Right plant, right place
How do you find a plant for those less-than hospitable places in a yard? Here are a few such spots and the perfect plants for them, according to Dave Epstein of Growing Wisdom and Anthony Tesselaar of Anthony Tesselaar Plants Pty. Ltd.
Location: Driveway and/or side of road
Solution: Next Generation Flower Carpet roses for continuous, season-long blooms, salt tolerance and outstanding heat and humidity resistance. The Flower Carpet ground cover roses are some of the most popular roses available in the world today. This is because of their long flowering period, easy care and exceptional disease resistance and great drought tolerance. “It’s a nice greeting for people as they come in from the road, and you’re taking a lot of heat off the driveway,” said Epstein.
Location: Narrow space that could use some color
Solution: Tropicanna cannas, which offer psychedelically colored foliage all season long. Providing attractive foliage and brilliant blooms, Tropicanna, Tropicanna Gold and Tropicanna Black cannas make stunning backdrops to garden beds and borders. Tropicanna cannas are also ideal in containers or interplanted with contrasting colored annuals. All three look terrific in ponds and water gardens. “The one thing to remember about cannas is that they are not hardy in the colder zones,” said Epstein. “So, if you want to keep them year after year, you have to store them.”
Location: Hot, sunny walkway that needs softening
Solution: Storm series of agapanthus (including the deep blue-flowered Blue Storm and the white-bloomed Snow Storm). “If you’ve got a piece of hardscaping like pavers or a walkway, the ground around it tends to heat up even more,” said Anthony Tesselaar. “In these spots, the Storm agapanthus series is a great choice, especially if you’re looking for something different with an exotic, architectural look.” The Storm series, he added, is the only variety of agapanthus to have survived the Dallas Arboretum’s famous plant “trials by fire” in intense heat, drought and humidity. “Unlike other agapanthus, it also has a shorter, denser, clump-forming habit and has been known to rebloom two to three times a gardening season.”
All photos and descriptions provided by Anthony Tesselaar Plants Pty. Ltd. For more information, visit www.tesselaar.com. For more plant selection and placement tips from Dave Epstein, visit www.growingwisdom.com.
