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

[patandchickens]

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 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']

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 .

Ya wanna know how to plant things in straight rows and expose lots of bare dirt for the Winter? Nah, I didn't thinks so . . . How 'bout what a cutting garden looks like at this time of year? 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]

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).