Index of Articles

Fall is just fine for planting ahead

Fall is for foliage, that highfalutin gardening word for leaves. But remember, leaves don't have to leave us in the winter. In other words, the foliage doesn't have to fall off in fall. 

One of my all-time favorite pots is filled with plants that sparkle all winter long. There's nothing like looking out the window at a planter full of interesting colors when the Northwest drab has sucked the life out of everything else. 

And there's even better news from the fall front. Fall is for planting. Not only that, but everything is on sale because nurseries and garden centers want to unload as much as possible so they don't have the cost of keeping stock through winter. Let's just say the price is right. 

These fall factors combined make it worth our while to putz in the yard when everyone else is putting their garden to sleep. 

Let me give you some ideas about what to plant. Let's concentrate on plants that work great in the garden right now or in a planter where you can admire them. My favorite planter has seven elements. Three of my evergreen plants are heuchera (hew-ker-a). They take full sun to full shade, and get this, they have 8-inch-tall sprays of foamy-looking flowers that bloom spring through summer. 

Here's the deal: If you plant them now, Mother Nature will take care of the watering all winter. By spring, when "Can Can," "Autumn Haze" and "Amber Waves" are too big for the pot, you have huge full-sun or full-shade plants for your garden. 

The Cinderella of this planter is a heucherella called "Sunspot." It catches the eye with chartreuse leaves and a blood-red star marking the center veins. I get excited just thinking about it. 

And as long as we're creating a fairy-tale planter, the Rapunzel of the bunch is a sedum named "Lemon Lime," letting down her long locks to cascade over the side of the pot. Plant the "Lemon Lime" sedum next to something dark such as "Autumn Haze" or "Obsidian" to get the most out of it. 

Dan Heims of Terra Nova Nurseries in Canby is the world-renowned plant man who introduced these wonders to the market. A couple of weeks ago he gave me a tip about dividing the heucheras and heucherellas. Every two or three years, dig up the plant and you'll find all sorts of new plants with leaves sprouting out the sides. Cut off the fattest stems, called rhizomes (that are about 2 or 3 inches long), and stick them back into the ground to replant them. That's how you play "halve-zees" with your heuchera. 

Now back to our planter pot. New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax) is the tall, dark and handsome spiky plant in the center, and pulmonaria "Irish Spring," with spotted mint-green leaves, is right beside it. If you don't have a pulmonaria in your garden, please try one or two. It's one of the first plants to bloom in spring. The hummingbirds love it, and once it's pollinated the flowers turn from pink to dark blue right before your eyes! 

So what's the cost of my seven wonders of the world planter? A grand total of $34 worth of perennial favorites, perhaps even rivaling the Hanging Gardens of Babylon for winter color.