Happy Monday GPODers!
Summer is on our tails and the weather is really heating up, so color is erupting from every corner and crevice of our landscapes. One gardener who is a champion of color, and texture, in her designs is Jennifer Koch Pfeiffer in Scarsdale, New York (Zone 7a). As a professional garden designer, she crafts luscious beds that exude creativity and style with combinations that are cohesive but diverse enough to still be exciting. Check out some colorful and texturally wonderful combinations in this garden’s long beds and tall containers.
The garden is in Scarsdale, NY and is full of salvias, allium, ornamental grasses, verbena, heuchera, lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina, Zones 4–8), chrysanthemum, scabiosa, and nepeta. This is one of my favorite recipes for a large and deep garden. I enjoy how the textures and colors complement one another. I’ve been professionally gardening for 13 years and love designing with loads of perennials with added color and/or texture with help from annuals. I’ve learned to plant for the conditions that you have and you’ll have less plant failures. I love adding alliums of different heights and sizes and my favorite new plant is a dahlia and mixing them in to showcase their bright colors.
Sun/part sun garden full of ‘Sheffield Pink’ chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum ‘Sheffield Pink’, Zones 5–9), lamb’s ear, iris, ‘May Night’ salvia (Salvia x sylvestris ‘May Night’, Zones 4–9), autumn moor grass (Sesleria autumnalis, Zones 5–8), verbena hybrid, and dahlia. I love the different textures and cool tones. The little bit of brightness adds to the depth.
A deep perennial planting bed with ‘May Night’ and ‘Caradonna’ salvia (Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’, Zones 4–8), autumn moor grass, allium, and digitalis giving a cool tone feel to the garden.
A smaller walkway garden balancing plants on both sides for a sun/part sun. A basic pallet of salvias, and nepeta.
Small, simple, tall planter recipe: ‘Whirling Butterflies’ gaura (Gaura lindheimeri ‘Whirling Butterflies’, Zones 5–9), clematis, and ‘Blue Cloud’ calamint (Calamintha nepeta ‘Blue Cloud’, Zones 5–9) thriving in full sun.
Full shade tall planter recipe includes a male fern (Dryopteris filix-mas, Zones 4–8), a mix of begonias, ‘Pink Fizz’ heucherella (Heucherella ‘Pink Fizz’, Zones 4–9) and bacopa. I enjoy the softness of the greens and subtle colors to balance it out.
Thank you so much for sharing your lush design with us, Jennifer! Your palette of plants is enchanting and exciting, and I hope we see more of your combinations in the future.
What qualities do you prioritize in your garden? Do you maximize on color, strive for tantalizing texture, collect cool shapes and forms, play a careful balancing act with all these elements, or plant with your heart and hope the rest follows? Let us know in the comments, or consider sharing your design strategies with some photos of your garden at its peak. Follow the directions below to submit your photos to Garden Photo of the Day!
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