Annuals. For dramatic performance and quick results, design combos with one-season wonders By Dean Engelmann

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1 Coloring with Annuals Brought to you by: For dramatic performance and quick results, design combos with one-season wonders By Dean Engelmann Annuals supply shocking color, quickly grow to maturity, and provide the wow factor we all want from our gardens. But historically, gardens have been segregated by plant group: vegetables in the sunny spots, perennials around the foundation of the house, trees and shrubs in the lawn, and annuals in an area adjacent to the front entrance of the home sadly underused. The growing trend of container gardening, though, has emphasized annuals and their ability to provide great oneseason performance while also offering gardeners the flexibility to change them from season to season. Annuals, no longer just container and entryway plants, are now appreciated for their ability to mingle with other plants and boost beauty in every area of the landscape. Finding annuals that can provide big results is easy. Here in Minnesota, I use true annuals in my landscape, along with 64 Fine Gardening

2 Establish a common thread to link one-season container combos to the garden. In this scene, purple spills from container to garden, uniting the individual combos into one attractive and functional garden space. February

3 Compare and contrast To create a successful garden scene, like and unlike elements should define the space. Contrasting plants and colors add interest, while similar details provide unity and prevent the appearance of chaos. Contrasting light and dark makes a bold statement. The vibrant yellow of variegated flowering maple keeps the dark colors of Intrigue canna lily and Tangletown s Dark Secret coleus from blending together. other plants that I treat as annuals even though they may be perennials in other zones. I mix these plants into the landscape and get bold, almost instant impact in my garden. The secret for achieving these quick, dramatic results is in learning how to combine the right plants and apply the correct techniques to get the most from these one-season wonders. Plant Linking Makes Designing Easy I start combining my annual combos using a basic technique that I call plant linking. It s a simple method for creating combinations anywhere. All gardeners have heard of the thriller, filler, and spiller container concept. This is a good rule, but it really doesn t help you put plants together. Plant linking does. Go to the garden center where you can actually see and touch the plants, as opposed to looking at a thumbnail A continuous border of yellow would be overkill, but this subtle repetition of yellow links one garden space to the next, while still allowing for a series of dramatic combos in between. image on your computer. Select a plant that you are really drawn to. Walk around the garden center with it until you find another plant that not only shares a characteristic with your plant choice but also provides a contrast. An effective combination can be achieved in a simple twoplant scene (left photo, facing page). One of my favorite combos is a burgundy grass paired with a coleus that contains that same color as well as a contrasting chartreuse to break things up a bit. Linking can involve as many steps as you like, but I ve found that if you go beyond six plants, then your garden starts to look disorganized. A good example of plant linking with a limited number of plant varieties is this five-member combo (right photo, facing page). I started with a favor ite coleus of mine: Big Blonde. It s a robust, vigorous coleus that can add a punch to any combination. (Give it lots of Photos, except where noted: Brandi Spade; p. 68 (all), courtesy of Dean Engelmann 66 Fine Gardening

4 1 1. Variegated purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum* Fireworks, USDA Hardiness Zones 9 11) 2. ColorBlaze Dipt in Wine coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides ColorBlaze Dipt in Wine, Zone 11) 1. Big Blonde coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides Big Blonde, Zone 11) 2. Luscious Lemonade lantana (Lantana camara* Robpwcrm, Zones 9 11) 3. Frosted geranium (Pelargonium citrosum Frosted, Zones 10 11) 4. Golden dwarf sweet flag (Acorus gramineus Ogon, Zones 6 9) 2 5. Superbells Yellow calibrachoa (Calibrachoa USCAL53002, annual) room, though, as it really lives up to its name). I linked this coleus to golden dwarf sweet flag because of the shade of yellow they both share. From there, I added Frosted geranium to the combo because it shares a common shade of cream with the sweet flag. I rounded out the combo with Luscious Lemonade lantana and Superbells Yellow calibrachoa to add a floral component and because of their connection to both the coleus and the sweet flag. I now have a group of five plants that are all related to each other in some way yet still add enough contrast to provide a fabulous show. 1 annuals provide coverage and add beauty In my garden, annuals serve two primary functions: realestate management and beauty. I often use groups of annuals to manage the space between woody plants and perennials as they mature. The annuals provide great seasonal color in an area that would otherwise be bare mulch until the neighboring plants filled in. I plant fewer annuals as the available area shrinks and the permanent plants reach maturity Annuals provide great seasonal color in areas that would otherwise be bare until the neighboring plants filled in. *See invasive alert on page 16.

5 When it comes to plant linking, seeing is believing This sample plant combo shows how simple plant linking can be. You could even remove one of the elements and the group would still work. Royal Queen Purple iochroma (Iochroma cyaneum Purple Queen, Zones 9 11) Bold purple blooms provide a starting point for plant linking. Big Blonde coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides Big Blonde, Zone 11) Subtle purple veining links this plant to the iochroma, while yellow foliage establishes contrast. Cabaret Purple calibrachoa (Calibrachoa Cabaret Purple, annual) Too many purple blooms? Not when you add the subtle contrast of yellow throats. Golden creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia* Aurea, Zones 4 8) There s room for more foliage. Golden leaves keep up the pattern. Golden Moon torenia (Torenia Golden Moon, annual) Need more blooms? Yellow petals and purple throats provide repetition and contrast. For my front-entry garden (photo, facing page), I planted weeping white spruce and false cypress far enough apart so that they have plenty of room to mature into beautiful specimens. Small groups of coleus and canna lilies fill in the remaining void. Achieving beauty is a bit trickier. Too many colors and varieties can create a confusing scene rather than one of beauty. Even though my garden has evolved to include countless varieties across the plant spectrum, I use simple ideas to determine what plants to include. I rely heavily on foliage plants. Whether a plant is an annual or a perennial, its flowers come and go but its foliage is long lasting. This is evident in the coleus, canna lily, and flowering tobacco combo in my front-entry garden. When the flowering tobacco finishes a bloom cycle, the foliage takes over and carries the weight. Flowers are the frosting, while foliage is the cake. Another useful design scheme I use to create beauty is contrasting plant schemes. A basic dark-versus-light plant combination can be used with any two strongly contrasting colors to produce bold results. I start off one of my streetside combos (photo, p. 66) with a dynamic plant: Intrigue canna lily (Canna Intrigue, Zones 8 11). Intrigue provides a contrast with the light-toned variegated flowering maple (Abutilon cv., Zones 8 11), while Tangletown s Dark Secret coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides Tangletown s Dark Secret, Zone 11) repeats the previous dark burgundy. When planting large areas of annuals, it is important to also use repetition of color throughout the garden to tie different spaces together. Repetition gives continuity and flow to a garden, and even though you may have a lot going on, it gives the garden a true sense of design. A strong foliage color works best to accomplish this. The yellow foliage found in the dark-versuslight combo, for example, is duplicated in a nearby combo, connecting one unique design back to another. With all that annuals can accomplish, they will forever be a part of my ever-changing garden, providing an opportunity for a new and unique look each season. Dean Engelmann is co-owner and operator of Tangletown Gardens in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 1. Pendula weeping white spruce (Picea glauca Pendula, Zones 2 6) 2. Red Ruffles coleus (Soleno stemon scutellarioides Red Ruffles, Zone 11) 3. Australia canna lily (Canna Australia, Zones 8 11) 4. Golden Mop false cypress (Chamaecyp aris pisifera Golden Mop, Zones 4 8) 5. Royal Queen Purple iochroma (Iochroma cyaneum Purple Queen, Zones 9 11) 6. Flowering tobacco (Nicotiana langsdorffii, annual) 7. Summer Wave Blue torenia (Torenia SUNrenilabu, annual) 68 Fine Gardening

6 To identify additional plants featured in this article, go to FineGardening.com/extras

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