garden design ideas

Winter’s the perfect time to plan your spring garden. So get out your crayons (or online layout program like the one at bhg.com) and play - with new additions, renovations and plant combinations.

And what garden couldn’t use another big-bloomed, shade-tolerating, sturdy hydrangea? Especially the new dark rosy-red, white-centered lacecap, Strawberries and Cream from Tesselaar? Even though it’s sold as a long-lasting indoor gift plant or centerpiece, it’s equally at home on your patio or in your landscape.

Hardy to Zone 7, this mounded, 3- to 4-foot-high bush thrives in full morning sun with afternoon filtered light up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. And its tolerance for both sun and shade give it plenty of potential companions on its dance card. The hard part is choosing just one - or two - or five…

And to get the creative juices flowing, here are a few favorite companion plantings for hydrangeas mentioned by gardeners on iVillage’s GardenWeb forum (with links to images and information from plant developer Monrovia).

·         Try pink shrub roses, daylilies and pink dianthus. For all-season color, use evergreens like inkberry, holly, and cherry Laurel.  

·         A winning combination? Hydrangeas, azaleas and pink potentilla.

·         For shade, plant with hosta, heuchera and astilbe.  And for all-season beauty, deer-resistant pieris japonica and winter daphne (in a high, dry spot).

What’s your favorite companion plant (or plants) with hydrangeas? Let us know, or post a pic of them from last season’s garden!

Those mailorder gardening catalogs should be flooding in any day now.

And while we all enjoy looking at the latest coneflower, coreopsis and calibrachoa, it’s hard picturing these dramatic flowers and fantastic foliage nestled in among the other plants in our garden or landscape.

So here’s the third of four posts on easy garden design ideas and companion plantings for 2010 introductions by easy-care gardening experts Tesselaar Plants.

Today, let’s take a look at Fairy Magnolia® Blush. And as always, these suggestions can also be applied to any plant with a similar habit, color or form.

First, a quick run-down on this exotic, fragrant plant, since michelias are well…kind of new to a lot of us (also check out this great article and cultural information on michelias, by Fredrik Liljeblad at the Garden Web Forums at http://forums.gardenweb.com). 

The first of the michelia hybrids by New Zealand breeder Mark Jury to be released in the U.S., Fairy Magnolia Blush "could shape up to be the next big thing among savvy gardeners and landscapers,” raved the Taranaki Daily News (in Taranaki, New Zealand, where Fairy Magnolia Blush was bred and first introduced). “Gardeners looking for an alternative to the tried-and-true camellias or the elegant but sometimes too-big magnolias should swoop on this michelia.”

An upright, compact, bushy shrub, Fairy Magnolia Blush has lilac-pink, fragrant flowers  accompanied by evergreen foliage resembling that of a camellia, but without the gloss. It grows 10’ to 14’ high by 8 to 10’ feet wide and is hardy in Zones 7b through 10. It blooms in late winter to early spring when sited in full sun to partial shade. 

When trying to incorporate michelias into your landscape, consider using them as a hedge (as seen in image above, from breeder Mark Jury’s Sept. 9, 2009 “Magnolia Diary” post on his blog “Tikorangi – The Jury Garden,” at http:/jury.co/nz/).  It also makes a beautiful espalier, topiary or specimen.

When it comes to companion plantings, renowned plant grower and developer Monrovia suggests pairing Fairy Magnolia Blush with its other Asian/Zen or tropical beauties like Bougainvillea ‘Cherry Blossom’,  Blood Banana, Hong Kong Orchid Tree and Hibiscus ‘Erin Rachel.’ With the help of a few big containers, this is the chance for cold-climate gardeners like me to create my own patio oasis.