Tranquil TimesSpring 2007 Newsletter
Perovskia's Azure GlowPerovskia atriplicifolia is a woody subshrub and member of the mint family. It is native to the Himalayas from Afghanistan through western Pakistan. The common name, Azure Sage, refers to the color of the sky-blue flowers and the sage-like odor of the bruised leaves. The genus commemorates a Russian official named V. A. Perovski, hence the common name of Russian Sage. This plant was not familiar to me during my youthful garden days. I don’t recall seeing it even in the many celebrated perennial borders from Bar Harbor to Camden, Maine. The three foot lavender-blue spires first caught my eye when visiting the Denver Botanic Garden in August 1986. This denizen of dry, rocky, mountain slopes was equally content in this sun drenched mile high garden and it is here in the dry sandy borders at Tranquil Lake Nursery. Perovskia is hardy in USDA zone 5, but soil conditions greatly impact its hardiness. It demands a well drained site. Since it can not stand winter wet conditions, heavy clay soil will not do. It also thrives under open sky, full sun. Russian sage will tend to flop in lesser light conditions that would satisfy other sun lovers. The woody stems are covered in white felt, which accentuates the airy haze of blue flowers. Bloom season is from July through September, but don’t be quick with the pruning shears. The downy white stems are attractive past frost and through the winter. Cut back to 8 - 12 inches in early spring. Its sun-loving preference and summer blooming characteristic makes Russian sage an ideal companion to daylilies, ornamental grasses and much more. Combine Russian sage’s blue flowers with other members of the mint family (Labiatae.)Herbaceous catmint (Nepeta x faassenii) blooms in June with loose terminal racemes of lavender-blue flowers, and will rebloom all summer when cut back. Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) offers licorice-scented leaves and flowers. The three-foot plant is covered with dense blue spikes all summer. The chartreuse leaved cultivar ‘Golden Jubilee’ is an especially striking complement to the blue and violet flowered sages (Salvia nemorosa). Maroon and reddish foliage creates an attractive background for Russian sage and its relatives. Rosa glauca, Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’ and Weigela florida ‘Wine & Roses’ are shrubs that offer this dusky foil. Add to this red foliage the orange flower of Hemerocallis ‘Countess Carrots’ and the orange and maroon eyed Hemerocallis ‘Ben Kirk’. Russian sage’s lavender-blue flowers will intensify the hot colors in this bold combination. Echo the soft flower color of a mass of Perovskia spires with the powder- blue foliage of Panicum virgatum ‘Dallas Blues’. Complement these blues with the silver filagree foliage of Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ and the pale yellow, reblooming flowers of Hemerocallis ‘Happy Returns’. The chartreuse, pinnately compound foliage of Tiger Eyes sumac (Rhus typhina ‘Tiger Eyes’) tops off this drought-tolerant planting. Russian sage is indispensable in the drought tolerant, sunny border. Fulfill your open skies with the azure of Russian sage. Warren Leach Gardeners create painterly landscapes using the medium of plants. Poets and philosophers paint their pictures with words. Some evocative prose resonates like a meditative mantra. The Chinese philosopher Laotzu’s, the father of Taoism, writes with powerful with paradoxical logic. One of my favorite quotes is from the book The Tao of Architecture, (Princeton University Press by Amos ih Tiao Chang) is "The way to learn is to assimilate. The way to know is to forget." The opening sentence of Michael Pollan’s essay The Garden’s Prospects in America is as thought provoking; "What can you say about a country whose two most important contributions to the history of landscape consist of the front lawn and the wilderness park?" What a paradox! Your mind reels with the reminiscent sweet smells of salt air, bayberry and jack pine; the sounds of crashing surf at Schoodic; and the unpleasant cacophony of leaf blowers and lawn mowers that lay siege to all of the chemically dependant suburban greenswards. The ubiquitous ‘industrial lawn.’ Pollan continues "One safe conclusion would be that this is a culture whose thinking on the subject of nature is somewhat schizophrenic - that it is unsure whether it wants to dominate nature in the name of civilization or to worship it, untouched, as a means of escape from civilization." This insight into the American landscape culture is the ending discourse to a wonderful compilation of essays titled Keeping Eden - A History of Gardening in America. It was published by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1992 and is well worth reading. Horticultural schizophrenia may at first sound like heavy handed criticism, but look closer. Suburban sprawl has encroached or destroyed much of our landscape heritage. Valuable farmland and important natural habitats are cut up leaving only vestiges of a Jeffersonian agrarian landscape. Even the designed garden and landscape envisioned by Frederick Law Olmsted has been usurped by a post World War II petrochemical-industrial complex.Munition manufacturers converted their operations to the making of ammonium and nitrogen fertilizers, derived from petroleum and natural gas. We are bombarded with fertilizer advertisements by national brands promoting chemically greener and weed-free lawns. Pollan continues: "The lawn may well not survive a long period of environmental activism- and no other single development would do more for the American garden. For as soon as someone decides to rip out a lawn, he or she becomes, perforce, a gardener, someone who must ask the gardener’s questions: What is right for this place? What do I want here? How can I go about creating a pleasing outdoor space on this site? How can I use nature here without abusing it?" Amen! Many gardeners have a love/ hate relationship with their lawn. The lawn takes up space needed for more interesting, must have plants. Now turf grass may have its place, after all it is a good sunny groundcover that stands up to foot traffic. However, it require cutting, every week or so, during the growing season. If your daylilies or roses or Japanese maples or dwarf conifers demanded such weekly pruning would you plant them in the first place? More important is the adverse impact lawn management practices wreck on the environment with regard to water use, water quality and greenhouse gas emission. Even though grass is a plant that photosynthesizes and respires, an industrial lawn does not tie up carbon but actually creates a net gain sending additional CO2 into the atmosphere. Americans plant, weed, water, spray and mow 31-million acres of lawn according to Redesigning the American Lawn - A Search for Environmental Harmony (Yale University Press, Second Edition 2001). The authors proposes that possibly the greatest concern facing humanity at the beginning of the 21st century is the question: Is the society we have fashioned sustainable? Can it be depended upon to fulfill the material and ethical needs of future generations, or does it bear within it the seeds of its ultimate destruction? The focus is to find landscape design solutions that are in closer harmony with nature. Trade in your ‘Industrial Lawn’ for a ‘Freedom Lawn’, a harmonious mix of grasses and forbes free of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. You will be in good horticultural company. Botanical institutions such as Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, Massachusetts offers a low maintenance lawn and even the turf inside the elegant conservatories at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania sport white clover. Treat your lawn as you would any other design component of your landscape. Ask yourself, does lawn add to the space, or can that small strip of grass be replaced with a mixed border or stepping stones, crushed stone and tough groundcover alternatives? At home we have reduced our ‘front lawn’ to a sculptural ellipse framed with stone and surrounded with flowering perennials and shrubs. The greensward is a mix of fescue, ryegrass, ajuga, clover and moss. Early spring flowering bulbs such as crocus, scilla and Chionodoxa are naturalized. in the ‘meade’. In our shady back yard garden we are embracing moss! At Tranquil Lake Nursery, with our dry, sandy soils, we seed our lawn areas with drought tolerant grasses and white clover. This is the main matrix for our turf areas and we accept what else volunteers to grow in. In some areas we have ripped out the lawn and created low maintenance alternatives. The Container Garden near the parking area is paved with reddish crushed stone and planted with Sedum reflexum ‘Angelina’, Potentilla tridentata and of course Russian sage. The March 1999 issue of the Rhode Island Wild Plant Society newsletter features WHY MOW? Rethinking the American Lawn. It is a great resource. Gardening should be fun, work but not a chore. I have designed and planted many successful ‘lawnless’ landscapes, and recommend them. I promote Pollan’s recommendation that you should rip out a lawn. Pollan ends his essay optimistically. Rip out a lawn ...Eden is not sodded in bluegrass turf. Warren Leach Ground Covers & Lawn Alternatives
The Perennial Plant of the Year for 2007 is a catmint Nepeta x faassenii ‘Walker’s Low’. The name refers to Walker’s Low Nursery in England not the stature of the plant. Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’ grows to 2-3 feet in height and spreads outward with fine textured grey-green leaves and lavender-blue flowers. Blooms begin in June and repeat through the summer if cut back. It prefers well-drained soil. This is an indispensable addition to the full sun border.
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