Staging a continuous and satisfactory display of bloom in the perennial border poses the same kind of problem to the gardener as the presentation of a “hit” show does to a Broadway producer.
The producer’s problem is to open the show with a magnificent display of color and song and then arrange things so that each succeeding number or net is more colorful and more entertaining than the preceding one.
There must be no bogging down once the show starts, or the whole performance is likely to be contemptuously called a “flop.”
The perennial border, if it’s to be a “hit,” must also present a continuous flow of color and beauty, with no let downs after one subject has finished and with no “spottiness” in any of its sections.
In this respect, the easiest period for the gardener is the one that extends from the earliest spring until the end of June, and this is the period we’ll consider here.
A More Spectacular and Cheerful Opening
Nothing can provide an opening act than chimps of well-chosen daffodils spotted throughout the border. Among the showiest, I would recommend Dick Wellband, Roxane, Robin Hood, Janice Paige, Agra, Scarlet Elegance, Daisy Schaeffer, and Carlton.
These are mostly medium-priced now and are chosen for their eye-catching appeal as well as their size. The daffodils will flower before other plants are very far advanced, so clumps of four to six bulbs can be placed anywhere on the border from front to rear.
The greenery of the fine things to come provides an excellent backdrop for the daffodils and can be supplemented with early blooming perennials such as Polemonium caeruleum Blue Pearl, hardy white candy-tuft, and Alyssum saxatile citrinum.
Before the act changes completely, the entire scene can be stolen by Single Early and Triumph tulips as well as some very early blooming Cottage varieties such as Advance.
I like clumps of General De Wet and even a few Keizerskroon, which are extremely colorful, plus the delightful Triumph variety Kansas for white. There are some lovely pink and white bicolors. Make beautiful islands of color, such as Glory of Noordwyk (April Glory) and Elizabeth Evers; for a red, nothing is finer than Red Giant.
The variety Advance should be grouped toward the back of the border, for while it is early blooming it is also tall and stately, fully 30” inches high, pale poppy scarlet at first, and when fully open a rich glowing scarlet. Demeter, a very early flowering purple of the same habits as Advance, is also recommended.
Along with these, Doronicum clusii puts on a bold and lovely show, growing as tall as the tulips and resembling a bushel basket full of golden daisies.
Adding up all the items mentioned up to now, you have a well-filled stage with almost all performers going full blast and just a few getting ready for the wings. The little pockets up front should be full of colorful primulas, grape hyacinths, pansies, and violas, or any combination of these little performers is most attractive.
If part of the border is under a tree or shrub and is uninterested until later things bloom, by a few of the brilliant Red Emperor tulips and also Princeps, its faithful understudy that makes its entrance later and never fails to please. These two provide an accent of bright color that is traffic-stopping.
A Fitting Finale
The first act can be provided by a wide selection of long-lasting tulips in pleasing colors. Here are some nominations for the best of the late-flowering tulips in each color class: Mrs. John Scheepers, golden yellow; Niphetos, pale yellow; Eclipse, dark red; Blue Perfection, blue; Unsurpassable, lavender; Mrs. Grallentans, white; Nardi, rich rosy carmine; Charles Needham, brilliant red; Queen of the North, pink and white bicolor. These varieties are all stars in their own right and young stars at that.
The second act of the “revue” carries a heavy responsibility to properly supersede the magnificent opening. I select as a star of the second net that superb and always pleasing performer, the bearded iris, of which there are hundreds of gorgeous long-lasting varieties.
Supporting the star we have columbines, sweet-william, Canterbury bells, foxgloves, lupines, and Oriental poppies, with peonies as a backdrop in the rear of the border. Lilium umbellatum Erectus in clumps provides brilliant color to compete with the poppies and is the first showy lily to bloom in the garden.
Now About Iris in the Border – Does it Belong?
I most certainly believe that it does, for in the proper staging of a continuously flowering border there is nothing else to take over where the tulips left off without developing a serious letdown. Of course, I don’t mean the ancient and feeble varieties of iris one finds growing in profusion and cluttering up the landscape everywhere.
They are the has-beens and should be gracefully retired. But some of those introduced in the past decade – such as Great Lakes, Elmohr, Tiffany, Violet, Symphony, Gudrun, Sally Ann, Spindrift, Mulberry Rose, Nightfall, Minnie Colquilt, Caroline Burr, Sharkskin, Winter Carnival, Easter Morn, Golden Fleece, Prairie Sunset, and I could go on to name another hundred—are all worthy of a place in the border.
I confine my selection of colors in sweet-william to Newport Pink, Pure White, and Holborn Glory, a red with white eye. The columbines I like best are the gorgeous long-spurred Longissima types.
At the Canterbury bells are beautiful, as are the foxgloves, but you should try the new salmony Lutzi in the latter. I like the new Curtis varieties of Oriental Donnies, and my favorite peonies are still Festiva Maxima, Souvenir de Louis Bigot, Felix Crousse, and Philippe Rivoire.
Some of the new Siberian iris are splendid performers on the border and are desirable because of their versatility. The varieties Tycoon, Caesar’s Brother, and Gatineau are all lovely.
Two Methods of Staging the Second Act For Bearded Iris
One by toning down the bold bearded iris with their strong foliage and allowing the more delicate performers to provide interest, and the other by utilizing bearded iris clumps about 3 feet apart and just using the other plants as tillers.
Each method has its advantages and drawbacks. If you like to stage a new play every other year, use the latter method; but if you want to sit back and enjoy a long-continued run, use the iris sparingly and space the clumps about 8 feet apart.
Some gardeners will protest that many ray star performers are biennials and bloom only one year. That is true, but they are all so easily raised from seed that the matter of expense is trivial.
Remember that June is only the middle of the second act, and what about all the empty spots to be filled for bloom later in the season? These characters have all been placed and are biding their time to steal the spotlight.
We wind up the June part of the second act with a lovely show of delphiniums, Madonna lilies, tradescantia, and coreopsis Golden Wave.
No matter how comprehensive this galaxy of stars seems to be, or how impossible it may seem to make room for them all, it can be accomplished by proper management. A good show needs a competent crew of “prop” Men and stagehands. The border needs competent policing, and only then will the show be a success.
All dead and dying foliage must be removed pronto, seed heads cut off and each plant pruned and trimmed to make room for its expanding neighbor. While this goes on, a weather eye must. be maintained for all open spaces that can accommodate showy annuals and stunner flowering bulbs.
Daffodil and tulip foliage can be removed as soon as it turns brown, but it is not necessary to wait until the foliage is completely dead. Compensation for leaf loss can be provided by a top dressing of general fertilizer in the early fall.
A Big Iris Show Needs a Big Stage
A 6-foot-wide border cannot be expected to support the display and maintain the interest that a 10-foot-wide border will. Let’s compromise and make the border at least 8 feet wide.
The border should be started in the fall so that everything gets off to an even start. I would suggest that the iris divisions be planted first, early in September if possible so that their bloom the following year will be assured.
Prepare the bed well. Dig down at least 18” inches (24” is better) and turn the bottom half over in the bed; fork in the manure of any kind, or plenty of rotted compost and a lot of bone meal or superphosphate – at least 5 pounds to the 100 square feet.
If the topsoil is good, merely add rotted compost and some more bonemeal or superphosphate. Remember that you are putting a lot of permanent plants in, some of them temperamental and that they will be happy only if they get good rations.
Plant the daffodil clumps as early in September as possible, also the Oriental poppies, and mark the location well.If your sweet William, Canterbury bell, and foxglove seedlings are well enough established, they go in next. If not, they can wait until the tulips are planted in October.
Established perennials, too, can be divided and reset early in October.
Mulching the Border the First Year is Important
For many of the plants will not have established sufficient roots to anchor them safely against frost heaving. Salt hay is my favorite mulch. If you can’t get it, rye straw or clean oak leaves will do.
Don’t apply the mulch until the ground is well frozen, but preferably before the first heavy snowfall. Remove the mulch as soon as the daffodils poke through the ground 2” to 3” inches. All the rest will then be safe.
Remember the many late summer stars you will need on the border. Plant them close to the early bulbs so that when the latter lose their foliage the biter plants will have breathing space.
A final word about the showy border. Any bulbous or herbaceous plant whose nature is not too shrubby, or which does not want to steal the whole show, is suitable for staging. Avoid coreopsis, gaillardia, perennial baby’s breath, hemerocallis, ajuga, Phlox subulata, and the like. Even these, however, can be used if they are properly kept in bounds.
Early in the spring, give the whole border a top dressing of good commercial fertilizer. Don’t rake or scratch it in. Just let it stay where it falls, and if weeding is required, do it by hand. Avoid any tool that may disturb surface-feeding roots.
A little practice and experience with the proper plants will make you an expert production manager in providing a steady cavalcade of color in your garden.
44659 by David Platt