Tropical Fusion

The custom of ‘bedding out’ ornamen-tal annuals and tender perennials to form a seasonal garden has a long history. Elaborate seventeenth century parterres were embellished with the bright orange and yellow hues of marigolds. The Victorians created embroidered carpets using colorful foliage plants to weave the patterns.

Bedding plants are defined as annuals and tender perennials that provide a floral display of a temporary character. Many ‘old fashioned’ and ‘Victorian’ annuals and tender perennials have been rediscovered for their use in bed-ding and containers. They are popular for the profusion of colorful blooms they produce during the hot summer months, often right through til frost. Many also have attractive foliage.

At Tranquil Lake Nursery, we have always enjoyed mixing annuals and tender perennials with our hardy plants in our garden displays and containers to create a fanciful fusion. Over the years we have assembled an ever-expanding collection of Abutilon, Alternathera, Coleus, Canna, Fuchsia, Heliotrope, Hibiscus, Nictotiana, fancy and scented leaved Pelargonium, Plectrantus, Salvia and more.

Each fall, it is a challenge to fit these tender plants into our small greenhouse for the winter. One of our most popular workshops at the Fall Festival has been to share cuttings and propagation tips on many of these tender garden gems. Our new greenhouse offers a luxury of new growing and propagating space. Don’t worry if all of your fall cutting didn’t make it through the winter, we’ll have many new plants for you to purchase this spring.

The ‘Symphony’ series of Osteospermum offer orange and yellow daisies with blue eyes. They are very heat tolerant and continue to bloom through the summer. This native of South Africa was so popular last year that customers wanted to buy plants right out of our display gardens! We planted Osteospermum ‘Orange Symphony’ with Blue Oat Grass, Helictotricon, Salvia nemerosa ‘Blue Queen’, Salvia patens (gentian sage) Hemerocallis ‘Countess Carrots’ and the purple sweet potato vine, Ipomea batatas ‘Blackie’.

The most fragrant, violet-blue heliotropes, Heliotropus arborescens, are grown from cuttings, not seeds. Their sweet scent is a great addition to containers as well as directly planted along a path’s edge. Heliotrope is one of the edging plants in the ‘Purple Garden’. Other ‘tropicals; Nierembergia, Salvia ‘Indigo Spires’, Salvia splendens ‘Violet Queen’ and Strobilanthes ‘Persian Shield’ mingle with Geranium ‘Ann Folkhard’, Salvia verticillata ‘Purple Rain’, Carex buchannanii, Iris sibirica ‘Pirate Prince’ and Hemerocallis ‘Blue Nile’.

The purple leaves of Alternathera dentata ‘Rubiginosa’, Perilla fruticosa, Ipomea ‘Blackie’ and Setcreasea pallida ‘Purple Heart’ vie with dusky foliaged purple smoke bush, Cotinus, ninebark, Physocarpus ‘Diablo’, Berberis ‘Crimson Pygmy and a profusion of purple Heucheras. Punctuate this dark palette with blazing orange daylilies; ‘Bandit Man’, ‘King Melon’, Rocket City, violet spikes of Russian sage, Perovskia, and the silver foliage of Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ and Plectranthus argentea.

Whether you yearn for a ‘retro-Victorian’ style garden of exotic excess or offer a modernist nod to Roberto Burle Marx; tender perennials and annuals offer a palette of fun in the garden. Go canna-banana!

Warren Leach

Drought-Tolerant Gardens

For the past three years the average amount of rainfall in New England has been much lower than usual for our area. As a result the ground water and reservoirs have not been able to fully recharge. As gardeners we are always aware of the stress this produces for our trees, shrubs and even perennials, while always observing the need for water bands. It is important that we practice and share knowledge of best cultural practices such as organic soil amendments and water conserving mulches.

This is also the time to focus on plants that survive and even flourish under these dry and low maintenance conditions. Tranquil Lake Nursery has sandy soil, and we have several garden areas where little or no supplemental water is provided during the hot summer months. Over the past several years, we have noticed that some plants survived the extreme drought conditions offer suggestions for planting the backbone structure of our urban gardens.

Some of these stalwarts are common, some native, some overlooked and others surprises. There are many different characteristics that enable plants to endure prolonged drought conditions. The natural seaside habitat and grassland prairie show us many plants with these survival traits. Plants like Baptisia australis and Dictamnus albus have fleshy root systems that reach down deep into the soils. Other plants have foliage characteristics such as leaf adaptations from thick and succulent (sedums), to narrow and needle shaped (Yucca glauca), to silver or gray, light and heat reflecting, leaves (artemisias).

Amsonia tabernaemontana (Blue Star) is a spring-blooming perennial with blue flowers. Amsonia displays extraordinary tolerance for drought, even when planted in full sun and in sandy-loam soil. The fine-textured, glossy-green foliage remained unsinged through August and September and turned a beautiful clear yellow in October. Its Arkansas cousin, Amsonia hubrectii (ciliata), is much desired for its fine-textured, narrow, quill-like leaves. Amsonia hubrectii's yellow fall color is also a highlight in the late-season garden. Try planting a drought-tolerant autumn border ablaze with the foliage of Rhus typhina 'Laciniata', Amsonia hubrectii and the late yellow blooms of the willow-leaf sunflower, Helianthus salicifolius.

 Perennials for our mixed borders may come from habitats in Europe, Asia or be found as near as our local roadsides. Euphorbia amygdaloides 'Purpurea' (Wood Spurge) is one of these imports. The chartreuse flowers are a contrast to the maroon, whorled foliage of this Euphorbia. Tolerant of sun or partial shade, Euphorbia amygdaloides 'Purpurea' has striking foliage that is persistent and attractive even through winter.

Liatris spicata (Kansas Gayfeather) and Eryngium yuccifolium (Rattle- snake-master) are two of many native species to thrive in the American grasslands. Liatris have adapted thick, almost bulbous, crowns that set down deep roots. Eryngium blooms with greenish thistle-like heads. It also produces a deep tap root and thick drought resistant foliage.

Native to the seaside are the golden hues of Solidago sempervirens (Seaside Goldenrod), lavender-colored Limonium latifolium (Sea Lavender), silver-leaved Artemisia stelleriana 'Silver Brocade' (Beach Wormwood), and orange blooms of Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly Weed). Native to the other side of the Atlantic are Crambe maritima (Sea Kale) and Eryngium planum (Sea Holly). Both plants form drought-tolerant rosettes of foliage and deep tap roots. Combine these showy seaside and prairie perennials with blue Platycodon grandiflorus and yellow Hemerocallis 'Mini Stella' for a long-blooming, drought-defying border.

The Leguminosae, Liliaceae and Berberidaceae botanical families contain many genera of plants suited to water-restricted gardening. The Legume family offers Baptisia, Lupine and the Silk Tree, Albizia julibrissin 'Ernest Wilson', that will thrive in dry soils.

Albizia's attractive combination of delicately pinnate-compound foliage and pink puffs of flowers provides a sense of tropical lushness that stands up to the heat and drought of August.blooming border combination of Perovskia atriplicifolia, Hemerocallis 'Little Wine Cup', Solidago 'Golden Fleece', Panicum virgatum 'Heavy Metal' and the maroon foliage of Sedum 'Vera Jameson'.

The Liliaceae family offers many genera with drought-tolerant bulbous or fleshy roots. Yucca glauca, the Soapwort, has leaves that are narrower than those of Yucca filamentosa, giving it a distinctive spiky and fine-textured gray-green appearance. Combine Yucca glauca with Allium senescens ssp. montanum, Origanum vulgare 'Aureum' and Artemisia 'Powis Castle' in front of Berberis thunbergii 'Crimson Pygmy' for a regal color combination of silver, purple and gold.

Daylilies are also members of the Lily family. They are the backbone of the drought-tolerant perennial border, as well as star summer performers. Their deeply growing tuberous and fibrous roots systems (not bulbs) are effective as erosion control ground-covers. Plant a combination of daylily cultivars (May to September blooming) for a low-maintenance, long season display.

Plant your own drought tolerant border with this selection of durable perennials. Warren Leach

When you visit Tranquil Lake Nursery this spring be sure to check out our new addition. In March, a thirty foot by forty-eight foot Connelly rigid-sided greenhouse was constructed near the perennial sales area, on a site that was formerly used as a vegetable garden.

The new greenhouse is state-of-the-art and fully vented on the sides and roof. It is gas heated and the roof gutters have been connected to two water cisterns which hold one thousand gallons. The cisterns will collect and conserve rain water, which can be used to water our gardens.

The new greenhouse gives us an extended season in the late fall and winter and early spring. It will help us to more efficiently do many of the things we did before and will also offer a space for new activities. Each year we start a lot of young perennials from division, the heated space will move these young plants along more quickly. In addition, we will take cutting of the many tender perennials that we grow in our gardens, so that we can share these

Our new greenhouse is a direct result of participation in the Massachusetts Department of Food and Agriculture’s Farm Viability Program. Over the past several years the MDFA has worked with the nursery to help us develop a business plan, and determine in what areas we should focus our efforts in order to make our farm most viable. At the conclusion of the program, the nursery committed to stay in agriculture production for at least ten more years in exchange for the grant which funded the greenhouse.

Tranquil Lake Nursery

45 River Street

Rehoboth, MA 02769-1395

(508)  252-4002    fax (508) 252-4740

www.tranquil-lake.com