One of the keys to designing a lovely garden is to mass varieties of a single plant to create swaths of color. Whether you choose a grouping of Lavender plants for full sun, a collection of Astilbes for part-shade, or a variety of colorful Daylillies to line a sunny or partly sunny pathway, the massing of plants never fails to create a unified and beautiful sight while conveying the intentionality of design.
Perennials are natural building blocks for creating drifts of color because they return reliably year after year. Because we often plant multiples in our own gardens, we have, over time, developed a number of exclusive perennial collections that encourage gardeners to do the same in their gardens. These collections are superb for beginners, and they offer value and ease to experienced ones. Scroll below to see some of the effects that can be achieved when planting our perennial collections. The images might also inspire you to plant multiples of other ‘like’ plants, creating your own colorful drifts.
Lavenders are usually planted in large clumps of one variety, where their soft shade and cool, subtle foliage provide quiet dignity through the summer. In one of our trials, we discovered that a perfectly delightful effect can be had by combining several varieties whose disparate heights, colors, and forms flow together to produce a garden that is interesting and informal, but very definitely Lavender. Our Lavender Patch collection was born.
Whichever way you choose to plant Lavender, these aromatic subshrubs are popular in herb gardens as well as in the perennial border. The intensely perfumed blue-violet, mauve, pink, or white flowers are treasured for drying and making potpourri. The foliage of Lavender is a standout in the garden where its silvery or gray-green hues contrast nicely with its neighbors. Lavenders thrive in the arid West, but are best grown as annuals or container plants in the South, as they do not thrive in areas of high humidity (with the exception of Lavandula dentata and L. stoechas). We love to use them to line a driveway or sunny path or to create a low hedge around a pool enclosure or along a fence.
Graceful to look at yet rugged as can be, Astilbe plants are a superb building block for part-shade gardens. Planted in drifts, they send up clouds of color in summer, their fuzzy plumes also adding beauty and texture above feathery green foliage. Over time, their root systems form mats that help suppress weeds. Our Cornerstone Collection, previously known as “Old Ironsides” for its remarkable durability, is a collection of 12 plants—3 each of a white, 2 different pinks, and a red—at a price that encourages mass plantings. It’s a great way to start a color parade in your shade garden, one that will continue throughout your lifetime and beyond.
Few flowers can compare with the grace and beauty of the Siberian Iris. Their arching standards and undulating falls, carried on strong stems above grassy, blue-green leaves, flutter in the softest breeze like exotic seabirds playing the wind. What’s more, no plants are more rugged and reliable. Given full sun or partial shade and average to damp soil, Siberian Iris form large clumps that bloom heavily after the first year. Because no garden should be without these beauties and no garden can have too many, we offer 3 plants each of 4 different varieties—in purple, white, and two shades of blue. Cluster them together in the mixed border or beside a pond. Simply stunning.
Cover a hillside, line a path or create a swath of color in a mixed border. Our rainbow of carefree color includes pink, purple, orange, yellow, and white Daylilies, 50 different named varieties (although plants are not labeled individually), selected by us from award-winning, reblooming, and fragrant varieties. These vigorous, hardy perennials settle in quickly and prosper in average, well-drained soil with at least a half day of sun. The show runs from July into September with no effort on your part. Our collection is the easiest and most economical way to buy Daylilies in mixed colors.
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