Make Fall Planting Easier With Pre-Planned Perennial Gardens
How Pre-Planned Garden Collections Take the Guesswork Out of Fall Planting
Today I’m sharing one of my all-time favorite tools to use in the garden. Some might call it a cheat even. But it really isn’t a cheat at all: using garden collections and pre-planned gardens!
Perhaps you remember that last April I planted out two collections from High Country Gardens: the Colorado Perennial Collection and the Best in Show Agastache Collection.
In case you don’t remember, here are two posts which share the process and an update:
Anyway, I am happy to report that these plants are happy and healthy — well, all except one. More on that sad story in a minute.
I stepped out to take some photos yesterday morning so you can see how things are coming along.
This is the raised bed where I’ve planted the Colorado Perennial Collection. If you remember, this collection includes two grasses: Blonde Ambition Blue Grama and Red Flame Switchgrass. It also includes three types of Penstemon: Rocky Mountain, Red Rocks, and SteppeSuns Sunset Glow. Plus several other plants — eight total.
The Colorado Perennial Collection plus a few stray plants that needed a new home last spring.
I love a good pre-planned garden, because I know all of these plants will thrive in the same conditions and will look good growing together. This particular garden was designed for Colorado, but these plants will do well in hot and dry conditions almost anywhere.
This was the collection straight from the box. They actually have grown a lot!
I chose it, in part, because I knew these plants could take the heat of this location — between two driveways near the street. It’s the hardest, hottest place in my garden. And they have done beautifully!
The one exception: the Denver Daisy. I came home from vacation, and it was laying in the bed, very dead — the work of a squirrel burying nuts by the looks of it.
RIP Denver Daisy. That squirrel never even apologized, either.
If we were sitting over a cup of tea today, you might ask, “But Angela, those plants still look really small! What gives?” And I would say: Yep! That’s how it goes with many native North American plants.
We have to remember the old adage:
Year One: they sleep.
Year Two: they creep.
Year Three: they leap!
They are still quite small right now. And it’s easy to get impatient! But they are busy putting down roots and storing up sugars to get them through their first winter. I’m not worried about that at all. I just keep them well-watered and weeded.
Ratibida columnifera | Mexican Hat started blooming in late July, much to the bees’ delight!
The Ratibida is forming beautiful seedheads now, and it won’t flower again, so I have cut off half of the forming seedheads — just to conserve a little energy.
Penstemon strictus | Rocky Mountain Penstemon
The Rocky Mountain Penstemon will probably bloom in the spring for the first time. It looks lovely and healthy!
The Blonde Ambition Blue Grama Grass has this gorgeous blue-green cast which in stunning in sun or shade.
The SteppeSuns Sunset Glow Penstemon didn’t bloom this year which is to be expected. But it looks so happy, and the blue cast to the foliage is gorgeous with the Blonde Ambition.
But the Red Rocks Penstemon bloomed and is setting seed. I have cut back all but a few stems so that it doesn’t waste too much energy on seed-making.
From the sidewalk, this whole bed is hidden right now with the Asclepias syriaca | Common Milkweed doing its thing at the front. But once the plants start to leap they will be a gorgeous middle layer in this sloping/tiered garden.
The view from the sidewalk. That middle layer will be gorgeous when it fills in!
And the sunflowers…
Did I plant them there? No. But I think of them as living bird feeders. Those blossoms are covered with bees now, and in a month or so the finches and other small birds will congregate here to pick the sunflowers clean. So they stay. No matter where they pop up!
Sunflowers are living bird feeders in October and November.
The Agastache Collection
Agastache with more sunflowers!
I mean: COME ON! They have been brilliant and beautiful all summer long! That collection — the Best in Show Agastache Collection — includes five different varieties, and they bloom one after the other, so there has been a perpetual parade of flowers all summer long.
That’s fabulous for me, because it has been non-stop pretty! But it’s also amazing for the hummingbirds, hawkmoths, and bees who love these tubular flowers.
Flower Kisser Silver Inferno is glorious!
Right now Flower Kisser Silver Inferno is starting to fade, but it has been a gorgeous color show for the last few weeks.
I’m noticing Agastaches in my neighbors’ gardens, too, which is exciting to see. That continuity in a neighborhood helps create a healthy ecosystem for wildlife.
Now, in the spring, I moved some other plants in with the Agastache collections: an Artemesia and some grasses which I had divided. The grasses are doing well and are going to stay.
That silvery foliage is Artemesia ‘Powis Castle’ which is a lovely foil for the Agastache collection.
The Gravel Garden has never looked this pretty before! I am so pleased! Not only is it beautiful, but it is clearly beloved by the pollinators, too. It’s a win for us all!
Both of these collections can be planted in the fall as well, so if you are looking for some color and excitement in your garden, you might consider one of these — or any of High Country Garden’s collections. They take the guesswork out of making a beautiful garden bed!
This post has some tips for choosing a garden collection in case you need more convincing:
