SOME people build gardens to develop outdoor living space, some build to create beauty for the eye and soul, and others build gardens to grow plants they love.
I build gardens for all those reasons and more, but primarily because I love plants in all their varied and wondrous forms. I am often asked how to choose plants that will grow best in the garden. The primary way to select plants should be based on three factors. First, choose the right plant for the right place according to the specific sun, shade, soil and climate found in the garden.
Second, choose plants that are generally pest and disease resistant, and that don't require onerous maintenance like fertilizer, pesticides or pruning. Third, choose plants that inspire your eyes, nose, mind or soul.
I sometimes hesitate in recommending plants for anyone without first seeing their garden and its specific growing requirements.
However, there are some plants that in my experience are "must-haves" because they inspire the eyes, nose, mind and soul. I do not grow or recommend plants that are fussy prima-donnas because life is too busy to bother with the newest, gene-spliced, tissue-propagated wonder-horse of a no-good piece of garbage that costs 50 bucks and dies a slow death while I watch. So with those factors in mind, here are some trustworthy recommendations for plants suitable to our region that anyone can grow, providing the soil is prepared properly, the plant is situated properly, mulch is applied after planting and no chemical fertilizer is applied, ever.
Every garden should have at least one rose, whether it's a climbing rose, a landscape rose or a shrub rose.
Gertrude Jekyll is a lovely clear pink rose created by David Austin that has a strong old-rose fragrance. It grows 1.5 metres wide and almost two metres tall and needs mostly full sun to bloom well. According to Brad Jalbert of Select Roses, this rose has, "A richness of flower, fragrance and colour that is simply beautiful at all stages."
For those of you who prefer a tough rose that blooms its head off all summer long, you can't go wrong with a Meilland rose. Meillands are bred in France for worldwide landscape use and they are tough, reasonably drought tolerant, relatively disease resistant and they come in red, pink, white and yellow flower colours.
For a good shrub that is suitable to our warm-then-cold-then-warm winters, everyone should have a winter viburnum (Viburnum bodnantense "Dawn") in the garden. This viburnum starts blooming in December and continues until March.
As the weather becomes frosty the pink flowers stop opening, as the weather warms up the flowers re-open, releasing a deliciously sweet fragrance. This plant must be placed well to allow its vase-shaped form to exhibit at maturity, and it needs some room to develop to its three-to four-metre tall and wide size. And it does not appreciate being hacked by hedge-shearing cavemen.
Every West Coast garden should have at least one rhododendron planted somewhere. Not only are rhododendrons perfectly suited to our climate, they are tough, relatively pest and disease free, and are absolutely gorgeous in flower and leaf. There are so many species to choose from that it's hard to recommend just one.
Personally, I prefer the indumented rhodos for their downy new growth and the brightly coloured hairy fuzz (Indumentum) on the bottom of the leaf. A word of advice on growing rhodos: they love a good layer of bark mulch or wood chips covering their fine roots that proliferate at the surface. Rhodos do not like having grass growing around their roots, and the use of landscape fabric over their root zone is detrimental and forbidden. And do not acidify the soil to grow them, ever.
Large growing rhodos should be allowed to grow to their majestic size and not beheaded by a hacker into some pitiful beast of burden. Large-growing rhodos in the wild grow to be tree-sized, so choose and place them accordingly to allow these biggins to reach their stately, vase-shaped size, and cut off their lower branches to afford underplanting space. If big rhodos are not suitable for your garden, there are many small-to medium-sized rhodos for use in the residential garden.
As for perennials, the selection is so wide and varied, how could I choose just one? But I suppose if I had to choose just one summer blooming perennial it would have to be a hardy geranium also known as cranesbill.
There are pink, blue-white forms available in small or large-growing sizes, and most have fragrant foliage. All are relatively easy to grow and dazzling additions to the summer garden.
One final word on plant selection: If possible, buy British Columbia to help our growers flourish.
Todd Major is a journeyman horticulturist, garden designer, writer, consultant and organic advocate. For advice contact him at [email protected].
CONSIDER including at least one rhododendron in your garden. It is a tough plant, suitable to the West Coast climate.
