Common flowers and flowering shrubs are
not always the best choices for every garden.
Vitex, known as chaste tree or lilac, Ericson
says, stays fuller and is more tolerant than
the butterfly bush here in the southeast and
is also a favorite of butterflies and honey
bees. If it is dead-headed, fed and watered
regularly, it can bloom for three months
into late summer. Henry Iler’s rudbekia is a
cooler lighter yellow than the hot rudbekia
goldstrum. It blooms earlier and much taller
— up to 4 feet — and will bloom again if
cut back in June. Pruning and dead-heading
can ensure longer bloom periods for many
perennials and flowering shrubs.
Native choices
Go native with free-seeding columbine,
Aquelegia canadensis, which can thrive in
partly shaded garden spaces. Oenothera fructose
(sundrops) and Oenothera speciosa (evening
primrose) can be a little invasive, but
are awesome native flowering ground covers
when space allows. Varieties of native gaillardia
are super-adapters, almost never needy
and almost always blooming.
Beautyberry is another native perennial
that can give a sunny spot a lot of color.
The deep purple berries are popular in cut
arrangements. Muhly grass has brilliant pink
plumes that grace the late summer garden.
They are drought tolerant and need sun.
Native vines such as Carolina Jessamine,
maypop vine or passion flower, trumpet vine,
and orange honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliosa) are
all excellent choices for arbors and fences.
All but Carolina Jessamine (an early summer
bloomer) offer long-term summer color and
are favorites of butterflies and bees.
Flowering plants
for slim times
Varieties of the thin-leaved Camellia
sasanqua bloom themselves silly in the
fall and into the winter months, even
when neglected. The glossy, later-blooming
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japonicas do the same. Garden guru
Barbara Sullivan, author of Garden
Perennials of the Coastal South and local
garden lecturer, says that camellias provide
a solid and beautiful backbone to
every garden. “If you can have a camellia,
you should,” Sullivan says. Both she and
Ericson recommend using camellias in
foundation planting in place of boxwoods
or hollies when possible. There are hundreds
of varieties of both upright and horizontal
camellias with magnificent blooms
in different shapes, colors and fragrances.
They are fantastic low maintenance plants
for the inland garden.
Sullivan suggests anchoring the garden
with flowering trees that are sure to put on
a show. The flowering apricot is the earliest
bloomer — December/January. The cherry
family is next; well-adapted varietals bloom
from February to May.
Other great choices for winter color are
the low-growing lenten rose, with dainty
fire bush
cassia
camellia