Nestled close to a path, a plant that otherwise might become lost in the big garden picture gains attention.
Here, in one gardener’s opinion, are a few plants that deserve a path side position.
While they are not hard to obtain, they are frequently omitted from American gardens.
Certainly, without them, no plant collection can be considered complete.
Excellent Plants For Pathside Planting
Heath And Heather
Calluna and erica, these hardy, low evergreen shrubs are conversation pieces, particularly when covered with pink flowers in late summer or winter and spring, as the case may be in California.
All are not completely hardy above New York and definitely need winter protection the first season after planting.
Give them a well-drained sunny location in soil loosened with quantities of acid peat.
They are well worth the effort it may take to get them established.
Daphne Cneorum
Daphne Cneorum is often called a garland flower by many.
This low 8- to 12-inch evergreen shrub is covered with fragrant rose-pink flowers in spring and autumn.
It likes sun and well-drained sandy soil. It will stand at 10° degrees Fahrenheit below zero if given winter protection.
Caryopteris
Caryopteris is known almost as well by its scientific name as by the name Bluebeard or hardy blue-spirea.
This rounded shrub growing up to 24” inches has distinctive silver-green foliage.
In August, when blue is at a premium in the garden, it is covered with clusters of blue flowers.
Almost any soil will do. It likes sun or partial shade.
In the extreme North, the top growth may kill in winter, but this is no reason for leaving it out of your plant collection.
Miniature Roses
Miniature Roses are tiny plants growing only 4” to 6” inches tall.
They require some coddling but are easy to give when planted beside a path.
There are wide varieties from which to choose. Some include:
- Rosa Rouktti, often called the Swiss rose, has dainty pink flowers.
- BABY MASQUERADE, a variety with beautiful pink buds and flowers that gradually turn deep red as they open.
Miniature roses need the same care as hybrid teas.
Artemisia Silver Mound
Only 4” inches high but 12” inches in diameter, Artemisia Silver Mound is distinguished for its silvery gray fernlike foliage.
It is completely hardy and thrives in a warm, sunny, and dry location.
Singly or in a group, it provides color and form contrast sorely needed in many plantings.
Lavender Hidcote Blue
Lavender Hidcote Blue can fend for itself massed in a border but set a plant beside a path where it can be inspected and enjoyed at close range.
The foliage on rather upright 15-inch stems is a silver-green from early spring to late fall, and from July until frost, there are tall spikes of blue flowers.
Just average garden soil will do. Give it sun or partial shade.
Hosta
Our grandmothers overdid it so by bordering paths with variegated varieties that hostas were practically banished from modern gardens.
Today, they have made a comeback because we have learned to use them with restraint.
A few plants grouped beside a shady path have a tropical appearance hard to beat. Some varieties have large blue-gray leaves.
The flowers held high above the foliage are always attractive, most appearing in midsummer. They all grow in practically any garden soil.
Iris Cristata
This little iris, Iris Cristata, grows up to 3” inches tall and forms a solid carpet that, in spring, is covered with rich blue flowers.
It is not always convenient to use in the iris border, so try a path side position and make it a part of your iris collection. It requires the usual iris culture.
Sedum
How many people discount sedums because they haven’t a rock garden?
Beside a path, any of the wide sedum varieties are completely at home.
Remove brick, and you can actually grow them in the path itself.
There are tall and low-spreading kinds, some with variegated and some with blue-green foliage.
The flowers, either pink or yellow, are handsome. Of course, any well-drained soil and a sunny location will do.
Spring Flowering Bulbs
The little fellows, planted in fall for spring bloom, belong in clumps along the edge of a path where they can be fully appreciated.
Heading the list are the scillas, both Hispanica and Siberica.
Crocus and chionodoxa bloom earlier but like the scillas, do well in the sun or part shade.
Hyacinths follow the delicate daffodil and tulip species so frequently lost in a massed planting.
Colchicum or the autumn-flowering crocus planted in fall sends up foliage in spring. Unfortunately, it disappears during the summer.
Then flowers appear in fall—purple and white—a perfect ending for a path side display.