Maackia 035: Little Dishes

I’m Nathan Langley and this is Maackia, a monthly newsletter on perennial combinations.

I had some Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ in my plant store this year, but I had to pull it due to the cold and wet spring we had. Some of them (nine in total) ended up developing rust.

I wasn’t phased by the issue, as I knew they would be ok and that I would use them somewhere at home. I ended up making some (odd?) circles in the turfed area at the front of the house. I had a few trees planted sporadically already, and wanted to add something structural that wasn’t a woody. The initial idea was to create a mini-arboretum of different fruit trees.

I had some Schizachyrium scoparium 'Standing Ovation' that needed to be used up as well, so I made four different circles somewhat randomly in the turf and planted the grasses in groups of three. Three circles with three Calamagrostis; one circle with three Schizachyrium.

Some time passed and I realized I wasn’t finished. I had some Sanguisorba ‘Tanna’ that wasn’t selling. Sanguisorba is one of the perennials that I have been wanting to use in a design for some time now, but haven’t had the opportunity to use yet. Might as well try it at home if no one else wants to plant it.

I only had three Sanguisorba ‘Tanna’ to work with, so I planted them in the centre of the circles with the Calamagrostis. Sanguisorba has a very delicate, airy appearance when in flower, and I thought it would contrast well with the very stiff nature of the Calamagrostis.

Of course, September rolled around and the asters that I had brought in were also not selling much. Which is crazy! Who needs a mum in a container when you have asters throughout your garden?

In particular, I found myself with an abundance of Aster novae-angliae ‘Pink Crush’ and ‘Grape Crush’. Maybe the photographs of it online make it seem more neon in colour than it really is? I’m honestly not sure what the aversion is to these two cultivars. More for me to experiment with!

I used up all the ‘Grape Crush’ in my work along the driveway (which I have written about previously) and took the ‘Pink Crush’ and planted three of them in two of the circles with the Calamagrostis and the Sanguisorba. In the final Calamagrostis circle, I planted three Eryngium planum 'Blue Hobbit’ (another perennial I have been wanting to try out).

But by this point, the Schizachyrium was beginning to look a little lonely. So once again I pillaged my perennial stock to see what I could incorporate. I used three Helenium ‘Mariachi Bandera’ (poor things were looking a bit rough) and one Amsonia ‘String Theory’ to fill out the circle.

One of the negatives with gardening is that you have to be patient. So, so patient. I like watching restaurant videos on YouTube, and one of the things I am jealous of is how quickly and easily chefs can trial different combinations and create new dishes.

You can place potted perennials next to each other to get a sense of what they will look like together, but there are a lot of assumptions built into doing that. The best way to remove some of those assumptions is to plant those perennials and let them mature. See them throughout all the different seasons. This requires patience and space.

I had originally thought a trial garden would help me develop a more detailed and thorough understanding of the perennials I use in my designs. And I think it will! But a trial garden is a bit on the clinical side.

Although it wasn’t my original intention, these “little dishes” are a great opportunity to trial perennials to better understand their interactions as a group instead of just as an individual plant. I want to simplify the combinations I use and see if they truly enhance the aspects of each plant I am looking to showcase.

Going forward, the general idea will be to let each dish mature for a full year and see what it does. Maybe I’ll make adjustments to some of them as time goes on to further refine them?

Since I have two dishes that are currently planted with the same material, I will turn one of them over next year and try a different combination of perennials. Rinse and repeat the following year.

But for now, I have to finish preparing for winter before the frost sets in…