Here are tips for adding flowering hedges and fragrance gardens to your yard
The last week of April is the week to let your spring fever run wild with a visit to a park or public garden.
In our area we are blessed with the gift of many public gardens. Visitors are welcomed at Powellswood in Federal Way, The Bellevue Botanical Gardens and Soos Creek Botanical Gardens near Kent.
My choice this month would be the Rhododendron Species Garden at the Weyerhaeuser campus in Federal Way. At a visit to this spectacular garden you will not just enjoy flowering rhodies but also discover the best shade tolerant groundcovers, trees, shrubs and perennials that thrive in our climate. There also is a gift shop, large greenhouse, and the bonsai collection to admire.
Q. I would like some plant suggestions for a hedge that would bloom in the summer. We don’t care what the hedge looks like in the winter but need some privacy and color during the summer months when we are outdoors enjoying our lake front property. — L.T., Bonney Lake
A. I vote for hydrangeas as the best flowering hedge with summer blooms. But go beyond your grandmother’s hydrangeas with the big blue blooms. The new hydrangeas such as “Tuff Stuff” Hydrangea serrata (short and sturdy plants) or the Hydrangea arborescens “Invincibelle Mini Mauvette” will offer the landscape bushels of pink or white summer-long blooms and these new hydrangeas will not be as floppy or grow as tall as traditional hydrangeas. As a cold weather bonus, these new hydrangeas flower on old and new wood so even a late-spring freeze or pruning session won’t stop the flowers from appearing every summer.
Hydrangeas will do best with water during summer dry spells so if you insist on a more drought-resistant flowering shrub, the better option would be a new spiraea “Double Play Doozie,” a repeat bloomer with clusters of bright pink blooms.
Tip: You may be able to order the number of plants you need for a hedge by contacting your local nursery and placing a custom order to pick up once the plants arrive. Most hedging plants should be placed 3 to 5 feet apart, depending on the variety.
Q. I am creating a fragrance garden and am looking for something tall to use in the back of my flower bed. Will Jacob’s Ladder Polemonium grow here in Western Washington? I heard it was a fragrant perennial with blue blooms. — B.S., Tacoma
A. What a scent-sational choice! The “Heaven Scent” Polemonium (common name Jacob’s Ladder) not only has soft, ferny foliage but it is topped with fragrant blue flowers and grows to 2 feet tall. Add even more height and extend the fragrance season with summer-flowering sweet peas on tepees made from bamboo poles. You can supplement the fragrance with low growers such as white petunias and alyssum.
Be sure to enjoy your fragrance garden at night when flower scents can be most intense.
Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the author of several books. Reach her at binettigarden.com.