PNW Work Party

A winter view

Last view - another winter scene

Lynn the sambucus are lovely. I think they would look wonderful with either floribundas or shrub roses planted in among them.

Lynn they would look great with roses in between. That is a nice border. I bet it's beautiful when they bloom. Hot pink roses would look neat.
Mine has been there probably at least 12 years. Winter was hard on it this year, all the snow slid off the barn roof and squashed it. I'm hoping it will recover okay.
I do prune it pretty hard some years as it grows out of bounds a bit. It's easy enough to start from cuttings. The name tag is long lost in the soil but I think it was a racemosa of some sort. Wish I knew.

Great, I am getting some shrub roses from Pixy, now I know where to put them. Thanks!!!
Yes, hot pink roses against that dark foilage would be very pretty. Hopefully the deer won't find them appetizing, as well.

Lynn - I agree on the Pix's pink for the planting, but I'm wondering if they want to be quite so regimented - David Austin, the rose breeder, suggest that roses always be planted in groups of 3's to make them more substantial and especially if they are scented. I'm eyeing up the gap on the right hand side and thinking that I would put an asymetric bump cutting into the lawn space. One of the roses could be planted just this side of the line of the hedge, and the next even a bit more forward and visually just overlapping of the sambucas, and the third to the left of number one. That was really complicated, but think of a sloppy triangle with the apex almost in line with the hedge. I think this would keep the idea of the hedge, but stop it from looking to straight line. If you have a fourth one, I'd slip it in with its own slightly proud space in the next gap.

Right, having said that, feel free to ignore me completely.

Laurie, I like the idea of 3 roses planted together, and I personally don't care for the straight row look. DH(to be) likes the straight lines. I "let" him plant the row of boxwoods, but I can "modify" it!

Those were poor pictures of the area. I will have to take a better set of pictures to get a better perspective of the border. That particular bed is approx 200' long and approx 20' wide. We planted the Sambucus next to the road 3 years ago, and we widened the bed and planted everything else last year. There are several Cornus sanguinea "Mid Winter Fire", Forsythia, Heather, Euphorbia, Phygelius "Snow Queen", Wallflowers, Vibernum, Pink Princess Escollonia in the middle. Rhodies are planted in between the boxwoods along the border next to the grass. I don't know what has survived the winter, though. I was planning to put some perennials, perhaps some Salvias in there also.
I welcome all ideas!!!!

My word! I had no idea of the dimensions! I really didn't get that at all from the photos - yes indeed, more photo please. And how wonderful that you get to modify! Excellent! With that list of plants, I bet you haven't lost a thing, all of those are tough as winter boots with good solid soles!

Hi Kate!
Fun thread! I think that you need a big group of yellow or white lilies-really tall ones, ideally pendant and fragrant. We can grow 'em better than most other places, seems like they belong in a PNW garden. And do you have any grasses yet? Somewhere there needs to be a bunch of those, too.

Got behind on this.
Hey Lynn, On the Boxwoods, have you thought of making them into small trees? Thats what I did to mine, you can almost them into anything you want by shaping.

Hi Sue!
I have 3 Miscanthus 'Rigoletto', 5 Muhlenbergia white flowering, lots of Helichtotrichon, and Stipa, and I may unleash some Carex 'Ice Dance'. Lilies: I have several & I got more through the lily/glad co-op, orientals, asiatics & a couple tigrinums. Do you have a Lily suggestion that I should be on the lookout for? =:0)

Hmm, one of my very favorites is an oldie- White Henryi. It's centers do veer toward yellow-orange, though. There's also an Orienpet that's a tetraploid that's supposed to get to 8ft in a couple years-that's "Ortega". Mine were spring-planted last year and didn't get anywhere near that yet, but I'm hoping. Conca D'or is another nice one, with big blooms, but it's not pendant. Tigrinums would be good, though, too.

That's a great selection of grasses!

I don't have Ortega, but i do have White Henryi and Conca d'or - a very strong one & the centers are a strong clear yellow.
I was hoping to interplant with Penstemon - I've got a native blue one from Colorado & a 'sour grapes' or something like that. It is a perfect Lily area - as long as the dogs don't venture through rapidly.
As far as grasses go, I am absolutely smitten with Molinia and Panicum. The grasses seem to do well with the shrubs & are very dogtail friendly.

Oh, good deal-you've got some great lilies then. I really like Penstemons, too. Is it Penstemon strictus that you've got?That's a fabulous one. Molinas are really nice grasses-and you're lucky to have room for the Panicums. I think they'd be a little too dominant in my smaller space. I've been wanting to add Festuca idahoensis 'Siskiyou Blue'. http://www.highcountrygardens.com/catalog/product/52375/

Funny, grasses may hold up well to dog tails, but they're cats favorite garden toys around here. My newest one loves attacking them, jumping on them, hiding behind them, sitting in the middle or under them, and of course eating them..

The Panicums I have are 'Shenandoah' - the grass itself isn't very tall - the inflorescences reach about 3'.
The dogs do like to eat some of the others that i have. Hakenochloas, Calamagrostis & some of the Carex are not safe, here. The Calamagrostis is their favourite - if they leave the Hake's alone, they can have the other. They have left the Fescues alone. Siskiyou Blue is a very nice grass!

Penstemon cyananthus is what i have. Hope it wasn't too wet this winter - it struggled last year with all the rain, even though it's planted an sharply draining soil. Probably will move it to the PNW bed, though, but I'll need to amend a bed with poorer soil. The existing soil in the area i'm going to plant is very rich: nasturtiums & Cosmos produce much foliage, few flowers!

Oh, 'Shenandoah' sounds very nice. I'll have to watch out for that one.

Hmm, my cat seems to like pretty much all of mine...but I do wish he'd leave the hakes alone. The fescues and carexes take the abuse better.

The cyananthus has a gorgeous blue bloom, hope you can find a way to make it happy wherever it ends up.