picky <g> long rambling 'perennial garden in winter' Q

patandchickens

Deeply Rooted
Joined
Nov 23, 2007
Messages
2,537
Reaction score
3
Points
153
Location
Ontario, Canada
So, stuck in the house w/ a bad back (which I'm pleased to say is getting a little better finally) I have spent an inordinate amount of time staring out the front window :p at the flowerbed there. I am not a 'level it all before winter' person - I leave all but the ugliest former foliage up to catch insulating snow and because I like seeing the structure it forms. Well, this year I stuck prunings from the now defunct Christmas tree upright all along the lawn edge of the beds, to try and discourage husband and 3 year old from trompling the planted area when they're playing in the snow. It looks sort of like a very low scraggly hedge along that side of the bed...

...and you know, I like that! I am not into highly formal flowerbeds, but this really is an improvement.

So I am thinking of how I could produce a similar more-permanent effect come springtime. Can't be anything evergreen - while this location is fairly reliably drifted over, we fairly regularly get snowless windy cold snaps down to like -20 C (minus single digits F). And remember I am USDA zone 3 or 4 where woody plants are concerned (have several zone 5-7 perennials doing well in that bed, but that's different).

So, any suggestions for a *perennial* that could be planted as a long low hedge-like edging? I need:

- hardy to at least zone 5
- mostly sunny
- rather dry (I seldom water that bed)
- moderately well-draining soil, ave. to poor fertility
- foliage rather dense, 6-10" high
- flowers white, pale yellow, pale pink, or bluish (NOT purple)
- if flowers are taller than foliage, then must be rather sparse
- winterkilled foliage must look minimally decent
(e.g.: looking like Anthemis would be fine; Potentilla, not)

Hm..... having just typed that last bit, maybe a white shrubby potentilla *would* be ok if kept seriously sheared... tho it would take some years to grow up enough from cuttings to use... I dunno. I still need other suggestions. I love sage and Anthemis but they're too tall; thrift has no winter 'presence'; winter savory would croak; pretty sure that lavender or santolina would mostly croak too. Sigh.

Suggestions?


Pat
 

digitS'

Garden Master
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
26,599
Reaction score
31,994
Points
457
Location
border, ID/WA(!)
Gosh, I can't be the only gardener here who is "landscaping impaired." I'll bump this back to the top, Pat. There must be more landscape savvy people here :frow .

Ya wanna know how to plant things in straight rows and expose lots of bare dirt for the Winter? :idunno Nah, I didn't thinks so . . . How 'bout what a cutting garden looks like at this time of year? :idunno Yeah, it doesn't matter that there's a little life below the soil line . . .

Tell ya what, blue globe thistle (we like to call 'em Echinops in the flower trade), coming back from a mid-Summer cut-back, look like the "Wreck of the Hesperis" this time of the year. Fortunately, they can't really be seen at the moment, what with all the snow.

Steve
 

Reinbeau

Deeply Rooted
Joined
Nov 23, 2007
Messages
1,233
Reaction score
1
Points
134
Location
Hanson, MA Zone 6a
Well, I'd do peonies, but there's no winter interest there. I do like them, though, specifically because they do go away completely and I can get rid of the leaves (in the spring, I leave them on the garden over the winter in the hopes they'll prevent frost heaving).
 
Top