Adrienne - ONCE UPON A CONEFLOWER

Playing with Texture and Shape

One way to coax a bit more interest out of your garden is to consider texture and shape. Pay attention to how they look next to each other. Do they coordinate or contrast? There’s no right or wrong here, it’s all about what you like personally. Luckily, successful matchmaking in the garden is significantly easier than it is in romance!

Of course we all live for those happy accidents when serendipity surprises us with a plant combination we didn’t see coming. Wow, how’d that happen! But there are ways to increase the odds.

Here are a few tips for intentionally creating more winning combinations!

Fabulous Foliage

You’ve probably heard the old grammatical joke, “Eats Shoots and Leaves”. Without commas, the phrase might refer to a panda munching bamboo, or maybe a hungry caterpillar. But with commas, “Eats, Shoots, and Leaves” describes a cowboy wolfing his lunch and firing his six-shooter as he exits the saloon!

As any copyeditor will tell you, commas matter. But ask a gardener and it’s the shoots and leaves that matter!

Ferns, tropicals, shrubs, edibles: They all boast distinct foliage forms that are not only functional, but often very beautiful and valued in their own right. Foliage is simply the plant without its flower or reproductive parts. Foliage sustains, shelters, thrills and surprises us.

All About Asters

October Skies

April 24, 2023 – Author’s Note: This article has been corrected. It originally misstated a cultivar as Bluebird. I found the original tag still at the base of the plant this spring. It is actually Skyscraper.

Asters are a confusing lot. Many varieties look similar, so it’s easy to mix them up. Also called Michaelmas daisies because they bloom around St. Michaelmas Day (Sept. 29), asters comprise a huge and diverse family. Usually upstaged by their flashier mum companions, asters are frequently passed over. Or they end up as a last-minute addition to the shopping cart. They just don’t get much respect.

That’s a shame, because these beauties are in fact much tougher than they seem. Armed with facts and a bit of luck, they’re relatively easy to grow on in the garden. Let’s start by demystifying them.