These are my favourites this week…

Traditional Perennials: Roses, roses and more roses…because, in my opinion, you can never have too many roses…

Roses come in many colors and growth habits; climbers, shrubs, bushes and even trees.  They look awesome climbing a wall or fence, at the front of a perennial border, or towards the back of a large bed.  Although I have them under the traditional perennial category, the modern versions are much hardier and require less maintenance to keep them looking beautiful year after year.  With the exception of the yellow shrub rose pictured that only blooms for about one week, the other roses, especially the shrubs, in my garden bloom from June right through to a hard frost.  A few years ago the white one was still blooming in November!

Modern Perennials:  Goats Beard or Aruncus or Wild Spirea…

I have only seen Goat’s Beard with white blooms, it is new to my knowledge base.  Please let me know if it comes in other colors too, it is absolutely striking!  In addition to the towering version shown here, it apparently comes in a dwarf variety as well.

Shrubs:  Weigela

The weigela in my garden is in tree form (right), although the bush form is much more common.  The tree form fits into the back of a border, especially in front of a fence, or veranda in this case.  One of my clients once talked me into cutting his weigela bush right back to about one foot tall because a backhoe was scheduled to work on his pool area and he thought the bush would get ruined.    I did cut it back, but was worried as the bush must have been six feet in diameter and five feet in height: spectacular.   I wish I had taken a picture of it to show you before and after the pruning.  It did survive the drastic hair cut, but is not quite as large yet two years later.

Vines:  Clematis

Clematis vines come in many colours too, from white to yellow to pink or blue and many shades of purple; all are beautiful ways to cover a wall or fence.  Some blooms are flat, singles and others have raised centers (doubles)  I have two that climb through a tree.  Unlike other vines, they will not damage a tree as their stems are very light, almost fragile.

Annuals:  Pansies

Pansies look like tiny, cheerful faces to me; I love them in containers of any kind.  They too come in many colors, although I do tend to go for the purple ones.

Stay tuned for next week’s picks…