Read more of the discussion with Margaret Roach and Katherine Tracey
Q. I haven?t tried it, but it may find its way into my ?needing to be restored? bed. What?s the next plant?
A. Let?s talk about a few more sun plants, and then we can talk about some shade plants. A plant that was new to me about five or six years ago is ?Blue Star? Kalimeris: Kalimeris incisa ?Blue Star.? It?s in the Aster family, but it begins blooming in June, and continues throughout the summer without deadheading. It?s a nice shade of lavender-blue.
The flowers are not each perfect, and sometimes that might throw people a little bit, because they seem to fade a little unevenly. You can do a little clipping if you want to, to freshen it up. It is a pretty well-behaved plant and grows about 18 inches tall. We?ve had it in the garden for five years and it hasn?t sulked at all?it comes back strong. It?s a candidate for the time-tested plants list, in my book.
Q. Does it help kind of knit together designs?is it an in-between plant, not groundcover or tall?
A. At 18 inches you could use it in the front of the border, or the middle. Definitely one of them is not going to make as big a statement. If you use three or five or six in a group, it will have more impact.
Q. Do you find that pollinators seem interested, if it?s an Aster relative?
A. It?s a magnet for butterflies and bees.
Q. I keep wanting to jump in and tell you my plant list, but I?m going to suppress my thoughts for a moment?because we could go crazy, you and me. [Laughter.]
A. If you?ve grown something I mentioned and want to give it the thumb?s up?or say it didn?t do so well?
Q. No, so far I am 0 for 2 on these, which is amazing.
A. Another one that is more for fall, but looks good all summer long, is a dwarf, Vernonia lettermanii. It forms a clump with fine linear foliage resembles threadleaf Amsonia, except a little but more compact. And this foliage looks good all summer. In September, it has clusters of purple flowers, and this too is attractive to bees and butterflies.
Q. When you said Vernonia, the only ones I have grow the species is not lettermanii, but noveboracensis?the New York ironweed?and they?re like an aster in flower, but super-tall, way up high, like taller than I am.? This one?s quite different.
A. It is. The foliage on this one is more civilized. The tall Vernonia really is more of a candidate for the wild garden. It?s big, it?s blowsy; it forms these huge clumps. It is a great plant, but the dwarf ironweed I just mentioned is much easier to integrate in a mixed border. It can go with shrubs as well as other perennials.
Q. It?s so important as we think about wanting to support more pollinators in our gardens to have things blooming for as long a season as possible. In the Northeast, where we garden, that could mean as early as March or early April, and as late as November. The more things we add to the end of the season the better.
And now I?m 0 for 3, Kathy.
A. Wow. [Laughter.] Well, we talked about one the other day that I think you said you?d had, but that maybe it?s not in your garden any more or perhaps isn?t what it used to be. I still have two forms of it in my garden, and it?s Lespedeza thunbergii, the Japanese bush clover.
Although technically it falls into the shrub category, we treat it as a perennial up here in the North, because most of the wood gets cut back to maybe 6 or 8 inches in spring, and without any problem at all it flushes out and gets quite tall by the end of the season.
By August, it?s 5 or 6 feet tall, cascading with pea-like blossoms. There is a lavender-pinkish form called ?Gibraltar,? which is probably the most common, and then there is also a white form called ?Avalanche.? They attract butterflies and bees, and also the hummingbirds frequent it all the time.
See more at A Way to Garden
So beautiful!!!