Liven up a boring border
By: Garden Gate staff
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Liven up a boring border
Denise Ziegler’s colorful Oklahoma border has lots of curb appeal all season. The show starts in spring, when pansies (Viola spp. and hybrids) and tulips (Tulipa hybrids) take center stage.
As the temperatures warm, shade-tolerant perennials, such as hostas (Hosta hybrids), coral bells (Heuchera hybrids) and bugleweed (Ajuga reptans), fill in and annuals, such as coleus (Solenostemon hybrids), go in the gaps where tulips were earlier. Heat-tolerant hosta cultivars are a must in this climate. ‘Bam Bam Blue’, ‘Sagae’ and ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ have done well.
Click ahead to learn more about this beautiful foundation planting.
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Perfect timing
Spring-blooming bulbs, such as tulips, are a perfect choice for lots of early color but typically need full sun to look their best. However, in yards with slow-to-leaf-out deciduous trees, such as the sycamores (Platanus occidentalis) here, you can still grow them. Because this tree is usually slower than a maple (Acer spp. and hybrids), for example, to develop a canopy full of foliage, there’s more sunlight to grow strong stems and beautiful flowers. Tulips are cold-hardy here but Denise usually pulls them out when the blooms are done since the additional watering of the perennials and summer annuals causes the bulbs to rot. That way she can try new cultivars the following spring.
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Keeping track
With all the different plants, some of which change annually, it can be a challenge to keep track of what’s been planted and when in this border. The notebook in the photo below holds all of Denise’s plant tags, labels and invoices from mail-order nurseries with dates and notes about what she liked or didn’t like. That way it’s easy to avoid any plants she didn’t like and order the ones she did again.
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Stylish stone
A path made of stone steppers fits in well with the style of the home and provides firmer footing from the driveway to the entry. Following along with it is this unusual tiny ‘Kingsville Dwarf’ boxwood (Buxus microphylla), below. Slow growing, it only grows 24 in. tall and 30 in. wide and is cold-hardy in USDA zones 6 to 8. It takes pruning as well as any other of this species.
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