When most people think of perennials, they think of flowers — big, showy, small, profuse, colorful and, often, constant.
Tina Wilson’s garden in rural Arlington definitely fits that bill.
Golden, orange, burgundy and even white daylilies are in bloom everywhere now. Bright-red bee balm, delicate pink astilbe and lavender-hued sea holly, sage and campanula all enliven the landscape.
Wilson let us in on a little secret, however.
“Perennials don’t all have to be flowers,” she said walking through her lush, cool shade garden on a hot summer day, pointing out the dramatic leaves of plants with eye-catching shapes and splashes of color.
Painter’s Palette persicaria is like Jackson Pollock on a plant. Geranium phaeum Samobor features splashes of maroon on green, fuzzy, maple-shaped leaves. And, finally, with such spectacularly large hostas — with leaves the size of your head — who needs flowers?
Wilson loves to create new and interesting plant combinations.
It’s especially true in the shade, where her foliage plants thrive in the summer, creating an oasis and a striking contrast to her sunny front garden.
Wilson is definitely one to know a few tricks.
Not only is she a master gardener and member of the Arlington Garden Club, but she also runs her own part-time garden design business, Garden Designs by Tina Wilson.
Her constantly evolving landscape is a wonderful resume, complete with quirks, too, such as black slugs she chucks over a nearby stream bank in her daily slug-tossing trips. There’s also the new family cat, 10-week-old Cosmo, and their beloved 11-year-old springer spaniel, Jenny, playing amid the colorful perennials, wispy grasses and rose bushes.
Though Wilson’s beautiful garden — nearly an acre — peaks all summer long, it’s also a labor maker with a large collection of daylilies that need frequent deadheading, newly planted perennials thirsty for water and, of course, weeding, weeding, weeding.
But she wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“When you’re a gardener, you just know,” she said. “You just love to do it. You can’t not do it. I love it.”
Reporter Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037 or sjackson@heraldnet.com.
Tina Wilson of Arlington offered these tips for growing summer perennials.
Deadheading: Removing spent flowers and flowering stalks from your plants will keep them tidy and encourage repeat blooming. Tall spent stalks can be cut back to the main plant or basal growth on some plants, while others with multi-flowering stems require removal of individual spent flowers to the nearest bud or leaf. When in doubt, refer to gardening reference books.
Buying: Summer is a great time of year to watch for good prices on perennials. Although it is definitely not the best time of year for digging and dividing existing perennials, you can still purchase and plant them. Avoid overgrown, leggy or small struggling plants, unless you find them for a great bargain.
Planting: Do not plant perennials on a hot summer afternoon. Find a cool or shady part of the day and dig a planting hole at least twice as wide as the pot and slightly deeper. Mix in a generous amount of compost to improve the soil. Lessen planting shock by watering the potted plant 30 minutes before planting. Fill your planting hole with water once or twice and allow the water soak into the surrounding soil.
Reroute roots: Most plants are easily removed from their pots by gently tapping the sides. “Others act as if they’ve been super glued to the pots,” Wilson said. “In this case, my favorite trick is to put the pot on its side on the ground, place my foot on the pot, apply a bit of pressure then roll or rock it back and forth.” In severe cases, use a box knife and cut the pot away. Once the plant is out of the pot, gently tease roots apart with your fingers or use a knife to score the sides. If roots form a thick mat at the bottom, slice it off to prevent the root system from growing in a circle and eventually strangling itself.
Staking: Plants that get tall and top heavy will need staking in summer. You’ll find an endless variety of staking systems at your local hardware or garden center. Many types, including spirals and bendable stakes, can be added after plants have grown tall.
Watering: Keep perennials well watered during summer months, especially those planted within the past year. It’s better to water deeply once or twice a week than lightly and more often. Use a trowel to dig down a few inches and check your water level. Check the moisture level of potted plants daily in summer.
Weeding: Weeds compete with your perennials for water and nutrients. Hand pulling is the best method for removing them, followed by 1 to 2 inches of fine bark or compost to keep new weeds at bay and to retain moisture.
Design: Be patient with perennials. Many of them take two to three seasons to really put on a show. “In the first year they sleep, in the second year they creep and in the third year they leap,” Wilson said.
Daylilies: They’re readily available in a rainbow of colors and a variety of sizes and shapes. Also known as hemerocallis, daylilies are the perfect beginner plant because they thrive with little care and are drought tolerant after the first year or two. If you plant a variety of daylilies, you’ll have blooms from spring until autumn. They provide the most blooms in full sun and after they have been in the ground about three years.
Veronica spicata: Gardens need vertical as well as horizontal interest and these spiked flowers, also known as spike speedwell, are beautiful accents in a summer border. Look for Royal Candles (bright purple blue), Purpleicious (red violet) and Red Fox (violet red). Taller varieties may need to be staked. Plant them in full to part sun. Varieties are as short as 8 inches or as tall as 3 feet.
Sea holly: Flowers on this spiky, thistle-like plant make quite a statement in the garden. Try eryngium Sapphire Blue for stems and flowers with an amazing metallic steely-blue hue. Once established, sea holly is drought and deer resistant. Plant it in full sun and keep it in one place. It resents being moved after the first year.
June hosta: This slug-resistant hosta emerges green in the spring and fades to chartreuse with blue-green margins by midsummer. “Beautiful,” Wilson said. “Blooms are pale lavender in summer.” It prefers shade to part shade and grows to 2 feet tall and wide.
Campanula: Blue Waterfall features purple star-shaped flowers that pool around a center of green foliage. They will also cascade over the sides of a container. The plant grows to about 10 inches tall and 2 feet wide. Try Dickson’s Gold campanula for neon-lime evergreen foliage that grows about 5 inches tall and 8 inches wide.
Garden Designs by Tina Wilson offers a variety of garden-design services including landscape consultations, design plans and a garden-buddy program. Call 360-435-8301 or send e-mail to cinnamoncreek@hotmail.com.
New book: “Perennials: A Gardener’s Reference” by Seattle-area authors Susan Carter, Carrie Becker and Bob Lily ($49.95) is Wilson’s favorite new book on perennials. “It’s definitely a keeper,” she said. “It gives lots of detailed information and is a whopping 542 pages long.”
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