No time for the detailed dramatic perennial border gardening that I discuss each week?

There are options. One was described to me yesterday, at a very non-Southern garden.

Chanticleer Garden in Pennsylvania bellows and whispers of the joy of gardening in a certain place. It is not a garden to replicate but to emulate. In preparation for this tour, our group of five stopped at Target to buy rubber boots, coats and umbrellas.

It was FREEZING and pouring up there yesterday.

Creating a Dramatic Perennial Border

One of the most dramatic scenes was a giant border, hundreds of feet long, dark green background and thousands of red hot pokers in flower.

The lesson: drama in mass and in sequence. Director Bill Thomas explains.

This border must be dramatic from a distance and beautiful up close, and always be in flower – spring to fall. Simple right? Of course not but the elegant solution is:

In spring, masses of daffodils
For June, masses of Kniphofia (red hot poker)
In July, masses of Pervoskia (Russian sage)
For August, masses of Asters

In the south, we could grow all of these well except the Pervoskia. It dogs in zone 8. I’d substitute Phlox or Stokesia. We have to deal with a few extra months too. So for fall, I’d add some Cassia corymbosa to the back.

Cut it all down and mulch it for the winter. Oh, yeah pull a lot of weeds and snip and no there is no 1,2,3 easy/done. But the picture is pretty!