GARDENING Jazz up the yard for summer entertaining By Sally Cunningham Gardening photos by Sally Cunningham. When company’s coming to visit, indoors or out, it can be cause for dismay if not outright panic. Who has time for a thorough cleanup, much less redecorating? And it doesn’t help that gardens have a tendency to get weedy and stop blooming just in time for those guests. What can you do in a hurry if you have only a day’s notice, or maybe just a quick hour or two, before folks walk through your garden gate? Here are some quickies as well as a few longer-term solutions for the mid-summer blahs. What other people see Nearly all gardeners have learned this lesson: nongardeners don’t see through the same eyes as we do, not even nearly. Your real gardening friends are in the same boat as you are and surely understand your busy life. Whatever you’ve done or not quite gotten to, they’ll notice the wonderful, individual plants. So you can relax and putter, pull the worst weeds, and make your own choices from the tips here about what’s worth doing. However, if the pending visitors aren’t gardeners, your task is slightly different. The trouble is that they’ve heard you’re a gardener and they have high expectations. They envision a sea of flowers, beauty, and charm. Our gardens may never achieve that level, but a few priorities might help you decide what to do first with limited time and investment. Get in the blooms I have noticed how NGFs (non-gardening friends or family) walk straight to any bit of color, bypassing the glorious foliage of the acanthopanax, aorbaria, arum italicum, or the expensive, textured hostas. “Pretty tulips … nice pink,” they say, or “Oh, I like those little daisies … but it’s too bad you don’t have more flowers … You should see Susan’s garden …” (In these cases, “Susan” is often a neighbor with nothing but a whole bunch of impatiens, but hey, people remember the flowers!) This is a time to remember priority #1: flowers trump foliage. Where to place the flowering plants is also key. You can really dress up a house quickly by hanging cascading flower baskets off the front porch, or on shepherd’s crooks near the door or walkway. The same containers are equally effective sunk into a dramatic vase or urn on the front step, porch, or next to the door. You may have designed your own already, but if you didn’t, you can buy a mature container of dramatic annuals—perhaps with a tall red grass, cannas, or a banana plant in the center. You’ll be taking home a lot of bang for your dollars. When you choose such a container, know that you are creating a strong focal point, so bigger is usually better. On the other hand, if it’s the garden beds that lack excitement, the same “container flowers” work equally well. You can plant them right in the ground—mandevilla, sweet potato vine, “wave” petunia, or dragonwing begonia—or maybe elevate a container in the spot that lacks interest. If your garden has really lost its pizzazz, don’t be shy about inserting these plants in a big way: Move other plants aside in several places to make room for your bold, flowering selection. Perhaps just dig out a three-foot swath along the path or front of the bed, in three places, and stick in the brightest performer you can find. Repetition is powerful. That’s likely what people will remember. Use hardscape or add art All eyes go to the water feature, pergola, arbor, hammock, fence, path, or iron gate. That is the architecture of your garden. Traditional garden art consists of statuary, planters, or bird baths—but garden art can be whatever you determine it to be. (Think twice, though. Remember the bottoms-up Dutch girl phase? Too cute is just … too cute.) The art and the hardscape define your style and highlight or frame your plants. (If you’re under-confident about garden décor, the Buffalo Garden Walk experience could be all you need for inspiration.) A garden that’s all plants is fine with plant people, but remember the rest of the folks and add some interest. You might not be able to build a wall or pergola overnight, but you can insert one attention-getting artifact. Neaten up Finally, one must tidy up a garden, or the disorder wrecks the impression of everything else you’ve done. Put away the tools, hoses, unplanted pots, and all the stuff that goes with gardening. Then look at the garden—big-picture time—and consider what still looks unkempt. The edges are often the most obvious. If you do nothing else, fix the edges of the garden beds or path, the line between lawn and mulched area—wherever there is (or should be) a long line. Viewers see that line, and if it’s neat, whatever is inside looks intentional and cared for. Then, to complement those edges, take a few moments to rake the mulch or soil around your plants, to give a consistent look. And it wouldn’t hurt to cut the grass if you have any. It is often the picture frame. Then relax Your garden is, after all, your joy and perhaps your passion. Don’t let anybody’s judgment spoil it for you. If visitors don’t see the shy corydilis fading away, or the future glory of your monkshoods, then the heck with them, I say. They’re just lucky you stopped gardening to sit with them for a while! And maybe they too will become gardeners someday, and then they’ll understand. Sally Cunningham is a garden writer, columnist, lecturer, and consultant, currently associated with Lockwood’s Greenhouses and WIVB-TV (Channel 4 News). Annuals for immediate and continuing impact Every one of these is long-performing and a real “Wow” once you get them going. Add them now and you won’t have to scramble later. Most are newer annuals on the market, or new cultivars of familiar ones, and they’re suitable for a hanging basket, urn, or in the ground. (These prefer sun or part sun, unless shown otherwise.) Argyranthemum ‘Sonnenschein’—A bright yellow daisy that never quits. Begonia—‘Bonfire’ and ‘Bellfire’—Both hot orange flowers with a feeling of fireworks, one upright and one trailing. (These are best out of the hottest afternoon sun.) Cleome, Senorita Rosalita—Who knew that little old spider flower would have a spectacular new role? Clerodendron—The best shade-loving basket plant you’ll ever own, that also overwinters as a fine houseplant; sometimes called bleeding heart vine. Coleus for sun or part sun—A Victorian favorite now brighter, bolder, larger, and infinitely versatile. Dragonwing begonia—Several cultivars that all bloom incessantly. Those who’ve owned the plant award it First Place for window boxes, or any container situation. Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost’—A hit at international flower shows, this little plant is modest in the pot, but watch how its bright white frothiness makes every color around it explode. (Try mixing it with bright red Mandevilla, for instance.) Fuchsia ‘Autumnale’—One of the best plants for shade, the foliage as striking as the flowers (hummingbird attractors, too). Impatients—Yes, the same genus you’ve used forever, but better than ever with full-sun loving ones as well as shade beauties. Do try ‘Fusion’ (Glow, Sunset, Heat), ‘Spellbound,’ or ‘Fanfare blush.’ Lantana ‘Samantha’ (or other cultivars)—Another plant that won’t impress you until it gets started, but soon you and the hummingbirds and butterflies will smile. Mandevilla—Don’t fail to try this as a vine or large trailing container plant; it blooms all summer. (Diplandenia looks very similar and is equally wonderful.) Scaevola—Right after the Dragonwing Begonia, this continually in-bloom plant gets the most awe-inspired responses from people who have grown them. —S.C. SUBSCRIBE NOW Back to the Table of Contents Back to Top