The 4 C’s for Flowery Borders
As a professional communications consultant, Heather is adept at organizing and articulating ideas. After experimenting and observing different ways to combine plants, she developed the 4 C’s: cultivars, containers, companion plantings and carryover plants. These four considerations ensure that something is blooming from the very earliest bulbs in spring through the last garden mums of autumn.
CULTIVARS
Heather says, “When I first planted tulips, I only had flowers for about 10 days. So I began a quest to figure out how I could get more blooms.” Now she grows about 30 varieties of early, midseason and late-blooming cultivars to keep the show going for 4 or 5 weeks. And the globe allium season starts with ‘Purple Sensation’ and ‘Mount Everest’, whose green seedheads you can see above. Next, purple ‘Gladiator’ and ‘Globemaster’ bloom, and finally ‘Ambassador’ ends the allium season after many weeks of color. She also grows several cultivars of salvia and catmint to create continuity in her borders. When you know that a plant thrives in your growing conditions, go all in!
CONTAINERS
If you need instant color in a border, slip in a container of showy annuals! For example, the pot full of calibrachoas above is the center of attention until the butterfly bush behind it fills out. Moving big containers like this is made easier when you leave the pot empty and simply drop in preplanted nursery liners. You see an early summer combo here, but by fall, the vessel will likely be in another nearby spot in this border and filled with mums. Placing a large overturned nursery pot inside the larger decorative one props up the changeable drop-ins.
COMPANION PLANTINGS
It’s easy to get excited about everything that’s blooming at the garden center in May and pick up a bunch of favorites. But for every plant you choose that blooms in spring, leave space next to it for one that blooms in summer and another in fall.
The bearded irises and peonies below carry this border through spring. Then in summer, daylilies and garden phlox at left take over. In fall, turtlehead and bluebeard close out the colorful garden year.
CARRYOVER PLANTS
Heather turns to a few long-blooming plants, such as the perennial silene at left, to carry the color through the slow times. Heather says, “‘Rolly’s Favorite’ silene takes me from the tulips all the way through spring to peonies and even roses.” She keeps her beloved pansies blooming even into midsummer with deadheading and fertilizing, and by shading them with floating row cover on hot, sunny days above 90 degrees F. This lightweight fabric happens to be one of her favorite garden tools, helping her protect hydrangea blooms from late frosts and cool-loving plants from heat.