By Sarah Robertson | Posted: Saturday, August 16, 2008 12:00 am
Sitting on our neighbor's front porch last night, watching the last bit of golden twilight guild the daylilies, hydrangea blossoms, rippling grasses and coneflowers that merge our two gardens, it felt as if summer might last forever.
Mild evening temperatures, delicious floral scents, billowing mounds of color and ripening edibles make mid-August a time of bittersweet perfection. I hate letting go, even knowing how much I adore the glitz and bling of autumn. Probably because it all leads to the finality of winter - a season I prefer to delay and often refuse to acknowledge until I'm slapped in the face by frost-damaged impatiens or a shriveled mound of purple fountain grass.
But with weeks and weeks of excellent gardening weather still ahead, it's the perfect time to consider adding a few plants that will infuse your late summer and autumn landscape with plenty of long-lasting color and structure.
The following choices are sturdy, relatively carefree and should give you years of pleasure. Best of all, you just may find some of these treasures on sale at your favorite nurseries, many of which are eager to share with customers the joy of later-in-the-season gardening.
Happy planting!
Perennials, shrubs and trees
* Forestiera neomexicana (New Mexico privet, wild olive): This native of the southwest grows into a charming small (10 to 12 feet) twisting, multi-stemmed shrub or tree. Bright green foliage contrasts beautifully with the dark, blue-black, berries produced by female specimens. Tolerates hard winds, drought, but needs excellent drainage here in the NW. Happy in full sun to partial shade in average soil. Leaves turn a lovely butter yellow in the fall.
* Sorgastrummedium nutans (Indiangrass): An extremely ornamental native grass with golden seed heads, rich reddish-gold autumn coloring and an upright growth habit. The lovely blue foliage is used as larval food by butterflies. Grows between 3 to 4 feet in height by 18 inches in width.
* Viburnum lentego (Nannyberry): This attractive, slow-growing multiple-stem or single-trunk tree (to 28 feet tall) has creamy white flowers in June followed by blue-black fruits beloved by the birds. The glossy green foliage turns a stunning burgundy-red in the fall. Nanny goats apparently feed on the ripe berries (reportedly more than billy goats!), hence the common name.
* Rosa hugonis (Father Hugo shrub rose): The perfect rose for a challenging site, Father Hugo sports a profusion of single, lightly fragrant lemon-yellow spring blossoms on upright arching canes. The hips that follow are small and dark red. An explosion of color comes again in the fall, when the foliage of this rose turns shades of bright crimson. Father Hugo is tolerant of most soil conditions from damp to drought. Excellent when used as a hedge, as it attracts many nesting birds.
n Agastache x 'Ava' and 'Desert Sunrise' (hummingbird mints): Two choice selections of this perennial herb. Somewhat reminiscent in shape to a salvia or penstemon, they'll produce weeks of intensely colorful, fragrant blossoms from midsummer into fall. Best grown in lean, well-drained soil that is watered infrequently. With our wet winters, agastache should be planted with the crown high and mulched with two inches of very coarse sand or small gravel. 'Ava' has spikes of deep rose-pink blooms, while 'Desert Sunrise' produces blossoms colored in shades of orange, pink and lavender. 'Desert Sunrise' also adapts a bit easier to regular garden conditions (those with better soil and more plentiful water). As their common name suggests, hummingbirds love the nectar from this species.
* Salvia reptens (West Texas Grass Sage): A delicate looking, but surprisingly sturdy grass with stiff yet finely-textured blue-green foliage followed in late summer by hundreds of cobalt-blue flowers that open all along the stems. Very attractive to butterflies, hummingbirds and yet resistant to deer and rabbits. Easy to grow in full sun or partial afternoon shade, this grass eventually reaches four feet in height by 18 inches in width.