The Green Beet: Flower Power

Posted on: August 30, 2009 | jenaransom | 1 Comment | Print Article | Rate Post:

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By Jen Ransom

Most are familiar with the old saying “patience is a virtue”. When it comes to my flower garden, the waiting has paid off.

 A friend with a spectacular perennial garden promised last year that when her plants began to crowd, I could come and help her separate – and take home the leftovers. And so while I’ve dreamed of soft, miniature-flowered ground cover in the front and sprays of tall flowers and greens in the backyard, I’ve kept my pocketbook closed and settled for the few annuals I could muster up purchasing, a dash of fireweed, the columbine loved by the home’s previous owner, the oh-so-easy nasturtiums and a mind’s eye view of what my flower beds would someday look like.

But not now! This week I received a call from my blessed friend stating that her plants were ready to split and I now find myself with enough delicate ground cover that I’ll be the one sharing in a few years, and those lovely purple delphiniums that every Alaska garden should have are now part of mine.

With fall planting, it’s a matter of mismatch placement based on my remembering of what her plants looked like in full bloom – with attempts to combine colors and heights in a sort-of artistic manner. But moving plants next year will be fun and so I’m not too terribly worried about “planning” things just right. I’m filling in the bare spots with some of the native species I’ve been coveting along our neighborhood trial system – easy to do with a small hand shovel and a baggy during my afternoon walk. My mother gathered ferns one Seward spring more that a decade ago, and when I drive by our old home on Phoenix I can still see that they are thriving on the north side of the house. Not bad for a couple walks and a few digs of the shovel. The nice thing about welcoming native plants to your garden is that they require very little care – they do great in the climate and conditions you live in! Just be careful not to accidentally bring home an invasive species, especially one of the ones listed in the USDA’s Selected Invasive Plants of Alaska booklet:

http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/spf/fhp/weed_book/index.htm

If you’d like more information on gathering native species, or would like to purchase seeds of native plants, check out the Alaska Native Plants Society webpage:

http://www.aknps.org/

While I’m an advocate for including native plants in your flower garden – and there’s much, much more out there than the fireweed that made it into my front bed – I’m loving the many hardy perennials that may not be native to this area, but tend to thrive regardless (without the over-the-top spreading an invasive species has). Solstice Light’s flower slideshow and Gardening, Alaska Style’s top ten Alaska plants both have a good “hardy plant” list:

http://www.solsticelight.com/aks/gallery/gardens/ourgarden/slideshow/

http://home.gci.net/~goodgame/top10.html

Fritz Creek Gardens near Homer, though closed for the season, specializes in Alaska Hardy Plants. If your heading that way in early August, be on the look out for great deals; last year a friend managed to make it to a dollar plant sale and her perennial garden is full of long lasting color that last winter’s cold climate couldn’t destroy.

 http://www.alaskahardy.com/

A few of my favorites, and favorites of friends who’ve been gardening on the Kenai Peninsula longer than I, include Trollius, Snow-in-Summer, Forget-Me-Not (actually a biannual, but so prolific that it blooms flowers each year if planted mid-summer the first year) and of course those towering delphiniums. And don’t forget the lilies when it comes to planting bulbs this fall or spring – I’m ripping out the rest of the bulbs I’ve tried (my gladiolas are still just leaves) and sticking with what I know works – lilies of all sorts, especially Tiger Lilies, even when over wintered in a cold climate.

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