One of the pleasures of a perennial garden is definitely the anticipation of seeing favorite blooms and vignettes re-appear year after year. The scene is the same, but always with a difference. Some plants thrive, getting fuller and more beautiful every year. Others are meant to dwindle away, to eventually be replaced by something new and just as lovely. The rather short blooming period of many perennials adds to the charm of a garden that is always in flux, always on the cusp of another transition.

This is the Garden’s CK Patrick perennial border, composed of herbaceous perennials and medium-sized shrubs. All combine to create harmonies of color and texture with foliage as well as flowers. This is one of my favorite moments in this garden, when the 7-foot foxtail lilies frame a cottage-pretty view of ‘Carefree Delight’ roses, pale yellow foxgloves, ‘Bee’s Ruby’ thrift and a dozen other pink, yellow and lavender beauties.

Tags: color harmony, herbaceous perennials

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 3:29 pm and is filed under Ann McCulloh, Summer Gardening, Summer Perennials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.