"One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it brings."

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Blooming "bones".

One thing I've learned from gardening is that getting the "bones" of the garden planted first is important. The bones of the garden are usually trees and shrubs, but can be things such as arbors or trellises, that add structure and height and often provide a backdrop for the flowers and foliage to shine against. I remember reading this advice many years ago, but because I'm rather impulsive I had a very hard time following it. I wanted instant gratification so I kept planting flowers. As time went by I started realizing something was missing, it just never looked right. It was the "bones" that were missing, they did matter and I needed to try to go back and fix that. Trying to go back and add them is not very easy, and so whenever I talk to someone that is just starting out with their yard I try to stress how important it is. I've done a pretty good job now, especially in my front yard, to add mostly shrubs that will eventually reach enough height to provide some year round interest and most importantly to let the perennials planted in front of them a background to show off in front of.
Since I'm really a flower lover most of the bones of my garden also put on their own show of flowers, many of them Spring bloomers, which works out perfectly since the taller perennials won't be blooming for quite some time. Now I have flowers that are blooming up higher as well as the Spring blooms that seem to mostly be shorter plants.
Here are a few of the blooming "bones" of the garden now:

Mexican Orange (Choysia ternata) is an evergreen shrub that handles our cold winters pretty well. The fresh white flowers do have a bit of a citrusy scent. Some people find the smell of the leaves not very good, but I've never been bothered by it.

This little Deutzia 'Pink Minor' has been shown a couple of times lately, but I just had to show the flowers up close. They almost look like they are made of wax. Once the flowers fade it will fade into the background, but now it's loaded with flowers in an area that not much else is blooming yet.

Weigela 'Minuet' will stay on the small side. Hummingbirds love the flowers. Once it finishes blooming the Peony and roses nearby will take over.

Weigela 'Shining Sensation' was planted mostly for the wine colored foliage, but I do love the red flowers too. I'm hoping this will fill up a space in front of our back fence and plan to add perennials in front of it.

Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) 'Ludwig Spaeth' is part of the summer background for the butterfly garden once it finishes blooming.

Deutzia 'Chardonnay Pearls' is another one that was chosen not only for it's flowers, but for the foliage color.

Most of these shrubs haven't reached their full size yet, but eventually many of them should help add more structure in the garden, as well as making the garden easier to care for since none require any pruning. What are some of your favorite "blooming bones" in your garden?
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35 comments:

  1. Those are very beautiful bones, Catherine! I have the same problem. Foundation plants can be so boring when compared to perennials. I use viburnums, arboricola, loropetalum, and thryallis for the bones of my garden, and how wonderful it is when they bloom in all their glory!

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  2. Yes indeed, your 'bones' are delightful.
    I too am impulsive, especially when it comes to gardening, and have noticed the lack of 'bones' in my garden, which I am attempting to rectify.

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  3. Wow..some good colorful bones here..wonderful!!! Fabulous! I love them all..that lilac photo looked amazing!!
    Kiki~

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  4. Great post Catherine! You have such lovely & colourful bones. I had the opposite problem when I started getting more into gardening, I wasn't very interested in flowers, but was all about the trees & shrubs, so I planted them as a backdrop and then found that it was missing something. Lovely weigela, I planted 3 last year and hope to have some of their bright trumpet shaped blooms this year. :)

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  5. Great post Catherine. I love the bones in your gardens. I will always be learning to garden and this is one of the things I have been dwelling on lately. I am struggling but will come up with something soon.

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  6. Beautiful flowers! I could live inside that lilac:)

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  7. How lovely! Well, I haven't any in mine as everything's container grown and using plants as bones would prevent me from moving them about for cleaning up the mess.

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  8. Those are pretty bones! I got the bones advice early on and did good in some place but am still catching up in some areas.

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  9. Very nice shrubs! It took me a while to appreciate garden "bones" also as all I wanted were flowers.
    One of my favorites is our viburnum. I love those blooms.

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  10. Beautiful bones Catherine. I really love the Deutzia 'Chardonnay Pearls', and that lilac, is just gorgeous!

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  11. Your blooming bones look great! I am opposite of you-I want the structure and think of the flowers as supporting players. But my structure is going to bloom. My deutizias are just like yours. I am loving them this year. You know what, I just looked at your sidebar and realized you are a Zone 8. Wowser! Big difference from my Zone 6B. Duh me. Still we grow similar plants. Have a great day Catherine. I'm wordy as always. Sorry.

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  12. Gosh Catherine, why are you tempting me with all of those beautiful shrubs? I have no more room! But that doesn't mean I can't sugggest them for my daughter or daughter-in-law and then I can look at them.

    Eileen

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  13. The 'bones'of your garden are certainly beautiful. What fabulous color.

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  14. Once again you're teaching me. Ya got 'good bones' and they look wonderful. You do it so well and they really tie everything in together. I've done it all wrong too although last summer I was putting in taller things but probably not tall enough. Should have put my 'bad hair day' (Japanese Willow) right in the flower bed - it would have looked great. O'well it looks great where it is now. Maybe that Redbud if I get one. Your Weigelas are blooming and I didn't even have buds yet last time I looked. It's funny how most of the time you're blooming before me, once in a while we bloom together and once in a very very great while I bloom first. That is soooooo strange!!!!!

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  15. Very nice choice of shrubs, Catherine! Mexican orange is beautiful, as well as others.

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  16. Oooh, they are all beautiful, Catherine, but Chardonnay Pearls is fabulous. I remember it from last year and have seen it for sale a couple of places but never picked it up. Maybe next time... Our boniest bone is the evergreen boxwood hedge around the knot garden. So boring yet with so much impact, it was an afterthought when the knot garden was first created. Now I can't imagine that space without the green enclosure.
    Frances

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  17. Blooming bones - flowering shrubs - are my favourite plants. Big enough to make a good show. An abundance of flowers, so you can pick some without leaving a gaping hole. And for me, some smallish trees with interesting foliage.

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  18. Hi Catherine, Lovely bones!!

    The lilac is just dazzling. My Choysia took a major hit in December. Darn thing is blooming its head off so I don't have the heart to get rid of its lingering death. Eyesore monstrosity...

    Do you have the variegated Weigela?
    W. florida variegata? I'm thinking you'd enjoy it for not only its lovely, fragrant flowers but for the ensuing variegated foliage.

    Are you dodging downpours like I am? An elderly friend once commented that it's not spring in Oregon without hailstorms. Washington too, I imagine.

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  19. I started out with a lot of shrubs in the front gardens thinking about structure in the beginning.

    They didn't work out for me due to the harsh conditions and I couldn't irrigate them enough during the 2007 drought.

    So, I've done the opposite...I've pulled the shrubs and planted drought-tolerant flowers!

    I've pushed the shrubs to the sides to separate the gardens. By grouping them together, they protect each other from the heat and sun, I suppose.

    My poor little Deutzia pearls is hidden beneath a crepe myrtle as it just couldn't flourish here. Buddleia and crepe myrtles work best here.

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  20. Hi Catherine! :)
    See, to me the exact opposite has happened. I mean, I work in my garden now from 14 years and the first plants I have put your shrubs and trees important that even now they belong.
    Polygala mirtyfolia, piracantha coccinea, Syringa vulgaris, Callistemon, Viburnum opulus, among shrubs, Schinus molle, lemons, apricot, cherry and loquat, the trees, which offer year-round flowers and fruit.
    Only later I devoted my attention to the herbaceous borders and I think this year has come now to full glory.
    Your garden is always delightful and I always admire with awe the speed of your plants in the growth and maturation that are already well ahead with blooms!
    ALL beautiful!
    P.S.Excuse for my bad english.....

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  21. The only blooming bones I have are azaleas, knock-out roses and osmanthus. I also have some evergreens that I like.

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  22. Glad I am not the only one with the problem of try to put the bones of the garden in after. But I agree they are the fist step.

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  23. Beautiful bones Catherine! Blooming shrubs are wonderful, especially when they have great foliage. Nice choices.

    The bones of our garden were here long before me - lots of mature shrubs and trees here. The serviceberry is my favorite of the ones here before I came. Still, I've added a bunch of shrubs, and a native river birch. Many of the existing shrubs are natives, and about half the shrubs I've added are natives too: dogwoods, winterberries, oakleaf hydrangeas, viburnums, elderberries, and a beautyberry. The garden is big, and most of them are small, and it seems like they hardly make a dent. I'm glad there's lots of mature stuff already here.

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  24. You describe an important element of a garden so well, the bone. I more or less divide the whole plot (which is little) into two, full sunlight and shady. Banana and papaya is elemental in that concept, and they are bones as you describe.

    ~bangchik

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  25. My favourite 'bone' (should I feel funny about saying that? :P) is my trellis of goldflame honeysuckle. That was the best decision I've made in my garden so far. It's near my back porch, so we can enjoy the hummingbird action, and it adds an awesome vertical element to my garden. They are only slightly scented, but it's so beautiful that I don't really care lol.

    Your photos were so beautiful! I've told you this before I think, but my favourite thing is the 'Ludwig' lilac. If I could grow a lilac here, I'd choose that one.

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  26. I've never heard that before but I like you have planted lots of flowers and realized something is missing.
    I just ordered a Serviceberry to add something to the yard.
    My yard needs a Deutzia, they are such a lovely flower, I've been wanting a beautybush, they were growing all over the place in MI and I miss seeing them.

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  27. Thank you everyone for visiting and commenting.
    I loved reading about the different "bones" of your gardens. They gave me lots of great ideas. Once I realized how much the bones could add to the garden I wish I had room for more.

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  28. Catherine - you chose some amazing shrubs. I love all the flowers. The fragrance must be yummy. I wish I had more room for bones. If I could do it again I would put in more evergreen slender shrubs.

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  29. What a great lesson, Catherine. It is so easy to just focus on the flowering perennials and ignore the background shrubs that provide size and texture to the garden. Your garden is just lovely and has "great bones".

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  30. aloha catherine,

    those are beautiful blooming bones (the three b's)...i'm very fond of foundation plants that bloom and have a beautiful scent like your mock orange and those wonderful lilacs....i do miss not having my lilacs at my tropical home :(

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  31. Great title for your post, Catherine;-) Definitely an attention-grabber! I like all of these shrubs--and I don't have any of them! I have some boxwood for 'bones' in one area, some junipers and some azaleas for another, some rhododendrens, and pieris for another side of the house.

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  32. That's definitely a big lesson to learn. I wanted to do what you initially did too ~ buy the flowers! But the bones are most certainly the biggest part. These are all great. I only plant shrubs now for the birds. If it doesn't produce a berry, it doesn't go in my yard.
    I have to tease you about your "cold winters" tho Catherine! lol I was so jealous of your snow-free zone this year, it's hard to believe it gets cold there.

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  33. We have so many trees and bushes that just grow all around us, that I never even think about planting more of this type of bones. Most of my bones are structures. It is actually one of my favorite things to do, design new structures, new stone walls or new walkways. Things that will still look good in the winter when all else is asleep.

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  34. I am the same ... I have had to go back and find the foundation shrubs and add them in for some green in the winter. I tend to focus on the flowers. Just yesterday, I picked up some small boxwoods to add. Your bones are very, very pretty!

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  35. what great bones you have there Catherine. I think its a mistake we all have made. Its hard to not think about flowers when you are designing a new bed - I've made plenty of mistakes over the years in that regard. In my garden some of the bones are the acers, weeping pear tree, laburnum and euynomous alatus.

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