging from loose, silty Mt. St. Helens volcanic ash dredged from a river bed to compacted clay, to the native clay loam of my garden. Nowhere does it get more than 2 or 3 deep waterings all summer, except for extremely hot summers like last year, when I did give them more water.

I grow heather primarily for the foliage, but in August they burst into bloom. It can be a bit overwhelming, actually. Most heather blooms come in pink to lavender, with the full spectrum ranging from white to magenta. The bees, especially bumblebees and honeybees, absolutely adore them.

They do look lovely backlit by the evening light.

 I began with about four cultivars, two of which were the orange/chartreuse foliage varieties that take on more reddish tones in cool weather. The other two were plain green in foliage, with magenta and lavender flowers. One year, I found a carpet of seedlings around several of the mature plants, in a whole range of foliage colors. As they matured, a myriad of growth habits also appeared, from nearly flat to upright. My favorites are the woolly grey-leaved ones, which I've shown on my blog numerous times. It's happened again this year, little seedlings everywhere ranging from grey through green to charteuse/orange. I'll be happily spreading these through some of the new areas of my garden, as well as sharing them with friends.

A white-flowered seedling that appeared in my garden. It also has bright chartreuse new growth in winter and spring.

One of the charteuse/orange cultivars. I usually don't mind orange and pink together, but I'll admit this combination does clash a bit. Luckily, they aren't very noticeable except like this, up close and personal.

 The heathers also combine well with a lot of my other favorites. This has been my first year growing California poppies. I chose 'Mikado', a red strain.

And the liquid, mercurial silver of Geranium harveyi. I was pleased to discover this hardy South African geranium roots very easily from cuttings. I've got a good crop growing on for planting in the new garden areas this fall.

Artemisia abrotanum 'Silver', also called southern wormwood, has been drawing my eye all summer with it's fine texture, which reminds me a lot of 'Seafoam' in an upright form without the curls. I do love the greenish grey color, but what initially attracted me to this plant was the interesting golden cast it takes on in harsher conditions. I've got a batch of this plant growing on from cuttings that I'll plant in some of the new garden areas, which should be tougher growing than this bed.

Collomia grandiflora is one of my favorite native wildflowers. I was so happy to see lots of them appear in my garden after direct-sowing the seed earlier in spring. I've started collecting seed from the first plants to bloom, a bit of a challenge as the heads ripen gradually and the seeds are slightly explosive. Cutting whole branches, or even the entire plant if it's done blooming, and sticking it upside-down in a bag while the seeds continue to ripen and explode, seems to be the way to go.

While I've lamented the dense concentration of this Gilia capitata in one bed where I didn't want anything quite so tall, I have enjoyed it in the garden this summer, as have the honey bees. Hopefully next year it's a bit more spread out and growing where it isn't quite so in the way.

I'd love to buy a whole nursery flat of this Helleborus x sternii [silver selection] from Cistus for one of the areas I'm preparing. I love the large, evergreen (ever silver!) leaves and drought-tolerance. I'm working on breaking up the many fine textures in my garden with coarser foliage like this.

I love both of the plants in this photo, but for this post I'm focusing on the Comptonia peregrina. It's done exceptionally well this year, finally taking off after I purchased it two years ago as a half-dead, straggly discount plant. It's been proliferous in its production of rhizomes, sending up new shoots all around the main plant. I'm going to dig most of them this winter to plant in one of the new areas, and pot up a few to hopefully share with friends. I absolutely love the texture and rich green color of the leaves, as well as the delicious cinnamon scent released when the leaves are brushed or crushed. Though it is deciduous, it takes on pleasant russet tones that age to a lovely chestnut brown. Some of those brown leaves hang on through winter, and the stems themselves are interestingly lined with fat buds that become catkins in spring. It's a tough plant, growing in sun to shade, sand or clay, wet or fairly dry. Why is this plant not more popular?!

I did say I have a lot of favorites in my garden, but this last plant has really had me fawning over it: Matthiola fruticulosa ssp. perennis 'Alba', more easily called white-flowered perennial stock. That velvety, cool grey foliage has been a soothing balm through the hot days of summer.

I sowed some seed directly, but the largest plants are the ones I sowed in pots and transplanted to the garden when they were a few inches tall. Now they're 2 feet tall and wide! I ended up with a lot of them in the Acer griseum bed. Too many, really. I'm hoping I can transplant the smaller ones into the surrounding area, which is one of the zones I've been preparing for fall planting. Sequim Rare Plants has a great description on their website, though they appear to be out of stock at the moment (pun absolutely intended).

I'm looking forward to the fragrant white flowers, too, but I really love this plant for its foliage. The last three plants will be going into parts of the same area around the Acer griseum bed. In case you're interested in what else I'd like to put in this area, here's the Pinterest board I've been gathering ideas on. I want the area to be primarily soothing green and silver foliage with only a few shots of brighter color and flowers. These plants are more favorites, currently, as they're on my mind and I'm really excited to put this bed together.